EAST TEXAS HOG DOGGERS FORUM

since sept there have been 4 big cats caught on trail cams in middle and west tn , wildlife agency always said they didn't exist here , they can't say it anymore haha

Are they protected or can you put some dogs on them?

you can only kill one if you are protecting your life or property .... if i get a text from this trail cam i'm about to borrow and put up in front of some bait in a tree where my cousin caught one on camera ... and i can get there in time , me and a couple yeller dogs will shortly be protecting life and property !!!!!!!!!!!  ;) ;)

Theres a few down here south of Houston i haven't  seen one but i have seen a big black cat i think it was a jagarundi if thats how u spell it. Anyhow i was deer hunting i got to my spot where i drop my fourwheeler and walk i felt like something was watching me so i flash my light into woods nothing but then i flashed my light in the trees i seen two eyes i figured it was a coon so i went on my way. Well once i got done hunting i walked back to fourwheeler i went to look where i seen those eyes by now it was 10 in the mourning with plenty of daylight but alot of shade under trees. I seen an outline of a cat but wasnt sure cause it was still but all of a sudden it moved cuase there where two coyotes coming down the trail i was walking so i shot at the coyotes. Once i shot this big cat ran out the tree into the woods scared the sh!+ out of me.

the gov said they werent in up state new york either but people keep seeing them

their have been black ones seen here but what was on the video on the news was said to be a western cougar .

arent the black ones just a different color of the same species? I saw a video on youtube of somewhere in the midwest a black cougar caught on a game cam in a state where the fish and game said there were none. the regular color ones are hard enough to spot in the woods, the black ones would be near invisible

thats what the oldtimers said when i was growing up , that sometimes their would be a black one in the litter . modern science says their is no such thing as a black panther . maybe they are just the illigitimate children of a jagurundai rapist ?

The only reason i said it was a jagarundi cause i remember  it having short legs kinda stood out on me plus my lease is backed up to a huge wildlife refuge who knows big foot could be out there too.

so wikipedia says that a black panther is a black jaguar and that there are not any black mountain lions. there could be jaguars anywhere in the south and maybe midwest that come up from mexico, I know theyve been killed in texas, arizona and utah, no reason why they could not have made it further. There are black deer, I dont see why there cant be a black puma, just because no one has killed one doesnt mean it doesnt exist

now there is black jags that come from Mexico my uncle and grandpa treed a black color jag back in the 70's so they say now if they did idk but when they both say they did two dif times and days and tell the same story it's got to be true hahahah


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used to be a bunch of black panthers in chicago  O0

jdt.....just some friendly advice-

take the yeller dogs, tree the cat, take a picture and walk away!   the burden is going to be on you that you were protecting anything and most likely, a kill site wont be near anything that needs protecting.  Trust me.

 finally someone used that little afro guy!! lol

Are they seeing any around jackson tenn?  Got a lady friend just east of there with a spread, raises ab's. Foxes and silky show goats. I imagine her goat numbers may go down with a big cat in the area

Back in the 80's my granpaw was having some timber cut and 2 of the guys came out of the woods saying they just saw a huge cat. My grandpa said probably a bobcat.  The guy said this cat was black and about the size of a large dog and had a real long tail. I've hunted that property my whole live and never saw anything like that.  I did see a tree last year that was clawed up to around 6 feet though.  This is in Oglethorpe county Georgia.  They say we dont have bears here either but my buddy showed me one and 2 cubs at a feeder on trail camera. 

If you are in GA, there are plenty of bears there, especially south GA.

I think the population of big cats is higher than we think (in the south eastern states); they are very elusive  and harder to see than some ground animals like hogs and deer.  I believe the cats know when you are there way before you know they are there and many will tree or go in dens to hide.

I know I don't look in the trees much walking through the woods, maybe I should start looking.

hunter , you got me confused with somebody that gives a chitt lol if i see one with all the dogs , stock and kids i got ... iknow all the gamewardens and the judge .

               AND THEY KNOW ME !




georgia i had a guy that lives in the middle of the highest population of cats in the country tell me he had only seen 1 in his life without dogs . and he had cowboyed and hunted there for 50+ years !

I am talking about Oglethorpe county Ga. I know we have a healthy population of bears in Ga. But its not state wide for sure. There have been several bear sightings in this county but you still have alot of people (locals included) that say there not here. I know for a fact that the pictures this guy showed me were the real deal. I have turned coon hounds loose on that same feeder many times. As far as the cats being elusive. ...I'd say so. I won't go as far as to say they dont exist.  But I believe there are VERY small numbers in places where people claim to have saw them but they shouldn't be there. Hell I have a cat that lives in my yard and I hardly ever see that sucker. So I know for sure one could hide real well in the forest.   ;)

jdt- those big cats don't lounge around in back yards waiting to be seen (as evidence by one being caught on a game camera).  If you do see one in person, it will be in a tree far away from your house and most likely you'll see it by pure luck.....If you truly don't care than you'll kill one and start talking...soon enough someone will tell what you did and the GW will come visit.  Maybe you know all the right people...

Got a buddy lives up by sublinga, next to the national forest, he got some good bear pictures on his game camera, and he had some legit dudes come up to his kennel, they was all outta breath, said on the dirt road just before his house, there was a big black cat standing in the road, looked a minute and jumped to the top of a tall bank akin the road. They went down to dirt road where the boys saw it and the prints were bigger than anything they'd seen. Seems like allotta times if you have some caves in an area, you'll have black cat sightings

Where is this ?

I always thought we have the highest population of puma here in California, they have not been hunted in decades. Ive seen seven in my life, one in idaho, one in AZ and the rest in CA. Theres one that lives around my house, Ive never seen him, I cut his track one morning after a rain fresh as can be, tried to get my dogs to take the track but they wouldnt go. A buddy of mine just got a new hog hunting property and put up 6 different game cams that send the pic to your phone, he said there were the same five cats on all the different cams at different times, he has hunted puma out of state for over 30 years so I believed him. An old man I used to run into in the hills deer hunting told me he was followed by four cats at the same time for miles one time

I wouldn't care what state I lived in or what the laws were. If one starts the olé  "spot and stalk" on me , he's a shot ass !

Sublinga is west of you, east of trion and summerville,, i guess its Floyd county, just south of chattanooga

I have talked to Bioligist & there is no known case of a Mnt. Lion or Cougar have a black (melanistic) color phase. I got this off a page of The Panthers of south Florida. Really interesting articles they post on here.


The Panthers of South Florida
December 28 at 1:12pm ·
When Josie from Tucson, Arizona, asked us why National Geographic's Big Cat Week in December didn't feature black panthers, we thought we'd dispel a few myths about these fascinating felines for Weird Animal Question of the Week.
First things first: A "black Panther" is not its own species—it's an umbrella term that refers to any big cat with a black coat. (Learn more about National Geographic's Big Cats Initiative.)
The condition is caused by the agouti gene, which regulates the distribution of black pigment within the hair shaft, according to the University of California, Davis. It's most well known in leopards, which live in Asia and Africa, and jaguars, inhabitants of South America. (Domestic cat lovers might be interested to know the agouti gene doesn't cause black fur in house cats.)
According to Big Cat Rescue, the coloring comes from a surplus of melanin, the same pigment responsible for suntans, and an animal with the condition is known as "melanistic."
Also, just because black panthers are dark in color doesn't mean they don't have spots—they're just harder to see. (Also see "'Strawberry' Leopard Discovered—A First.")
"When their coat catches the sunlight in a certain way, you can see their spots very distinctly; at a bit of a distance, or if there is not direct sunlight on them, they look just like a solid black animal," said Patrick Thomas, general curator of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Bronx Zoo, which is home to two black leopards.
"Black leopards are more common in Asia than in Africa," Thomas said, "but I wouldn't say they were common anywhere."
This is the study conducted in 2012 on "black panthers".
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article…

What's a Black Panther, Really?
First things first: A "black panther" is not its own species-it's an umbrella term that refers to any big cat species that sports a black coat.
NEWS.NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM

When I was in western NC all the old hillbillys would say that there where black panthers. I told them there is no such thing. I learned that probly 20 plus yrs ago on a national geo show saying what Cajun just posted. But you know they still be leave in big foot to so there you go.


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if i kill one i'll call the gamewarden myself  ;)

amokabs , i googled west tn cougar sightings . there have been hundreds of sightings all over the state , several in jackson  . and even ajoining states , you mist try googling your state .

   btw have you talked to tom lately ?

there has never been any recorded proof of any black panther in the USA/ N. America, if you get proof its the equivalent of getting proof of bigfoot. I didnt think what i just said was true, however i was proven wrong so look it up if you disagree ???

i don't beleive everybody , but my grandmother saw a big black cat in her yard 2 days in a row . was it a panther ? was it a jaguar ? i don't know but if she told me she saw bigfoot you could bet your ass there would be tracks . now thats proof enough for me , i don't give a flying fu-- what the "experts" say .

 until that trail cam video showed up on channel 4 news they said the big cats don't exist here . if they had gotten a holt of it before channel 4 did they still wouldn't exist !

Jdt, that's how I feel, I saw a vid on YouTube of a big black cat years ago, I'll try and dig it up


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If you see a black panther you should shot it with a tranquilizer. So the zoologist can discover the new species


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I agree Judge. lol

  I just do not understand the mentality of people. Even if you see a regular mtn. lion, Panther Puma, whatever you want to call it, (brown, tan) in the south they are pretty rare & endangered in most states & protected., Why in the world would you want to kill it. I can understand putting dogs on it, treeing it & taking pictures to document it's presence.

The human imagination is very powerful and allows you to be leave in things that aren't even real.  The other day me and my son went to get his oil changed and get some tires. When we pulled in the guy saw the dog box and said hey y'all run hogs. We said ya then he was telling us bout a 580 lb hog he shot. We kinda chuckled and he said naw for real I said you got a pic. He showed us a pic of a hog that was nice maybe 220 range I then showed a 300 plus hog with out saying a weight he said man that has to be 700 hundred so you that's why I don't get crazy bout what people say


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There have been a handful of large mammal species"discovered" in the last few hundred years that scientists said didn't exist but the locals did, look it up, I don't have internet here or I'd look it up for you


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I pretty much never believe a non hunter if they say they saw a huge boar or a huge buck, it's always a shoat or a forky, not sure why that happens. We have some large hogs in Ca, there was one I wounded and never retrieved that ran with some cows that I still think was close to 500


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well we may have to agree to disagree but if i see a panther i will kill him before he starts killing my calves , horses , dogs , kids or maybe me . if we could raise stock and coexist with panthers bears and wolves we wouldn't have killed them out of this part of the country 200 years ago .

my preacher had a black cat kill a mare and eat the colt out of her 5-6 years ago .  leifal , i wish you would look that up and post it for the " experts " .

if my grandmother said she saw a big black cat then she did . if anybody calls her a liar i'll come pay you a visit .

I don't think any one was or is calling your grandmaw a story teller. The illusion of mind is a very powerful thing she or any one else may have seen a big cat and thought it was black. But I will go with what documented science says. Many times I have hunted and dogs come back with bust mud or what have you that changes there appearance that's what I would chalk that up to. 


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where there is smoke there is fire . i saw a show on the dicovery channel and a guy had a video of a black cat in his back yard . my grandmother said it was exactly what she saw . was it a panther ? a mt. lion ? puma ? i don't know but it damn sure wasn't an elephant . she keeps her windows clean and at that time could read the telephone number on my truck parked at the road . i tested her eyesight in other words . the cat  was less than 40 feet from the window .

   i asked her if it could have been a dog she said no way , it walked like a cat scratched like a cat etc. my pups took the 1 hr track several hundred yards and lost it would they have tracked a dog ?


   nobody has any documented scientific evidence that i took a shcitt this morning but i did ...... twice !

I can see one that could possibly be born dark and be a freak of nature...but a species? no way...

as i said the oldtimers used to say there would be a black one in the litter every once in a while . the same as a white squrrel or albino deer . now what i saw on that discovery channel video didn't look exactly like a mt. lion but it was dark grey almost black and about knee high with a tail as long as the body that crooked on the end.

We have a couple panthers in Lake Helen and last week one killed a horse and a chihuahua down the road land owner heard the commotion and went outside and saw the cat.I saw one from a tree stand about a mile from there 5-6 years ago he was marking and lazin around a feeder he was a big cat in the 150# range I'd say.Just watched him and let him walk.Now if I came outside and he was eating my horse I'd have killed him but they've been here my whole life and this is the first time I've ever heard of one killng livestock in my area.

theres plenty of them in the orange groves in labelle and imokallee