2009

'Demon Cat' Carcass Found In Arizona

Panther Sightings in Winburn 'Unlikely,' Officials Say
By Ashlee Clark
Officials say it is highly unlikely that there is a panther in the Winburn neighborhood, despite reported sightings by residents. Lexington police have received two or three phone calls, and the Lexington Humane Society has received six to 12 calls from residents who said they saw a black panther in their neighborhood, Lexington police Lt. Doug Pape said. Police notified the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources of the reported panther sightings. The department has not obtained any evidence of a panther in the neighborhood, department spokesman Mark Marraccini said. "It's just unlikely that that's what's going on," Marraccini said. "Not impossible, but unlikely." The department has asked residents to take pictures of the animal or its tracks so officials can investigate further, Marraccini said. The department has received similar calls over the years regarding big cats on the loose, Marraccini said. Usually, the animal turns out to be a big house cat or a dog. There are no large cats native to Kentucky. If the animal in Winburn turns out to be a panther, it probably would be part of an illegal commercial trade of wild cats, Marraccini said. Reach Ashlee Clark at (859) 231-1443 or 1-800-950-6397, Ext. 1443. The Lexington Herald Leader: 18th September 2009

Lope is an Expert on Lions, Tigers, Panthers
By Walt Belcher, Tampa Tribune, Fla.
Sep. 2--Are big black panthers on the prowl in upstate New York?
Are dangerous leopards or jaguars on the loose?
Cue the spooky music. Roll the grainy video of cat-like creatures.
Tonight's episode of "Monster Quest" at 8 p.m. on the History channel explores sightings of large dark feline critters near a state park 18 miles north of New York City.
A team of trackers, scientists and technicians use surveillance equipment in an attempt to find out whether anything is lurking in the woods, or if it's a hoax, or if overactive imaginations are at work.
One expert that "Monster Quest" turns to for this episode is Scott Lope, director of operations at Big Cat Rescue in Tampa.
Lope says the evidence he was asked to evaluate was inconclusive. "Some of the footage looked like just big domestic cats," he says.
However it's not impossible for exotic animals to be on the loose in the United States because so many people have them as pets, he notes.
"You would be surprised how many people in Hillsborough County have permits for exotic animals."
Lope, 41, has worked for Big Cat Rescue for 16 years. He has become the go-to guy for commentary on lions, tigers, leopards, panthers and other wild animals.
In addition to numerous appearances on Animal Planet and History, he has been featured on Discovery Channel, ABC's "20/20," CNN and Jack Hanna's animal shows.
He has been the feline and dangerous captive wildlife expert on two seasons of "Untamed & Uncut" and three seasons of "Monster Quest." He has appeared on Nickelodeon's "Animal Atlas" and Animal Planet's "Misadventure."
Lope also is featured in "Lion Feeding Frenzy," one of the most popular specials on Animal Planet and Discovery. He goes inside a transparent box placed in the middle of a pack of lions to observe what happens when lions fight for food in the wild.
Lope, who is from Pennsylvania, joined the Air Force right out of high school. After serving in the Gulf War, he was stationed at MacDill Air Force Base and has made Tampa his home for nearly 20 years; He first joined the nonprofit Big Cat Rescue preserve as a volunteer.
"I was going into the medical profession but I found my life's calling here," he says.
He now oversees the daily operation of a sanctuary that is home to 150 animals and is devoted to helping the big cats, some of which have been abused, or abandoned, or retired from performing.
He says that his appearances on television help educate people about these animals and the dangers of keeping exotic cats as pets.
Tampa Tribune (MCT): 2nd September 2009

JAGUAR? BIG CAT? NO ONE KNOWS; Couple near Castro Valley the latest to report sighting of giant black feline
Sophia Kazmi Staff Writer
The legend of a wild black cat roaming the East Bay hills continues.
For years people have reported seeing a big, dark cat -- about the size of a mountain lion -- but Lynn Reed and his wife Kathleen said they saw it about 6:30 p.m. July 30 near Pleasanton.
The Reeds were driving down the Dublin grade on eastbound Interstate 580 when Lynn Reed said he spotted a black creature moving near the Foothill Road exit. Putting dinner plans aside, he took the offramp and drove over to the hill where he saw the animal. And there it was. Reed said he and his wife watched it for 10 minutes.
It wasn't a domesticated animal, he said.
"It knew what he was doing," said Reed, who lives in Palomares Canyon near Castro Valley. "It instinctively knew what it was doing. It was hunting."
Reed, an avid fisherman and hunter, said he didn't have a camera to take a photo, but got a good look at the creature. He said the cat was about 5 feet long and about 2 feet tall. Its head was the size of cantaloupe and he estimated it to weigh about 60 pounds.
"It was black," Reed said. "It had no other markings."
Reed said he saw a similar animal about 14 years ago on his ranch in Cull Canyon.
While people have claimed to see wild black cats in the hills, no one has taken any photos of the creature, said Susan Heckly, a wildlife rehabilitation director at the Lindsay Wildlife Museum in Walnut Creek. Hide nor hair have been found to authenticate that a big black cat has been living there.
There are mountain lions, generally tawny in color, in the area, but it's possible the animal may be a dark-colored jaguar. Jaguars are found in rain forests and swampy areas, as well as grasslands and even deserts, according to the San Diego Zoo's Web site. Some have a melanistic coloration, which makes them appear all black. The animals' habitat is generally Central and South America, and jaguars were thought to have been pushed out of the United States -- but recent sightings in Arizona and other states have suggested the animals may be returning, according to published reports.
Heckly said there is enough prey to support a large black cat if that is indeed what is living in the hills. Whether the cat, which she has never seen, is wild or a captive illegal exotic cat that was let loose is anyone's guess, she said.
A California Fish and Game spokeswoman said her agency hasn't heard of any reports of large black cats.
Reed said people may have seen the animal, but have never bothered to report it because it was not encroaching on their land. He said the terrain in the hills between Pleasanton and Castro Valley is harsh, making it hard for people to explore the area.
Contra Costa Times (Walnut Creek, CA): 13th August 2009

Bear, black lion - impossible? Not necessarily
Tom Stienstra
A series of unusual accounts last week show that black panthers and bears are becoming more legend than mystery in the Bay Area.
Lynn Reed, a ranch owner, avid hunter and wildlife expert, said he and his wife watched what appeared to be a black mountain lion for more than 10 minutes in the foothills near Dublin in Alameda County. The next day, another one was seen by an engineer in the nearby San Ramon hills.
Reed's 10-minute sighting is the longest, eye-witness account of a black mountain lion reported by a wildlife expert in 20 years. It is similar to a Fish and Game warden's description from the 1980s near Sunol Regional Wilderness.
The pelt of a black mountain lion has never been recovered by officials, according to the Department of Fish and Game, and they say a black panther does not exist in California. One theory is that a genetic mutant is out there. Another is that the owner of exotic wildlife, such as a black jaguar, let an animal loose.
"He was black as can be with a head the size of a cantaloupe," Reed said. "We watched it for 10 minutes. I said to my wife, 'Look how its tail goes back and curls up, look how its shoulders move.' It was 3 feet long, the tail 2 1/2 feet, maybe 60, 75 pounds."
A similar animal was seen last week in the nearby San Ramon hills by a surveyor, Art Whitten. "I was setting up an aerial panel and I felt something watching me," Whitten said. "I turned and he was sitting in a ravine, 100 feet away. Of course, at first I was nervous, but he showed no interest in me. I've seen a lot of mountain lions, and I'd estimate it as the average size of a mountain lion."
During the encounter, he twice phoned his supervisor, Barry Williams, to tell him what was happening. "He has seen lions before and I know he isn't off his rocker," Williams said.
Another thrilling wildlife episode - with a bear - was also reported this past week:
On the Peninsula's Skyline Ridge, field scout Cat Webb said she walked nearly headlong into a bear. This is likely the same bear that was seen by hikers in the same vicinity last summer, one at Rancho San Antonio, the other at the western edge (near Skyline) of Sanborn-Skyline County Park.
In a story from this spring, a bear was sighted multiple times in Petaluma near East Washington Street, the city's main drag, and Maria Drive.
These latest bear sightings make 12 likely accounts reported in the past 10 years in the greater Bay Area. The idea that the Bay Area still has enough wild places for bears to live, along with mountain lions - maybe even a black one - is astonishing. It shows one of the benefits of creating parks in the foothills and protecting greenbelt.
Here are the details:
Lynn Reed, black mountain lion: "I have a ranch, 120 acres. I've seen mountain lions come through. This time I was going down 580, heading toward Pleasanton, about 6:15 p.m., came over the Dublin Grade (near Foothill), when we saw it, about 800 yards off. I slowed down, and I said to my wife, 'Look at that! It's a cougar or a panther.' We took the next exit - I gave up our dinner reservations - and I circled back to get closer. We got maybe 300 yards away.
"We watched it for 10 minutes; the way he snuck through, it looked like he was hunting, looking for something. We watched him about 10 minutes. Very exciting. Incredible, really. I'm a hunter raised in Utah with a pretty good eye for wildlife. I kept staring to make sure I knew what I was looking at."
Cat Webb, Skyline bear: "I saw a bear yesterday. I was north of Skyline, hiking on the east side of the ridge. He was down the hill from me in the brush. It scared the crap out of me! I was alone, so I threw a branch his way and I heard him running. I ran too, happy it was in the opposite direction. I had never heard of bears up in the Santa Cruz Mountains before so I thought maybe I was crazy or it was a dark brown/black mountain lion? Hah. Anyway, I just looked it up on the Internet and found your article about sightings of bears up there. So now I know I'm not crazy."
Recent bear sightings
2009: Hiker near Skyline (Highway 35) in Santa Cruz Mountains shocked to see bear down-slope, which quickly scampered away into cover.
-- Multiple reports of a 200-pound bear in Petaluma near East Washington Street and Maria Drive.
2008: Two bear sightings reported by hikers on the south Peninsula, one at Rancho San Antonio, another at western edge of Sanborn-Skyline County Park.
2005: After a six-year disappearing act, the "Swanton Road Bear" is seen again in northern Santa Cruz County.
2003: A bear is spotted near the Point Reyes Hostel, the first one verified at Point Reyes National Seashore in 100 years.
-- A second bear in Marin is seen near Bon Tempe Reservoir near Fairfax. Over the course of two months, it is reported several times in the Mount Tamalpais watershed.
For accounts of all Bay Area bear sightings since 1960, go to sfgate.com and search for "Bear tales: Ursine mysteries," published Aug. 10, 2008.
- Tom Stienstra E-mail Tom Stienstra at tstienstra@sfchronicle.com.
The San Francisco Chronicle: 9th August 2009

Lurking In the Wild, Or the Mind
SNEDENS LANDING, N.Y. -- ''Panther Meeting Here,'' read the sign in front of the Palisades Presbyterian Church.
This suggested two possibilities. The first, not all that likely, was that the black power group from the '60s and '70s was convening at the picturesque, 146-year-old church in this green, artsy Rockland County community on the Hudson River, with its name out of Dr. Seuss.
The second, somewhat more likely, but based on a perhaps even more far-fetched premise, was that people were meeting last Thursday to strategize about the Palisades panthers (or panther), sleek cats, perhaps 130 pounds, with shiny black fur and long curved tails and no history of ever existing in the wild in New York. The word was the cat or cats had reappeared after numerous unconfirmed sightings in March and then a hiatus for several months.
Indeed, once the proceedings began -- including updates on sightings, inconclusive discussion of scat and footprints, reports by a group called Tracker SFI (search and forensic investigation), suggestions on humane removal and much griping about the response by local politicians -- it was clear that the region's most intriguing animal story was beginning its second chapter.
The first began in March, when almost a dozen residents independently reported seeing similar creatures in driveways, backyards or local parks.
The first reported sighting was by Jane Bernick, a retired travel agent. She said she got up at 7 a.m. on March 6, and came downstairs for coffee. Looking outside she saw two large black animals she thought were bears. (''Panthers weren't on the radar at that point,'' she said.) She got out binoculars and saw what seemed to be two black panthers, which she watched for 15 minutes but didn't report to the police. A week later, her next-door neighbor Grace Knowlton, a sculptor, was entertaining two guests when she saw at least one panther, maybe two, She called the police, who were not impressed.
''They thought we were crazy old ladies,'' Ms. Bernick said.
Then came more sightings, including one by Dorian Tunell, who was riding bicycles with his 8-year-old son in Tallman Mountain State Park.
''It was a large black panther or leopard, 25 yards away, right in front of us,'' he said. ''I took one look and said, 'Let's get the heck out of here.' The town officials don't want to believe it. It's like 'Jaws,' the exact same story, but on land.''
At first there was an element of levity to the whole improbable tale. In an area that has been home to many artistic types, including Al Pacino, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Bjork and Bill Murray, panther verse was collected in what was whimsically billed as the Snedens Landing Quarterly Poetry Review.
But after another reported sighting this month, the mood at the meeting was far more urgent. There's something magical about the thought of panthers lurking at the shadows of suburbia, unless you think they might eat your kid.
''There are a lot of animals around -- coyotes, bobcats and others -- and some of them do a lot of damage.'' Ms. Bernick said. ''Somewhere along the line it loses its charm, especially if one of them can hurt you.''
SINCE black panthers are not native to the area, the believers assume that someone let a pet panther or two into the wild and won't fess up to it.
The trouble is, no one really knows what, if anything, is out there. A camera set up for months found nothing. There's been no photograph, definitive footprint or scat that's correlated with a panther. An eviscerated deer, taken by some as more panther evidence, could have been injured and then done in by coyotes or other predators, experts said. There have been hundreds of reports of wild cats in the Northeast, usually tawny, not black, over the years, so it will take something definitive to excite the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
The local governing body, the town of Orangetown, plans to pay for more comprehensive cameras and perhaps tracking expertise. But the critters are said to be extraordinarily elusive.
Dana and Jon Plowe moved into a house overlooking the Hudson a month ago, and the sighting and eviscerated deer turned up a few weeks later.
''It's fun and it's exciting and it's cool, and I'm sick to death when my kids are at the end of the yard,'' Mr. Plowe said. ''So it's cool that it's out there, but I want it gone.''
E-mail: peappl@nytimes.com
The New York Times: 27th July 2009

Suburban Legends: The Palisades Panthers
The Palisades panther(s) first appeared on the morning of March 6th, in Snedens Landing, a hamlet on the Hudson, just over the New Jersey line. Jane Bernick glanced out her kitchen window and saw, lying in the grass about twenty yards away, a pair of large black mammals. Assuming that they were bears, she retrieved a pair of binoculars. Closer observation revealed that they were feline. Panthers. No question. She spent ten minutes watching them groom each other, before they slinked off. No one believed her.
A week later, Bernick’s next-door neighbor Grace Knowlton, a sculptor, was sitting in her living room, with two guests, when she saw a black panther stalk through a clearing about fifty yards away. She had a sense that it was following another one, but couldn’t be sure. Knowlton called the police, who regarded her report with suspicion, perhaps because she owns a pair of black standard poodles. But she was insistent—the tail, the hind legs, the glistening coat.
A few days afterward, Dorian Tunell, an electrician, went on a bicycle ride with his eight-year-old son in Tallman Mountain State Park, about a mile north of Knowlton’s place. Not far into the woods, he heard a rustling and looked to see a big black cat jumping over a rock.
“The panther!” the boy cried. He ditched his bike, and Tunell scooped him up with one arm and rode to a friend’s house, warning people along the way to get their pets inside. The friend called the park police, who seemed uninterested until they were told that a neighbor had set off into the woods with a 12-gauge shotgun. (He was wearing loafers.) The police converged, in force, but found nothing.
Still, panther mania took hold. The authorities mounted warning notices and motion-sensitive digital cameras on trees. A town animal-control officer, who goes by Thunder, passed his days parked at Snedens’s only stoplight, on the lookout for a panther crossing the road. The neighbor with the loafers changed into full camouflage and roamed the woods with a bayonet. A deli up in Piermont christened a sandwich (chicken cutlet with melted mozzarella) the Panther Special. Residents put out a glossy journal—a “panthology,” they called it—of panther poems and limericks, with references to Pablo Neruda, Inspector Clouseau, and Bobby Seale. A contributor named Cantankerous Nick wrote:

Dead Cat and Mutilated Horse

The Horse

Source: Alex Mistretta

Black cat Photographed in North Carolina

Suspicious Animal Sightings

April 2009: Source: The journal news of New York's Lower Hudson Valley

'Panther' sightings pile up in Palisades
Ben Rubin
PALISADES - "Notice: Suspicious Animal Sightings."
Those signs were posted in Tallman Mountain State Park recently, part of local and state officials' increased efforts to identify what are thought to be large black cats that have been seen around the hamlet.
Two more people reported sightings of the creatures in Palisades - one over the weekend and another yesterday. The animals have regularly been referred to as black panthers, though no one has been able to confirm what they are.
In response to the sightings, Orangetown police are increasing patrols in the area and teaming up with the state Department of Environmental Conservation and state park police.
Orangetown Supervisor Thom Kleiner met Tuesday with the three agencies and a few residents who reported sightings.
"Particularly because there have been multiple sightings, we are taking this seriously," Kleiner said yesterday.
In addition to the signs posted around Tallman Mountain State Park, park police installed cameras, which are set up to snap pictures of passing animals.
"We are encouraging people that if you see it, call us right away," Orangetown Sgt. James Sullivan said. "We're trying to get some confirmation of what this animal is."
Four to six sightings around Palisades and Tallman State Park were reported over the past few weeks, Sullivan said.
The sightings have varied, with people saying they've seen either one or two of the animals, often described as sleek, long-tailed, black felines that are larger than mid-size dogs.
One woman said she used binoculars to watch two of them in her backyard for 10 to 15 minutes. Another woman more recently said she saw one in her driveway.
The term "black panther" is a common name for a large all-black cat and does not refer to a specific species.
Wendy Rosenbach, a DEC spokeswoman, said her agency fields sightings of mountain lions or cougars about once or twice a year, but none of the sightings has been confirmed.
When the agency's staff receives a photo of what may be a wild cat, they often conclude that it is a large dog, coyote or bobcat.
Because no regional zoos, veterinarians or private citizens reported a missing large cat, a theory has been circulating that there may be a local homeowner who kept two large and illegal wildcats.
"After 23 years in this job, I'm open to anything," Sullivan said when asked if he thought the animals could indeed be black panthers. "We're not saying no to anything until we can confirm it."
Reach Ben Rubin at bfrubin@lohud.com or 845-578-2420.
Where to call
If you think you see one of the large black cats, authorities ask that you call them:
- Orangetown police: 845-359-3700
- Department of Environmental Conservation wildlife staff: 845-256-3098
- Palisades Interstate Park Commission: 845-786-2781
The Journal News (White Plains, NY): 2nd April 2009

DNR: Loose panther unlikely: Several New Haven residents report seeing one.
By Aaron Organ, The News-Sentinel, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Mar. 19--A black panther may be roaming New Haven, though where the mystery cat might have escaped from is unclear.
The Department of Natural Resources has received at least three reports of a black panther sighting in the city in the last three months. A report from one resident was accompanied by a cell phone photo of the big cat's apparent footprint.
Still, the DNR finds the possibility of a black panther surviving without being seen by authorities to be unlikely.
"If there was something out there, I would think we would be getting more reports of damage," said Jason Wade, a District 5 wildlife biologist with the DNR.
"If there's something there, it has to be eating something. It's going to go after some larger prey."
Black panthers are not native to northern Indiana, making the possibility of any of the big cats' existence here rare.
It isn't impossible, however, because residents can own one if they register it with the state, though none are registered, according to the DNR's office.
It doesn't mean a resident doesn't possess one of the animals illegally.
"It's not common, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were people in the area that owned them," said Wade.
If dealers or zoos that were federally licensed through the Department of Agriculture were to have an escaped animal, they would be required to report the incident immediately.
None have reported any escapes.
Several residents of New Haven believe something like a black panther is lurking among them, and seem fearful enough to bombard Wade's office with reports.
Wade said the amount of reports is an influx from the norm, though they are not uncommon.
"That's maybe a little more than normal, but we usually get a couple a year at least from all over northern Indiana," said Wade. "But if there's a report, we'll try to follow up on it. Now, if they don't have any prints, there's not much we can do with it. But if they've got actual evidence, we'll follow up on that."
Wade said the clarity of the footprint pictures his office received made it difficult to determine whether they belonged to a big cat, or a dog, as both animals' footprints look alike.
The News-Sentinel (MCT): 19th March 2009

What could it be? The largest cat-family predator found in the United States is...
What could it be? The largest cat-family predator found in the United States is an animal that confusingly goes by four different names - mountain lion, cougar, panther and puma. All are the same species, and they usually are colored with a mixture of tan, orange and brown. Once common throughout the United States, they are now found in large numbers only in four regions - the mountain West and Pacific coast, the Dakotas, the Appalachians and Florida. But they have been seen in increasing numbers in recent years in Wisconsin. Their favorite food is deer. In Illinois, the mountain lion/cougar/panther/puma officially has been extinct since the 1800s. But three have been killed in the state since 2000, the most recent a 150-pound cougar that was seen on a farm in south-central Wisconsin in January 2008 and was shot to death by police on a residential street in Chicago last April 14, after apparently walking some 200 miles in four months.
Many other alleged sightings are reported on the Web site www.illinoiscougarwatch.com. If the mysterious beast is black, it most likely is not a cougar. According to a Wikipedia article, "There are no authenticated cases of truly melanistic (black) cougars. None have ever been photographed or shot in the wild and none have been bred. There is wide consensus among breeders and biologists that the animal does not exist." However, biologist Ray Eisbrenner of the Illinois Department of Natural Resources notes that the Plato mystery animal could be an exotic (likely illegal) pet that escaped or was discarded by a homeowner. For example, it could be a black leopard from Asia or a black jaguar from South America. Also, fur collected at the Plank Road Panther's apparent former bedding site by Charles MacArthur and Shane Lyon is mostly dark gray. Perhaps a gray cougar could be mistaken for black from a distance, in low light. To make the nomenclature even more confusing, black leopards and black jaguars often are informally called "black panthers" by the public. There also have been many reports in various places in the United States of a mysterious large black cat of some species that the zoological community does not recognize even exists. A recent episode of the cable TV series "Monster Quest" featured people who claimed to have seen such "alien black cats" in Texas and Kentucky. - Dave Gathman Courier News: 8th March 2009