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johnny quest
01-30-2007, 11:07
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/16556404.htm

RiverWarriorPJ
01-30-2007, 11:12
..Great..!!..lol..

johnny quest
01-30-2007, 11:22
thanks for sharing. that was outstanding!

Gray Blazer
01-30-2007, 13:23
I saw a jet black panther in FL. I had the similar experience of rangers telling me I could not possibly have seen one.

johnny quest
01-30-2007, 13:27
i wont get into it in detail but i grew up in the panhandle and heard them growing up. that was when they were all but extinct. i find it so interesting that the officials always want to poo poo the idea they are there. perhaps its their way to protect them and keep the public from worrying.

RiverWarriorPJ
01-30-2007, 13:45
I've seen BlackPanthers (jaguar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaguar)) in Central America, but never b/4 heard of them north of Belise/SoMexico....Not 2 say they haven't made it this far north...Has anyone here heard of "dark" pumas..??..

Mountain Maiden
01-30-2007, 13:55
I saw a jet black panther in FL. I had the similar experience of rangers telling me I could not possibly have seen one.

Same here, only my experience was in the NW mtns of South Carolina. When I asked local DNR officials, they assured me there was no way I saw a black panther. Later, another DNR guy admitted they had received other reports of the same type sighting.

I don't care what "they" say---I was there and I know what I saw! I was alone late one evening and called for my dog. I thought I saw him pass under the light (less than 100 feet from me.) Then--he was instantly beside me. When I looked back--I saw the panther and about that time, it emitted a most memorable soul piercing howl! When they describe it as a woman wailing--that is an understatement! Still sends chills up my spine when I think of it.

The article quoted Fletcher's "feeling." Whew, I can relate! I remember that "feeling" quite well!!!

Sunny aka Sunrise game 02 aka Cody Zamora :sun

Mountain Maiden
01-30-2007, 14:03
..Great..!!..lol..

What a wonderful "quick journey"--thanks for sharing the link!

Sunny aka Sunrise game 02 aka Cody Zamora :sun

RiverWarriorPJ
01-30-2007, 14:18
..If that "thanks" was 4 me, your very welcome....I have to look at it once a day when I'm not in the mtns..lol..

LupeLeah
01-30-2007, 16:06
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/16556404.htm
In the Carolinas? Something to do a little follow up research.

Spooner
01-30-2007, 16:28
there have long been stories of 'panthers' and 'cougars' here in the mts of s.w. VA. i work w/ a guy that claims to have seen a brown cougar a few weeks ago on his way back from cherokee, nc. described it as very large w/long tail...much bigger than a bobcat. personally, i have been in some remote areas in and around grayson highlands national park and have heard some very unnerving squalls similar to a woman or child crying. definitely makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

Frolicking Dinosaurs
01-30-2007, 16:35
I've heard those kinds of cries in the western portion of Slickrock Wilderness and In the woods in the Tellico Plains (actually Coker Creek, TN) area.

rainmaker
01-30-2007, 23:21
I grew up in a small rural county in South Carolina, Barnwell County, bordering the Savannah River and home to the Federal Nuclear Energy Reservation we affectionately call " the bomb plant". My family has lived there since the Revolution. They were farmers, merchants and lumbermen and spent a lot of their lives outdoors working and playing. Of course to them, hunting was not play, it was meat. I share this little personal history to establish their credentials as folk knowledgeable of their enviorment, the woods and swamps of the Edisto River Basin.

Now about 45 years ago my Uncle Clem, on my Mama's side, pulled into our yard and said, " Jamie, tell your boys to stay away from the pond". You see, Uncle Clem owned a 10 acre fish pond about about a mile from our house. Mama figured we'd done something wrong but Uncle Clem said no we hadn't. He said Jamie, " I was on the pond in the jon boat trying to catch some bream when I heard the squirrels making a racket. All of a sudden, one squirrel took off running for a tree. Behind it was the biggest damn cat I've ever seen. It stood about yea tall and had a long tail." He went on to describe its color and to the best of my memory, yea tall was around three feet. Uncle Clem was afraid it might eat us. To this day I am convinced Uncle Clem saw a cougar. So who knows what might be lurking in the dark coves of the Chattooga. BTW, Madame and I were camping at Sims Field a few weeks ago. Heard some coyotes but no cats.

stumpy
01-30-2007, 23:40
I grew up in east tennessee and my grandfather and his family was from Western NC (around Murphy). He told stories about the "old timers" seeing black panthers, even when conventional science said it was not possable. He swore by thier stories and what they had seen. Of cousre, these were also men who got thier "homemade" corn from a jar :eek: (if you catch my drift)!

Newb
02-01-2007, 14:42
In my youth in North Georgia (on Mt. Oglethorpe) there was a story of a black panther that had been sighted there in late 60's/early 70's.

CaseyB
02-03-2007, 12:52
"Black panthers are not native to the southeastern United States, meaning Fletcher might have seen a river otter or a bobcat, state wildlife officials in Georgia and South Carolina said."

Ridiculously false. "Panthers" AKA cougars, mountain lion, whatever where here in the East and thriving until pioneer farmers killed them off. Fewer farmers, fewer hunters, more cats. It took decades of reports to get WV officials to admit the cats were there, and we're just seeing the same thing playing itself out further south.

RiverWarriorPJ
02-03-2007, 13:15
[quote=Always350;315795]"Black panthers are not native to the southeastern United States, meaning Fletcher might have seen a river otter or a bobcat, state wildlife officials in Georgia and South Carolina said."

"Ridiculously false. "Panthers" AKA cougars", mountain lion"...

The panther & the Cougar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar) are 2 different species.....Some area locals may call a cougar/puma a panther...Yes the puma is native to the eastern US, not so of the panther..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther#Black_Pumas_In_the_United_States.3F_ Mistaken_Identity_Candidates..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther

Mountain Maiden
02-03-2007, 13:18
"....river otter or a bobcat, state wildlife officials in Georgia and South Carolina said."

LOL--makes one wonder if these "officials" have ever seen a river otter or a bobcat,---they certainly would not be confused with the likes of a mountain lion or panther in size!

Of course, they may have the same IQ :rolleyes: of the Wildlife Officer I encountered when I called about a nuisance bear that had catapulted himself into my basement window at the children's Camp. He said, "Yes ma'am--just as I thought. The handbook says, " It is illegal and unlawful to transfer or relocate any furbearing animal. I'm sorry, we can't help you. My suggestion would be to keep your windows closed." :eek: :mad:

Sunny aka Sunrise game 02 aka Cody Zamora :sun

southpaw95
02-03-2007, 13:37
I thought the Panthers played in Charlotte.

LupeLeah
02-04-2007, 03:36
Good links PJ.

highway
02-04-2007, 08:39
[quote=Always350;315795]"Black panthers are not native to the southeastern United States, meaning Fletcher might have seen a river otter or a bobcat, state wildlife officials in Georgia and South Carolina said."

"Ridiculously false. "Panthers" AKA cougars", mountain lion"...

The panther & the Cougar (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cougar) are 2 different species.....Some area locals may call a cougar/puma a panther...Yes the puma is native to the eastern US, not so of the panther..http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther#Black_Pumas_In_the_United_States.3F_ Mistaken_Identity_Candidates..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Panther

Wikipedia as a source? HHHMMMMMM, be careful...

Panthers/cougars could be spreading their extremely shrunken range range from the Florida swamps or other as yet undiscovered enclaves in the very populated eastern part of the US-which would be a monumental task in itself, but the chances of that group being a melanistic black is completely absurd.

I have often suspected that the "black" panther myth persisted because, being in such few numbers, after having been hunted almost to extinction, their fear of man was such that they only provided an occasional fleeting glimpse during low-light situations of dawn or dusk or night. Then, any fleeting glimpse of any animal would give the impression that it was much darker than it actually was. Therefore, instead of the actual tawny color they had when they turned up, regrettably, as road kill while trying to cross a Florida road, they were reported as "black", before getting there, sadly providing the actual physical evidence of their tawny coloring..

I have had the occasion to observe river otters a number of times while hunting, some at length as there a three that occasionally show up to frolic in a pond behind my house. And, it's easy to see that, were someone to catch a quick, fleeting glimpse of one moving stealthily in the shadows at dawn or dusk, they very well might be mistaken for a "BLACK" PANTHER. Bobcats already are usually mistaken for them, and they are not black and don't even have a tail! Otherwise the chances of any of them being black in the east could only be a melanistic aberration of nature, and the odds against that are astronamical. In fact, the odds are greater that the same melanistic aberration produce an albino variant, yet we never hear of them. I suspect that answer lies in the very same shadows that has produced so many of the "black" ones

So, I submit that if a black one does turn up on occasion, then it most likely be one of those that escaped from either the Yeti or Bigfoot's selective breeding farm of them.

And the myth persists.....