# Carolina Black Panther Sightings



## chessieohio

Seen a show on tv about black panthers in the Carolinas.Might have been Monster Quest. Anyway, 2 years ago in August I was driving down on the highway south of Ashboro & think I seen a dead one on the side of the road by mile marker 51.Long tail,all black but I couldn't see the head.Could not stop to look at it because I had traffic behind me.I just assumed they were common around the Carolinas.I did email the DNR when I got home 7 days later but never heard anything back.
Anyone else witness any of these animals down there? I'm just curious.


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## Finger_Mullet

Years ago one of our friends had a farm. He raised goats and cows. He claimed that a plack panther was killing his goats. Several people reported sightings. He offered a reward for anyone that could kill it and bring it to him. I am unaware if it was ever killed. I was really young and just remember the stories.

Darin


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## nissan11

I work in Montgomery county, and if I had a dime for every time a local told me they saw a black panther I would be rich. I still dont believe it, and I wont until I see one myself or someoen shows me a good picture.


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## chriscustom

Me too.


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## surfchunker

Finger_Mullet said:


> Years ago one of our friends had a farm. He raised goats and cows. He claimed that a plack panther was killing his goats. Several people reported sightings. He offered a reward for anyone that could kill it and bring it to him. I am unaware if it was ever killed. I was really young and just remember the stories.
> 
> Darin


now let me get this right ... if a plack panther bites you do you die of gingivitis ?


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## Finger_Mullet

Had to read my post a few times to catch that one. 

Darin


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## surfchunker

I couldn't resist ... I'm a bad bad boy


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## Finger_Mullet

I know my uncle shot a big cat years ago. I went to talk to him this evening after work. He shot one that was 36 lbs and solid black with a long tail. Our neighbor a year or so later shot a 96 lb cat about a mile from my house. A reporter came and took a picture and wrote a story about it in the local news paper. It was before my time. I would love to look it up. 
Something was busting into his chicken house and killing chickens. He heard a commotion at the chicken house and grabbed his rifle and went to check it out. He walked in and the cat was just laying on top of his nesting boxes. He shot it. It was not black. My uncle said he thought they called it a linx but looked like a mountain lion to him. 

My uncle said he has a picture of the 36 lb cat. He is going to try to find it for me to post on here. He swears there are still big cats around. But I have a hard time believing it because I spend a lot of time in a deer stand in the Fall and have never seen any kind of cat other than a house cat and bobcats. 

But at one time there were no black bears around here either. A couple of years ago a cub got hit on HWY 64 between Asheboro and Ramseur. Now Greensboro has them running around in the city limits.

Darin


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## SmoothLures

The DNR swears up and down there are no mountain lions left in SC. Even thought they're on the endangered species list. Still 3 **** hunters treed and killed one a few years ago. They went back to the truck for buckshot. Also have positively ID'ed a large cat tracks on a pond dam on the same property, and the owner saw one 5+ years ago and now carries a .44 Mag on his hip whenever he goes hunting. There's no question there are some. I had something making the damnedest noise at me early one morning before dawn. Never heard anything like it. I assumed it was a cat. 

As to people never seeing them...ask yourself or your hunting buddies how often they've seen bobcats while in the stand. Most people have only seen a few or even none in their years and years of hunting. Big cats are very elusive.


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## Finger_Mullet

I have saw very few bobcats in my life. I did however shoot 3 in 15 minutes on a lease in Chatham County several years ago. They just kept walking out and I kept shooting them. The last one that I was fortunate enough to see was huge. It came in early one morning and walked across the logging road that I was hunting. He stopped for a few seconds and then headed on his way. I did not bother to shoot it. I have killed 3 so I let it go. It was a beautiful animal. 

We also have coyotes but hardly ever see them. You can hear them howling when fire trucks go down the road but rarely ever see one. My uncle shot a few on his land. I shot at one with a bow but missed. They are thick in my area but mainly move at night I guess. 

Darin


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## slabslinger

Near the mountains where i live there some big cats. What? i have no idea i have seen trail cam pics of these big black cats like mountain lions but pitch black so yea i believe there out there they have alot of choices on food and nothing can tell em otherwise. The reason people rarely see em or dont believe is because they may not be from here but wherever they did come from was almost definately harder to get food and now that theyre hear and we have deer and chickens and cattle etc. they can just become more secluded and wiser by the day


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## jamesvafisher

The Carolina big cat stuff sounds like here in VA's. The game commision swares up and down that they're not here. Which is a complete joke. They are here, just because you havent seen one doesnt mean they arent, my Uncle who lives in the western part of VA has 2, 5 minute videos of 1 a black and 1 a tan big cat. And I have heard one at night that sounded like a woman screaming bloody murder. So they are here in VA no matter what the game commision says, so I would bet its the same thing down there in the Carolinas.


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## Finger_Mullet

Years ago there were sightings of Bald Eagles around Jordan Lake. Poeple called NC Wildlife. They swore there were no Blad Eagles around Jordan Lake. Even from HWY 64 you could see a huge nest. Pictures started showing up of nests and the eagles in flight. I guess at some point they finally realized people were only so stupid and confirmed it. 

Darin


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## nissan11

jamesvafisher said:


> The Carolina big cat stuff sounds like here in VA's. The game commision swares up and down that they're not here. Which is a complete joke. They are here, just because you havent seen one doesnt mean they arent, my Uncle who lives in the western part of VA has 2, 5 minute videos of 1 a black and 1 a tan big cat. And I have heard one at night that sounded like a woman screaming bloody murder. So they are here in VA no matter what the game commision says, so I would bet its the same thing down there in the Carolinas.



Please post those videos so that I can finally see some evidence!



Finger_Mullet, can you post a picture of the cat your uncle killed? Lemme guess, he lost the pictures or didnt take any....


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## jamesvafisher

Nissan, unfortunately the videos are like 10 yrs old and on vhs tapes. But, maybe I can get my uncle to videotape the tv and show the video......But then somebody will tell me its off discovery channel. But oh well ill see if i can post em


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## AbuMike

Some won't believe it till it jumps on their back and proceeds to ball slap them.


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## nissan11

One clear picture or video is asking too much?


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## Finger_Mullet

He took a picture. When I talked to him the other day he said he would look for it. I will post it when he finds it.

Darin


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## surfchunker

I seen one here in Western Maryland about 15-20 years ago ... it was on a sheep farm and bound across a 2 lane road in one jump and it's tail was as long as it's body ... we have had reports here for years but like every where else they say we are wrong or it's a cat somebody turned loose that couldn't take care of it anymore ... if the coyotes made it here from the west there is not reason why big cats couldn't have either


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## SmoothLures

nissan11 said:


> One clear picture or video is asking too much?


What a tool.



surfchunker said:


> I seen one here in Western Maryland about 15-20 years ago ... it was on a sheep farm and bound across a 2 lane road in one jump and it's tail was as long as it's body ... we have had reports here for years but like every where else they say we are wrong or it's a cat somebody turned loose that couldn't take care of it anymore ... if the coyotes made it here from the west there is not reason why big cats couldn't have either


The Carolinas along with more or less the whole east coast actually used to have lots of big cats, but they're supposed to be extinct. I think Florida has a confirmed population.


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## GreenFord

There are lots of "Black Panthers" in Charllotte now that the strike is over....  OK boo hiss On a serious note....
Years ago I bow hunted the "Pungo Unit" of Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. Several of the locals and one of the guys who farmed the land said they had seen “panthers” there. Wildlife people denied it but these guys swear to it.


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## nissan11

SmoothLures said:


> What a tool.


You are right, what was I thinking? A picture or video is way too much to ask for.


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## Finger_Mullet

No I think it was the smart ass way you went about saying it.


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## nissan11

I'm sorry for being a smart ass, but I've been hearing about these panthers for years and nobody can show me a single picture. I would be very happy to be proved wrong if someone can produce a clear photo.


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## twitch

GreenFord said:


> There are lots of "Black Panthers" in Charllotte now that the strike is over....  OK boo hiss On a serious note....
> Years ago I bow hunted the "Pungo Unit" of Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. Several of the locals and one of the guys who farmed the land said they had seen “panthers” there. Wildlife people denied it but these guys swear to it.


I use to hunt Pungo and always heard the stories from the farmers and property owners around the refuge. I was always skeptical because I spent so much time over there but never saw so much as a track.

Last year a buddy was hunting Pocosin during the first snow storm in December and had "something" cross the road in front of his truck. It shook him up pretty good because he didn't hunt that side of the refuge the rest of the season. I'm not sure what he saw, but he knew how much chit I would give him when he told me the story.


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## jamesvafisher

nissan11 said:


> I'm sorry for being a smart ass, but I've been hearing about these panthers for years and nobody can show me a single picture. I would be very happy to be proved wrong if someone can produce a clear photo.


I did kinda take it you were being one but hey, everybodys skeptical about things so its no big deal. I know there here and I know plenty of people who have seen them, and I have heard one. Its just very very rare to get a clear picture of one because there so rare. I'll leave it to somebody else to take a clear picture though because I do not want to run into one of those things in the woods! lol


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## SmoothLures

nissan11 said:


> You are right, what was I thinking? A picture or video is way too much to ask for.


You still haven't contributed anything to this discussion. Go bother someone else.


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## surfchunker

well he wanted a picture ... don't know how that will help a picture could have been taken anywhere ... this is me and one I killed off my back porch


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## chriscustom

A couple of years ago a farmer in Isle of Wright Co. who hunts, checked his game camera and it had a BIG cat on it. The pic hit the paper (Va Pilot) and looked a awful lot like a cougar to me. But the artical said they didn't believe it was from around here although the farmer claimed it was his farm.


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## chriscustom

surfchunker said:


> well he wanted a picture ... don't know how that will help a picture could have been taken anywhere ... this is me and one I killed off my back porch


WOW!! and WOW to all the bones in the back ground, looks like you're a Taxidermist or one heck of a hunter.


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## stumpy

Either you are a short man or the cat is one huge beast ! Still a nice photo, thank you.


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## Carolina Rebel

Here's the deal with those big cats:
If anyone says they saw a big black cat, they were fooled by a big house cat, they saw an escaped jaguar or other foreign specimen, or they are fibbing. There has never been a documented case of a black (melanistic is the scientific term) mountain lion anywhere, and eastern mountain lions are the only big cats to have been here naturally besides bobcats. Jaguars are the closest big cats that occur in melanistic form, but these critters never ranged north of Texas. 
We did have mountain lions here for quite awhile and still might, but the chances are slim. There are big cats sighted and even killed, but time and time again they're escaped pets. There was one mountain lion hit by a car in the CT that had traveled all the way from South Dakota, but that's a major outlier and it was the western subspecies. A large number of people are spending substantial amounts of time and money looking for any definitive evidence of the eastern mountain lion's continued existence, but there's just not much turning up. 
I personally thought I'd finally seen one of these big black cats. I was sitting in a friend's yard helping to gut a deer late one evening when I saw a big black silhouette emerge along the pond dam about 100 yards away. My friend and I both watched as this creature, easily 6' long including its tail, came to the edge of the pond and then slinked stealthily along its perimeter. It cruised around the pond, then up towards the barn, through the barn, and then through the yard to its water dish over by the house. The black house cat was average size, but in low light and at a distance this thing looked HUGE. I imagine this type of thing accounts for the vast majority of big black cat sightings.


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## jamesvafisher

surfchunker said:


> well he wanted a picture ... don't know how that will help a picture could have been taken anywhere ... this is me and one I killed off my back porch


Isnt that off an email?


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## surfchunker

yeah it suspose to be from Arizona but I wanted to make a point a picture can come from anywhere and doesn't prove anything ... you can go to snoops and get the scoop


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## GreenFord

surfchunker said:


> well he wanted a picture ... don't know how that will help a picture could have been taken anywhere ... this is me and one I killed off my back porch


And here's the deer it was chasing that I shot from my bathroom window....


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## Smittroc

Loooooool


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## surfchunker

GreenFord ... it's a shame that you always see the little one first and as soon as you shoot ... well ya should have seen the one that got away ...


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## jamesvafisher

Lol


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## drzrider

We like to think that scientist (biologist) know most everything and are open minded. I really don't think they are. They have to have documented scientific proof before they admit anything. Even if they believe there are black panthers around they won't admit it for fear of ridicule from their peers. That is why one won't admit that one of these cats exist in NC. If one is shot or photographed they will say it is an escaped pet or it is a loner that came up from Florida.

They used to say there were no coyotes around Raleigh, NC. When I first saw one, and then took a picture the next night, I found out that some people were slowing starting to say there are a few around. Now it is not uncommon to see one.

They used to say there were no bears around Raleigh, NC. Now, they are seen all over the area.

I grew up in Virginia dirtbiking, hunting, and fishing. I spent most every free moment in the woods or on the family farm. I never heard of a bear in the area or ever saw a wild turkey. I saw my first wild turkeys when I was 17 or 18. At first I thought they were escaped emus from the farm down the road. Now turkeys are a constant sight. Bears still make the paper when one is shot with a gun or camera. My parents had one cross the road in front of them 1/2 mile from where I grew up. Made me feel kinda weird because I have spent many days in the woods around there.

I do not doubt that a lot of sitings are of house cats. I watched a large cat near a creek by my house. I sent my wife to gt the camera. After a while it came up to me and turned out to be my 3 pound pet.

Why couldn't there be a few of these animals, that are known to actually exist (unlike bigfoot), roaming around and rarely seen?


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## Carolina Rebel

drzrider said:


> We like to think that scientist (biologist) know most everything and are open minded. I really don't think they are. They have to have documented scientific proof before they admit anything. Even if they believe there are black panthers around they won't admit it for fear of ridicule from their peers. That is why one won't admit that one of these cats exist in NC. If one is shot or photographed they will say it is an escaped pet or it is a loner that came up from Florida.
> 
> They used to say there were no coyotes around Raleigh, NC. When I first saw one, and then took a picture the next night, I found out that some people were slowing starting to say there are a few around. Now it is not uncommon to see one.
> 
> They used to say there were no bears around Raleigh, NC. Now, they are seen all over the area.
> 
> I grew up in Virginia dirtbiking, hunting, and fishing. I spent most every free moment in the woods or on the family farm. I never heard of a bear in the area or ever saw a wild turkey. I saw my first wild turkeys when I was 17 or 18. At first I thought they were escaped emus from the farm down the road. Now turkeys are a constant sight. Bears still make the paper when one is shot with a gun or camera. My parents had one cross the road in front of them 1/2 mile from where I grew up. Made me feel kinda weird because I have spent many days in the woods around there.
> 
> I do not doubt that a lot of sitings are of house cats. I watched a large cat near a creek by my house. I sent my wife to gt the camera. After a while it came up to me and turned out to be my 3 pound pet.
> 
> Why couldn't there be a few of these animals, that are known to actually exist (unlike bigfoot), roaming around and rarely seen?


That's just the thing, there's never been a documented black cougar (mountain lion, panther, etc.) anywhere in the world. 
I'd love to see a re-emergence of mountain lions around here, but the odds are stacked against them. Florida has a well documented population but it's barely making it, with car mortality being the biggest problem but inbreeding and habitat loss also playing a role. These big cats require big territories and good populations of prey, and while there's plenty of deer, turkey etc. for them to eat, big pieces of remote land just aren't there anymore. Given their tendency to get hit by cars, if there were more of them around we'd be hearing once in awhile about this happening, but we just don't. Even those that are taken by hunters, trapped etc. this side of the Mississippi and north of southern GA are always released pets, almost always declawed. One exception is the CT specimen that had travelled from South Dakota. 
I've got a degree in environmental biology but I'm not a biologist by trade. No less this kind of stuff intrigues me. The ivory-billed woodpecker is in the same boat, and there are actually quite a few species of fish that have been rediscovered after having been thought extinct for years. The robust redhorse was rediscovered here not too long ago, for example. Unfortunately, I just don't see this being the case for the eastern cougar.


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## 7.62

I would have to say that if there IS an existence of big cats, that their territory would be very large and would be another reason why they are so rarely seen. I believe that big cats that live in woodlands cover over 400 square miles of territory each. That's a big backyard.


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## LaidbackVA

Several years ago I was working up in a mountains area west of Roanoke, VA and had a big cat like animal run across the road about 50' infront of my truck. I'm none sure what kind of cat it was but it was bigger than any bobcat that I have seen and/or killed. A few weeks later I was traveling the same road and came across a dead animal in the road and stop to find it was a cat kitten/cub which ever. I pick it up and took it with me and called the game commission. They came out and took the cat and told me it was a bobcat. They would not let me keep it. So I google bobcars and mountain loins and it didn't look like any of the pictures of the bobcats at any age but it did resemble a mountain loin kit/ cub. So how can you beleive the game commission officers. I wish I had thought to take pictures with my phone. So you know what I believe.

ron


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## stumpy

Thought I would through my 2 cents in. Just read a couple articles @ www.azgfd.gov/w_c/es/jaguar and www.anomalist.com/features/jag.html ............Found this quite interesting. Now I'm just a wrench turning a.c. mechanic and no biologist but it seems to me these folks have there facts sorted out pretty well. I cant prove there findings false or true but seems thousands of people are seeing something that makes there hair stand on edge and I feel sure that less than half were not drinking any of my favorite alcoholic beverage at the time they seen these cats. I also have heard stories from some of the older folks here in Horry County of large black cats and I have seen strange cat like tracks while deer hunting that I'm sure were bobcats tracks that that were altered by wind and morning dew. Still I have never seen just a bobcat. If I did see these panthers or cougars, damn the fines and jail I'm declaring self defense and pulling the trigger. I'd rather be the dominant predator than the prey.:beer:


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## surfchunker

LaidbackVA said:


> Several years ago I was working up in a mountains area west of Roanoke, VA and had a big cat like animal run across the road about 50' infront of my truck. I'm none sure what kind of cat it was but it was bigger than any bobcat that I have seen and/or killed. A few weeks later I was traveling the same road and came across a dead animal in the road and stop to find it was a cat kitten/cub which ever. I pick it up and took it with me and called the game commission. They came out and took the cat and told me it was a bobcat. They would not let me keep it. So I google bobcars and mountain loins and it didn't look like any of the pictures of the bobcats at any age but it did resemble a mountain loin kit/ cub. So how can you beleive the game commission officers. I wish I had thought to take pictures with my phone. So you know what I believe.
> 
> ron


did it have a short tail or a long one


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## LaidbackVA

The cat had a longer tail than I've seen on the bobcat's I've killed

ron


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## surfchunker

on a Lion the tail will be almost as long as the cat itself ...


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## TreednNC

ignorance runs rampid in this thread


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## Finger_Mullet

Come on treed play along. I was going to post pictures of Big Foot just to get things going again.


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## surfchunker

why do you say that treed ?


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## Finger_Mullet

He is one of the non believers.


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## surfchunker

guess seeing is believing


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## TreednNC

There have been numerous brown/tan/ normal colored easter courgars killed, but no "black panthers" other than the occasionaly black jaguar escapee/release. People see aliens and ufo's, and big foot too......kids hear and see Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny....does that mean theyre real too outside of some other logical explaination. Tell me how a black panther goes over 500 years in white man's world without being hit or killed in this part of the world, that wasnt a black jaguar escapee or release?


Eastern's must be the smartest animal on the planet, because the only one's killed outside of FL and one in GA, east of the Mississippi that werent Florida panthers, were escapees or releases from captive pets. There has been a slight, less than 5, western cat's killed in "eastern" states....one being in Conneticut I believe recently, from the black hills of SD and one in Missouri...and that is west of the Mississippi.

I was a regular joe one time that liked to believe. I had to do a research paper in college on the subject. I ran up the phone bill calling every expert and probable sighting........just no proof the black ones exist and the eastern strain is still persisting. The occasional young male western cat stretching waaaaaaaaaay out seeking territory or captives got loose. 

Facts are facts.


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## sharker517

sorry this might make someone mad i hope not, But panthers aka mountain lions cougers catamounts are never black they dont have the gene to allow so , but jagaurs leapords and lions can be black plus half the black cats peapole see are just house cats one thing that messin them up is black objects appear bigger in open areas so the range estimte can be messed up making them appear bigger than they are a 3 foot cat may look 6 foot


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## TreednNC

ding ding ding we have a winner, chicken dinner


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## Finger_Mullet

I think Treed had a incident with a black cat when he was young and is in denial that they exist today!


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## RAYTOGS

Laidback , ihear what your saying. I grew up in roanoke and often hunted craig county. My spot was on pott's mountain to the lefy off rt. 311. On night as we were driving out , we came up on a big cat in the road. It was just sitting there, ears twitching and then it made 1 leap. When it went over the side of the road we got a good look at it's tail and it was long. I'd say sitting in the road it was about 36"-40" tall. I cant seem to understand why there werent more sightings. That was 20 years ago and i can see that cat as if it were yesterday.


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## Huntsman

Don't believe I read or anyone stated that cats are nocturnal creatures. As stated about the bobcats, not many see them because they generally hunt at night and nap during the day. Thing about the documentaries they've had on TV where they've targeted the black panther or leopard and how they've said until they've actually targed the area where the animal hunts they have quite a difficult time getting them on camera. In saying that welcome black bear, coyote, bald eagle, stink bugs.... lol... etc...


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## LaidbackVA

Raytogs, I know the area you're talking about, I've traveled that road a few times. The area, I'm talking about is Bent Mountain toward Floyd at Check

ron


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## TreednNC

Finger_Mullet said:


> I think Treed had a incident with a black cat when he was young and is in denial that they exist today!


Only black cats around here are house cats, feral cats or fire crackers


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## TreednNC

RAYTOGS said:


> Laidback , ihear what your saying. I grew up in roanoke and often hunted craig county. My spot was on pott's mountain to the lefy off rt. 311. On night as we were driving out , we came up on a big cat in the road. It was just sitting there, ears twitching and then it made 1 leap. When it went over the side of the road we got a good look at it's tail and it was long. I'd say sitting in the road it was about 36"-40" tall. I cant seem to understand why there werent more sightings. That was 20 years ago and i can see that cat as if it were yesterday.


Was Big Foot or E.T. walking it?


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## Jak

Big cats are elusive and there are still some large tracts of land to escape the prying eyes of people.Yet they dont stand a chance against modern technology.I would love to think the Eastern Cougar was still around but it probably isnt.You have to have a breeding population for them to survive.Very unlikely they could have escaped detection from the efforts put forth to find them.Thermal imaging,game cameras etc.Not to mention they would leave traces everywhere.As said earlier,confirmed sightings or kills are just escaped animals and the like.I would like to think Bigfoot is put there too.He would certainly have to be one slick varmit to keep dodging all the organized searches for him.Yet people see him all the time.You just have to apply common sense to these things.


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## Shooter

hey now I have seen BigFoot and fished with him once too :redface:
Oh wait that was Treed 

Same difference


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## carbine100

My daughter and I saw one in SC (upstate, near Chester) at night after a deer hunt about a dozen years ago. It was shiny black like a mink, and was about four feet long with a thick tail of almost the same length. Length was easy to tell because it was right beside the road 20 yards in front of us as we rounded a curve. It spun around and bounded into the woods.

I was as big a skeptic as anyone before this and had even horse laughed a friend that said he saw one while hunting a year before this. I even called him up and apologized to him. (I had given it to him pretty hard)

Might not be native, but they exist.


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