Panthers in Sabine/Rockafeller Refuges
 

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??

Ive heard that a squatch in a tree could be mistaken for two panthers. According to this site this is more likely then panthers.

I have a picture of this wild rarely seen creature...around here we call it a "Dustin Hansen"...let me see if I can find it

Panthers Expanding in Florida

People laugh and joke about sightings of panthers in Louisiana, but I'm convinced I saw one about twenty years ago. No amount of ridicule made me change my mind about what I believe I saw.

Every year 2-3 cougars are seen on trail cams in Louisiana. Most believe they are young males from the Florida or Texas breeding populations, searching for their own territory.
When you say "panther", I hope you are not referring to "Black Panthers". Cougars do not have black color phases, only Jaguars do and they are not found anywhere near LOuisiana.
But to answer your question, I do not remember that but it would not surprise me.

!!!!
 

the cougar you are referring to is also know as a "FLORIDA PANTHER"

I have been seeing them for years off Hickory Creek south of Deridder. I have seen 7 over the years. First one was in the late 90's. It was black. I have seen one each year over the last 3 years. They were all within a 100 yards. I watched them cross a pipeline all from the same stand. I know what I saw. When you see their tail you will know what I am talking about.

Morons will argue til the death that cougars can be black.
Louisiana definitely has some cougars for sure. Not a lot but they around.

Not going to say BLACK panthers aren't possible, but I've never met someone who I trust to positively identify one.

Now, Florida panthers I wouldn't doubt. I believe that historically they did occur in Louisiana.

That being said, I would imagine the "panthers" in the original post were cougars. Its possible that there could have been a few in Cameron around the time of the hurricanes, although I would think there would have been more observations of the cats prior to the storm. Two large cats, even in a very large marsh, would be hard to miss.

Black cougar....
Attachment 90518

I stand corrected

I wouldn't mind having her on trail cam

We, got big black cats here! Not sure what they are. But would think la. Would have them too.

The only big cat species that can turn black is a jaguar.

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

Trust me I am no moron. Its guys like you who give this site a bad name insulting members character.

Isn't it true that albinism and melanism are both recessive traits? Just as we have white tigers and white lions, shouldn't it also be possible to have black tigers, black lions and even ... black panthers?

Melanism is more rare than albinism, but I don't see why it would occur only in jaguars as you claim.

Melanistic animals

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.

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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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

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

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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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.

Just ask Uncle Si!

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.

http://dingo.care2.com/pictures/c2c/...165404_370.jpg

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/c47H5rP6rY0/maxresdefault.jpg

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 :spineyes:

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.

How about a Jacksonville Jaguar?

A New York Giant?

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.

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

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Give me more details on the area you speak of , I'm fairly close . Makes me curious

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.

Whats funny is that for years everyone thought it was wacky to even say you saw one of any color and now they are confirmed and seen regularly. So all of the folks saying they are there have been right as confirmed by LDWF but now all you hear is they can't be black.... just hold tight as that will also be proven wrong.... just a matter of time.

I found this article online from the Cameron Pilot newspaper. It was after Ike and it was Remy Broussard who saw the two panthers

Bayou Buck
November 3rd, 2008, 03:06 PM
an excerpt from...
The Cameron Parish Pilot
October 30, 2008

Two Cougars Sighted in Cameron Parish:

Although they have thought to be extinct in western Louisiana, two cougars were recently sighted in Cameron Parish—and the report comes from a very good authority—a Louisiana wildlife enforcement agent.

Lt. Remy Broussard, state wildlife enforcement agent supervisor for Cameron and Calcasieu parishes, reported seeing two of the rare felines south of the Intercoastal Canal in the Gum Cove area of northern Cameron Parish.

His sighting was made on Oct. 1 while Lt. Broussard was flying over the area in a National Guard helicopter helping evacuate Hackberry residents who were stranded by the high water following Hurricane Ike.

He said the animals appeared to be full grown cougars (also known as mountain lions or panthers). He said it was possible that they could be the same cougars that were spotted in Nat****oches on Sept. 4 and Allen Parish on Sept. 29. These sites are about 100 miles apart.

Photos of a cougar at a site near Oberlin were made by a camera that had been set up in the woods and can be seen on the internet at the Louisiana Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries site. The official LDWF press release regarding the two trail camera photos of cougars can be viewed by clicking here (http://www.wlf.state.la.us/news/?id=1130).

Broussard said cougars probably live on deer and wild hogs which are plentiful throughout this area.

UPDATE!!!
BayouBucks.com (http://www.bayoubucks.com) personally spoke with Lt. Broussard for approximately 15 minutes regarding his sighting in order to shed further light upon the details of this occurrence. He stated that while performing recovery operations via helicopter immediately following Hurricane Ike, he noticed two strange animals in the grass along the Intercoastal Canal while en route back to Lake Charles. “They were on the south side of the Canal levee, approximately 1 mile west of Gum Cove Road,” Broussard stated. “We circled around to get a better look, and as we approached, the cougars crouched down in the grass real low as if to hide from us. We were hovering about 60 yards above them, and watched the cats for about 30 seconds before we had to get back to work.” While Broussard told Bayou Bucks (http://www.bayoubucks.com) that it was pretty amazing to see such reclusive animals, it did not astound him that these cougars were in the area. “We saw one a few years back along Johnson Bayou in SW Cameron Parish,” Broussard acknowledged. “I knew there were a few [cougars] in this area, so this new sighting didn’t really surprise me.”

Contrary to the sighting date of Oct. 1 reported in the [i]Cameron Pilot, Broussard’s sighting actually occurred immediately after Hurricane Ike—Sept. 15. This date is very significant, in that it falls between the dates of the two trail camera photos obtained (Sept. 4 and Sept. 29), yet the location of the sighting lies 60 miles southwest of the southern most Oberlin, LA photo (see the timeline and attached pics below). Although not 100% conclusive, it can be inferred with reasonable certainty that at least three different cougars were sighted during the month of September in Louisiana. To assume otherwise would mean that one group of cats would have had to be photographed in Nat****oches Parish on Sept. 4, travel 145 miles in 11 days to Cameron Parish (and in the process cross the Red River, I-49, the Calcasieu River, I-10, and the Intercoastal Canal), then travel 60 miles back north into Allen Parish in 14 days (thus re-crossing the Industrial Canal, the Calcasieu River, and I-10).

Cougars and their closely related subspecies, the Florida Panther, once thrived in the hills and swamps throughout Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Florida. Until recently, the species' were believed to be extinct throughout the Bayou State. This was attributed to the animals’ habitat destruction and depletion of its #1 prey animal, the whitetailed deer, during the turn of the 20th Century. There is certainly no lack of deer in Louisiana today, but a shortage of large expanses of unbroken forest habitat, a network of highways and interstates across their historic travel corridors, and public opinion opposed to the cats’ return to Louisiana certainly limit cougars’ ability to enjoy the populations they once had here. Be aware that there is a heavy fine and the possibility for imprisonment imposed on anyone killing a cougar in Louisiana. These animals are very shy, nocturnal, have large home ranges, and are not likely to remain in the same area for very long. To report verifiable sightings of cougars containing physical evidence such as photos, tracks and/or scat please call Maria Davidson at 337-948-0255 or your nearest LDWF Region office at:

Minden 318-371-3050
Monroe 318-343-4044
Pineville 318-487-5885
Ferriday 318-757-4571
Lake Charles 337-491-2575
Opelousas 337-948-0255
Baton Rouge 225-765-2360

Pat, I saw 2 about a month or so after the hurricane about 2 mile from your house on Carl Lyons rd. When I rounded the corner from Pete Seay onto Carl Lyons they were on the road. They cleared the ditch and the fence that used to be there in one jump. I stopped and tried to spot them with my Qbeam but they were gone. Big cats to say the least.

Wow, with so many sightings there has to be something more to it than just mass hallucination. I've heard from people who have seen big cats with long tails all around Carylss like:

Gum cove Ferry Rd
Hwy 1133 by Pecan Grove park
Hwy 1133 by the Westlake Chemical Sytrene terminal(multiple times)
Carlyss drive by the park
West Ravia road

So I'm sure they are around, not sure about the black panthers though

These were tan. Lit them up in full headlights about 25 yds in front of me. It was early and I was tired but not hallucinating lol. BIG cats and long tails.

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........

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

They do make a distinctive sound

So if all of the biologists say they don't exist that means I can smoke check one without getting in trouble right? How can you get in trouble for shooting something that doesn't exist? Y'all gona know if I see one.. I'll post a report with pics. Same goes for sasquach. Screw him and his beef jerky.

Late one night in the Texas hill country I was looking for where a Axis herd was holding.
I was coming down a road in my truck when a rather large 80 - 100 lb animal jumped out and turned straight toward my truck. The first thing I saw was a long thick tail and my mind started racing and thinking of all the people I
$ hit on for claiming the saw a black panther. It never got scared and continued to my truck. Eyes glowing in my headlights and as it got into identifiable range all I could think was
"Man if that Black Lab had turned and took off before I really got a good look i would be one of those people I've clowned for so long.

95% of those sighting are large house cats with the right stuff around them to make them look big.
4% are prolly dogs
1% are completely lying.

Attachment 90556Attachment 90557

If I see it BANG. It can't taste any worse than bear meat so why not.

i have a friend that is a WLF biologist and got a call of a cougar hit by a car, that was found on side of the road. He gets there to retrieve it and it was a cougar pretty decomposed. But it was declawed. So yes some are pets that escape or get released. But they say there is no proof of black ones. And the ones that are seen are mostly displaced. And as Clampy said most on trail cameras are house cats. Im just repeating what the experts say.

I know that top pic is house cat and still think twice when looking at it.

Regular panthers sound like a woman screaming but black ones sound like Aretha Franklin