12f Mane said:

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100 of accounts of "black" mountain lions and... zero photographic evidence. Ever. Seems a little suspect.

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couple that with thousands of game cams and nothing....

ursusguy said:

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Y'all remember the gnawing issue well. One trick is to look at the first ribs (the first ones near the abdomen). If they are gone, canine, if they are simply stripped, feline.

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So...what was your opinion on the deer kill? I may have missed it.

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Not only that, but doe was left right in the wide open manicured field.

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Always heard cats will try to conceal/cover their kill to return back to later. We had a doe years back on the property. Half eaten. Covered in dirt and grass. Warden said he thought cat because of the attempted concealment?

ursusguy said:

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Y'all remember the gnawing issue well. One trick is to look at the first ribs (the first ones near the abdomen). If they are gone, canine, if they are simply stripped, feline.

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Good to know. Any thoughts on identifying wolverine kills?

aggie1819 said:

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How am I the only one on OB that has seen one? It might have escaped from someone's "zoo". There are tons of big cats in captivity in Texas

They are migratory animals. Its not too far fetched to have them in Texas. Just because you don't want to believe it, doesn't mean it wasn't there.

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Lots of people have "seen" Bigfoot too.

Ok I will chime in and take the ridicule. Around December 2002 in Live Oak county at my FIL place I was hog hunting through thick brush. Started head back to camp and had to cross a 60 acre cleared field with tall grass. As I was crossing I noticed a jet black I assumed hog crossing at about 200 yards. As it was running through the tall grass I noticed it was bounding as it ran like a cat. It had to cross a road I was on which was clear view. It was about 7' to 8' long with about half of that tail. It disappeared in the brush right after that. Told my FIL and he said he had seen it twice and his cousin had seen it come out and lay in a sendero with a brown lion for 20 to 30 minutes.

One of my best friends went hunting in Burnet county with his wife about a year later and they said they jumped a black lion at 15 yards in an oak grove on the way to the blind two afternoons in a row. Funny thing is I don't know if I believe them since I was not there, but they swear to it.

I have no Bigfoot encounters though, this is all the entertainment I can provide.

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Bears come back in? Photos. Whooping cranes rebound? Photos. Auodads escape? Photos. Albino bobcat? Photos. Manatee in Corpus? Photos. Bigfoot? Black panther?

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Don't forget the Warthogs in S. TX.

Ursus,

Now that I posted pics, can you speak to any of the other specifics that indicate song dogs and not a cat?

Difference is Jaguar is a real animal. You can go see it in the zoo. Just because their territory is 500-1000 miles from where I saw it. Mountain lions have traveled further. Why couldn't these? There was a Jaguar shot in Arizona. It wasn't melanistic but it is documented by wildlife officials.

Thanks for being #2. I wish I would have shot it now. I think it was around 1998-2000 when we saw ours. Not many game cameras and no camera phones back then.

Talked to my dad about it tonight. He still knows it was a black Jaguar like cat. We will go to the grave knowing it.

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Talked to my dad about it tonight. He still thinks it was a black Jaguar like cat. We will go to the grave believing it.

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FIFY. You've hijacked my thread enough.
Need ursus to look at pics...so shhh!

raidernarizona said:

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Talked to my dad about it tonight. He still thinks it was a black Jaguar like cat. We will go to the grave believing it.

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FIFY. You've hijacked my thread enough.
Need ursus to look at pics...so shhh!

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Haha my bad. For the record he is a doctor of Zoology

I wanted to shoot it but I guess I just froze up in the moment and watched it.

Where exactly north of Clarksville, we may need to have a field trip? What do you think, Ursus? FTR, I manage roughly 5000 acres in Negley.

It was the Chapman ranch. We used to have a lease there. I have a thermal and some decent nods. Count me in

aggie1819 said:

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It was the Chapman ranch. We used to have a lease there. I have a thermal and some decent nods. Count me in

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This thread is awesome. I believe you brother. I do. At least I believe that you believe that yall saw one.

This winter my mother in law, in the heart of east Tx, told us they saw an Oryx. We laughed. Two days larer they sent us a picture of it dead in the bed of her truck. Sure enough they had shot a Scimitar Oryx. They talked to the GW before and after. It had no tags or anything and nobody is sure where it came from, the GW said that there were several game ranches around there that raised them. Apparently the goal is to send them back to Africa as reintroduction.

So it can happen. I'm extremely jealous of my step FIL. Shot it with a 30-30.

So a little more color on that, he originally shot it with a 300 mag, hit it, and it ran. He ended up back at the house and went into the woods and found it. Had to track it a bit and shot it with the 30-30 from like 80 yards. It was still not completely dead when he got to it. Tough animal.

Apache said:

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Just recently a Mt. Lion (Only a cousin to a panther but still) walked from South Dakota to Connecticut. That's 1500 miles gentlemen. Across multiple interstates, big ass rivers, etc. Same distance as from central Texas to the Guatamala border.

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Mountain lion = panther = puma. They are all the same thing.

Are we sure that pic isn't a spray painted jaguar in El Chapo's back yard enclosure?

Next yall are gonna tell me the black tiger from the 80s classic Beastmaster was just a regular orange tiger painted black.

As much as the ribs are gnawed on, I would have said coyotes. That not to say you couldn't have a lion kill with coyotes finding........but not what I am thinking. Doesn't really look like there is any attempt cache it.

Field trip to Negley. Hey, at least we can confirm a bear.

That last jaguar folks got worked up about out in Arizona was actually killed in Mexico.

Update: FIL's friend sent game cam pic yesterday from "just 3 miles away". These old guys think this could be the culprit from the February attack. That is one vicious Mountain Tabby!!!

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It is extremely unlikely that this cat occurs in Texas although a rare visit by a wanderer from Mexico is possible

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Did you see it around Easter? Lord knows that brings everything else from Mexico up here?

To add to this train wreck highjacking, here is an anecdotal story I heard from a UPS driver around 2008. Lady as it turns out, who had been driving a long remote route for over 10 years through SW Mason/SE Menard counties. She drove up one day to make a delivery at our ranch headquarters 3 miles off the pavement (to give you an idea of the kind of country she covered) and was pretty excited. Said she had seen a "black mountain lion" that morning in Southeast Menard near the Mason county line. It ran from the side of the road up a draw and disappeared into cedar. Long tail, solid black, big, I laughed and she got angry saying it was the third lion she had seen over the years but the other two were brown. Can't fault her there, I have seen lions myself in the area and a 160lb. male was killed on a ranch 10 miles from where we stood. But never heard of a black one except this incident. Still think she saw something else but don't know what it could have been. She was adamant about it and generally a nice level headed woman. Had to be to drive that route alone for so many years. Who knows?