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Cougars

Started by anothertroutbum, February 25, 2009, 18:27:25 PM

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overbrook

Quote from: phg on February 26, 2009, 08:44:10 AM
Tom, I have heard that a bobcat will occasionally cross with a feral house cat producing a sterile hybrid.  That may be what you found.  The markings are definitely bobcat-esque. 

Paul....I figured it was someones exotic pet no longer wanted ?  Nothing native to SC I would imagine.

Quote from: tbird4 on February 26, 2009, 09:38:58 AM
Quote from: overbrook on February 25, 2009, 20:36:32 PM
We've had a couple of panthers down here in SC...I guess the same thing as cougars...but these were truly black.....we also had another big cat which I have yet to identify for sure.
As for me just bobcats, but I did see one last year while deer hunting that was almost the same size as my lab.


thats about the size of em' ....as big as a large lab...but clearly have the gait of a cat.

5xTippett

I saw a long tailed cat in Georgetown Co. in SC in the eightie's.  The biologist told me what I saw was a wild dog.  I said that's fine, I'll shoot the sucker.  He wasn't much on that.  He wouldn't admit there were long tailed cats down here, but he would not give me permission to shoot the "wild dog" either.  He asked me to shoot the tip of the tail off, so he could analyze the hair.  I can shoot, but I'm not good enough to shoot the tip of a tail off while twitching at 150 yards.  The "official stance" is there are none down here outside Florida, but too many people have seen them for them not to be here.  I think the wildlife departments realize that, too.  River Man's father saw one on the Pee Dee River about the same time I saw mine.  I know a bunch of people who have seen them from time to time.  I think the deer herds expanding have a lot to do with them coming back and with the coyote population exploding.  Tom, I think your cat was an escaped Cheetah.  It looks too big to be an ocelet.  Both cats were kept as pets at one time or another.  There have been ocelets killed in Florida.

fleming13

Saw a cougar cross the road in front of my car in Abbeville SC near Parsons Mtn.  Probably close to 6 ft tail and all,  Huge cat.  Solid black.  It was the middle of the day but it came out of some tall grass and crossed into some woods.  Deffinately ran like a cat.  Talked to a guy in Jefferson NC that had one on his property.  Had a friend in Little Switzerland, close to Cashiers, NC, that had one coming on her porch and going through her trash.  From her description it would have been a cougar.  Though she never got a pic.  Whether they are wild and have migrated here or domestic released ones does not matter much to me.  

Tom, I still think that thing looks like an ocelot.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocelot
Everybody quiet, the Christian is in the room. 

I have been smited for the name of the Lord.

fishhead

I will not say where but last fall some prints were found that were suspect.  They were preserved and Clemson Biologist called in.  He made casts and confirmed they were indeed panther tracks. Plenty of open country still around.  They are quiet and move in low light.  They are here just most folks never see them...
Fishhead

flatlander

I've seen threads like this crop up on several different boards now in the past few years.  Zach Mathews' board had a long thread on it a couple of years ago after that somebody in the forest service saw a big cat and it scared him badly enough to swim across a river in the middle of the winter.  Now that was a guy who spends a lot of time in the woods and should know the difference between a bear/coyote/bobcat/wild dog/wild pig/etc..

Anyway, one of the surprising things that I remember coming up in that thread was the ridiculously high number of exotic cats being kept in private homes.  Apparently they escape more often than you think and their owners don't often report them missing.  I suspect a lot of the sightings are misidentified, but I have no doubt some of the escaped exotics get spotted and help fuel speculation that big cats still exist in the east. 

With all the deer hunters in the east, you'd think one would get shot or photographed  at some point if they really are here. 

22midge

Hey Nub I seen one of the big cats down on the Holston.....she didnt have a long tail but it was wide and she made all kinds of noises> ::) ::)
never let a day go by without telling your children how special they are----make a child smile today and gain a friend for life

WRector

My Dad and I were fishing for lake trout on Jocassee late at night one evening several years back.  We had the lantern and what not out fishing next to a steep wooded cliff area on the upper end of the lake.  We heard something coming down the bank moving very slowly towards our position.  Never got a good look at it but we did manage to get it's eyes to light up with a mag light.  Probably at least a 4 or 5 inch gap between the two yellowish glowing globes.

We never heard it head back up the ridge, but it left me with the "hair standing up on the back of your neck feeling."

QuoteWith all the deer hunters in the east, you'd think one would get shot or photographed at some point if they really are here.

I've hunted all my life in SC along the Tiger River in Union County and have never have seen a bobcat, but I know they are there.  Just because nobody has shot one or taken a picture doesn't mean that they aren't there.
There's a big difference between a dry fly dancing through
a riffle and a weighted fur ball dragging on the bottom.

flatlander

#22
Quote from: WRector on February 26, 2009, 13:22:27 PM

I've hunted all my life in SC along the Tiger River in Union County and have never have seen a bobcat, but I know they are there.  Just because nobody has shot one or taken a picture doesn't mean that they aren't there.


Interesting. You're one person though.  I've seen at least a dozen bobcats  hunting along the Haw in Chatham county.  Think about all the eyeballs in tree stands for 4 months of the year with video cameras or the game trail cameras that so many people use now.  I have to believe you'd get a few on tape if they are here in the numbers that coincide with the respected sightings.  Even the chupacabreh gets photographed every now and then ;D

Hell, come to think about it...we've killed a bobcat and several coyotes who've gone after our decoys turkey hunting down in SC.  I suppose a big cat would go after a turkey as well so make that a lot of eyeballs in the woods for 6 months out of the year.

WRector

Quote from: Flatlander on February 26, 2009, 13:45:56 PM
Quote from: WRector on February 26, 2009, 13:22:27 PM

I've hunted all my life in SC along the Tiger River in Union County and have never have seen a bobcat, but I know they are there.  Just because nobody has shot one or taken a picture doesn't mean that they aren't there.


Interesting. You're one person though.  I've seen at least a dozen bobcat's hunting along the Haw in Chatham county.  Think about all the eyeballs in tree stands for 4 months of the year with video cameras or the game trail cameras that so many people use now.  I have to believe you'd get a few on tape if they are here in the numbers that coincide with the respected sightings.  Even the chupacabreh gets photographed every now and then ;D

I agree with you that there should be more physical proof out there, but the way big cats act and move, leads me to believe that most are nocturnal and shy away from human pressure.  Heck even our "over populated" deer population has moved nocturnal, depending on how much hunting pressure the area gets, thanks to DENR telling everybody that it was OK to shoot 15 doe's a season and that only took 10 years to see an effect.  Imagine what a 100 years of hunting pressure would do to any species we have tried to eradicate.

Jis Sayin   ;)
There's a big difference between a dry fly dancing through
a riffle and a weighted fur ball dragging on the bottom.

anothertroutbum

Seeing is believing. I know what I saw and when I told a Ranger that he wouldn't believe what I saw he said, "A cougar ?" He said there were at least five on them in the vicinity but they try not to make it public. Farmers were blaming livestock kills on the cats when the attacks were the results of dogs ganging up. Old Rover will do that at night if you leave him loose.

wvyou

I think a lot of exotic animals kept as "pets" get loose and are sighted.  Hell, an old guy up in WV last year ran into a lion (mane and all) while deer hunting from his blind.

Wild or not...still scary if you ran up on one alone.

ctchrelz

I've heard that one of the reasons you get a wildlife official to say there are cougars or panthers around is that once it is confirmed that their territory has expanded and you have them in your district, you have to then mange for them. That means new hunting laws, or the loss of hunting land. it means preservation, etc, etc.
laws laws and more laws.

pt

troutfirst

#27
this was photoed last fall by a local gamecam.  i know the guy whose camera made the pic.  see what you make of it.  the light colored stuff on the ground is corn. and the remains of a salt block

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a land without trout ain't fit for human habitation

stonedfly17

Quote from: troutfirst on February 26, 2009, 20:38:18 PM
this was photoed last fall by a local gamecam.  i know the guy whose camera made the pic.  see what you make of it.  the light colored stuff on the ground is corn. and the remains of a salt block

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That looks like a dog to me. I heard a ton of stories in Mississippi about black panthers. Everybody's grandmother has seen one (seriously...all of them). They're nocturnal and pretty slick, so they'd definitely be hard to spot if they were around. If there's one near you, it's probably stalking you and they're really good at that so you probably won't know it's around. Surely some have migrated out of FLA into other areas of the south. The climate is similar and there's plenty of food running around. That would explain panther sightings, but I don't know about these "black" panthers. There aren't supposed to be any big, black cats in North America.

Beetle

Yup- everyone in Marion, NC used to talk about a big black cat that many had seen in the area.......they are everywhere!

Panther and leopard genetics allow for black coloration.

The Puma/Cougar native to North America does not.