Panthers in Sabine/Rockafeller Refuges

["W"]

Had a brown cougar hammer me this weekend !! Sucker came out of nowhere

[BossHog]

Originally Posted by Pat Babaz

So a guy I work with remembers seeing a picture on the news after Rita or maybe Ike of 2 panthers stranded in a tallow tree due to flooding. He said it was either at Rockafeller or Sabine refuge. I've looked all over the internet and can't find a picture like that. Does anybody else remember seeing or hearing about this??

I remember what your talking about. It was after Ike and it was the Ldwf that reported seeing two cougers in the gum cove area from a helicopter I think but I never saw any pics. I had a lease there at that same time for years with trail cameras and never saw any. But we have seen a couple in the grand lake/sweet lake area over the years but none for several years now. And even seen trailcam pics of them in pecan island.

[Pat Babaz]

Originally Posted by BossHog

I remember what your talking about. It was after Ike and it was the Ldwf that reported seeing two cougers in the gum cove area from a helicopter I think but I never saw any pics. I had a lease there at that same time for years with trail cameras and never saw any. But we have seen a couple in the grand lake/sweet lake area over the years but none for several years now. And even seen trailcam pics of them in pecan island.

Thanks man, I knew I would get a legit answer to my question mixed in with all the silly responses. But when you throw up a panther thread you gotta except that

[Clampy]

They just can't
I'm no scientist but I can read what they write.

The thing is most cougar sightings are early morning and at night. They are rarely out in the open and they can easily look very dark in color and the sighting is almost always a couple secs. So people's minds play tricks on them.
Chances of one being black are over 1 in a million but drunk people coon hunting see at least 10 a year.
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[Duck Butter]

There have been a few confirmed sightings in Louisiana of wild mountain lions not Florida Panthers which are just a subspecies. Have been multiple confirmations of captive bred Cougars alao. The one on display in the ldwf headquarters in Baton Rouge was killed near Shreveport and was of captive origin. Never ever been a confirmed black mountain lion or Florida panther

[Goooh]

Originally Posted by Duck Butter

There have been a few confirmed sightings in Louisiana of wild mountain lions not Florida Panthers which are just a subspecies. Have been multiple confirmations of captive bred Cougars alao. The one on display in the ldwf headquarters in Baton Rouge was killed near Shreveport and was of captive origin. Never ever been a confirmed black mountain lion or Florida panther

How about a Jacksonville Jaguar?

A New York Giant?

[Renegade]

There's a big difference between no confirmed sightings and saying only jaguars can be melanistic. It may be true that we've only had confirmed sightings of melanism in jaguars and leopards, but that doesn't mean it's genetically impossible in other species of cat.

[Smalls]

Originally Posted by Renegade

There's a big difference between no confirmed sightings and saying only jaguars can be melanistic. It may be true that we've only had confirmed sightings of melanism in jaguars and leopards, but that doesn't mean it's genetically impossible in other species of cat.

This is true, but the fact remains that no legitimate sighting has ever been recorded...ANYWHERE. Not just in Louisiana, but across the country. The fact that the gene has never shown itself in a population of cougars anywhere definitely means something. Is melanism impossible in the species? Who knows? Maybe. But the fact remains that there has never been a confirmed sighting, and until there is, people will be sceptical of any sightings. There are some men that I think the world of that claim to have seen a black panther, and I think its laughable, especially when they cannot produce any proof.

Just food for thought, but how many trail cameras do y'all think are spread across Louisiana? And none of those have captured a picture good enough to confirm a black panther? They have caught several other animals, including cougars. But no black panther.

Hmmm........

[DaPointIsDaBomb]

Spent summers at my aunts house in Mouton Cove and we heard black panthers a couple times for sure. Had one get after my uncle's chickens but he couldn't get a shot off

[cgoods17]

there has been one spotted in Lacassine refuge, as well as choupique area south of sulphur.

[mr crab]

Idc what Yall say...there are BIG MATURE black cougars all over sabine and calcasiue area. They thickest in west port arthur and east l.c. areas
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[BIGV]

I can tell all of you with certainty that there are cougars in louisiana and yes there are BLACK ones also. I have personally seen one in back of Jeanerette in the early2000's. I watched it for a couple minutes and could have shot it while watching it at less then 100 yards through my scope. I have seeen three brown cougars in two years in Rosepine on my lease. Call me a moron if you like but seeing is believing and I can promise you I am not the one to mistake a animal.

[Duckaholic]

Just ask Uncle Si!

[Pat Babaz]

Some of the black panther sightings could actually be a small cat called the Jaguarondi. They are native to Mexico and West Texas with a few straying all the way into East Texas occasionally. They are only about 20lbs but they have a really long tail and come in a greyish/black color phase.

[jpeff31787]

they have/had one in church point for a while. I haven't been stomping around in the woods there lately, but we'd come across its tracks quite often and some of my family that lived there had seen it quite a few times. Its tracks were HUGE, I used to have a picture of them and I looked up the footprint on google and it was 100% cat and its print was bigger than my hand.

[Goooh]

I love how "black panthers" have never been confirmed in places where Cougars/mountain lions are highly populated, yet half of the sightings in Louisiana where they barely exist in regular form are BLACK

[mr crab]

Originally Posted by Goooh

I love how "black panthers" have never been confirmed in places where Cougars/mountain lions are highly populated, yet half of the sightings in Louisiana where they barely exist in regular form are BLACK

That's racist

[mriguy]

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Tapatalk 2

[mr crab]

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[Mr T]

actually there is not a definitive way to determine whether cougars seen in Louisiana originated from the west (ie Texas, New Mexico etc) or the Florida breeding populations, other than DNA analysis. The "Florida Panther" is a mountain lion, a geographically separated subspecies. But if it were to breed with a Texas Mountain lion they would produce little mountain lions. Same species, different sub-species ( ie separate geographical breeding populations.)
Agreed, there has never been a documented black mountain lion/cougar.