Black Lions in America

reply to post by jmdewey60


I also live in southern California and they are pretty common here only though I have only seen one and it was at a far distance. I just wanted to check the age just in case you saw it when you were 8 or something and your memory might be a little fuzzy, but 25 makes it definitely more legit.

I couldn't get your link to work for the website but the quotes sound like one big cat, based on the size of its footprint. Thanks for adding more to the discussion though

I guess that link did not come out right, may be too long.
Here is how you can find it:
posted 30 October, 2004 07:46 PM
snopes.com » Urban Legends » Critter Country » Mountain Lions in Illinois (Page 1)

This is about all I could find very interesting, after doing a lot of looking around. I was mainly trying to find actual measurements, and found none. I do not know why people do not take measurements, probubly no one carries around tape measures.

I don't have photos or further information, but about fifteen years ago, my dad saw what he described as a big black cat in Buckingham, PA. On two seperate occasions he was walking from a customer's house to his service van (he was an HVAC tech) and watched it cross across a field less than one hundred feet from him. He said it was about three feet tall and really made him feel uncomfortable to look at.
Anyway, that's all I have but felt it was worth tossing in to the pot.

Omg so lame, they're just black cats hahahh

Originally posted by ZikhaN
Omg so lame, they're just black cats hahahh

Wow, thanks so much for that contribution. I dont think we could have continued the discussion with out it.



Here in Missouri, they denied we had mountain lions over and over again. Right up until one got hit by a car. Now there is an abundance of info, though they are still hesitant for some reason to talk about them. Anyway, I watched that monsterquest and found it interesting. One thing stuck out to me though. The color of mountain lions are a lot like rabbits. Around here there are brown rabits rather than white one because the brown ones blend in more with the habitat, thereby increasing their life span. NOW, further north where the winters are more white and snowy, there would be more white rabits. What I am trying to get at is that they said a black mountain lion is not unheard of, they just dont get the chance to pass on that trait. What if - due to all the climate changes - the lifespan of the black cat has been extended enough to allow it the chance to pass its gene on? Perhaps the black panther was not extinct after all, just a different color. Similar to how the rabit adapts.

Just an idea.

[edit on 11-1-2008 by mrsdudara]

Yeah we don't have them in southern Michigan either but people keep taking pictures of something in their back yards and fields. The official story is no off the record a DNR officer will say yes there appears to be something about the big cat storys.

mikell

reply to post by mrsdudara


Sry just my oppinion...

A Big cat yes, a black lion no. Lions are for the most part group animals. Much more likely to be a panther or couger. From what I have been told by some farmers, ferral cats do get rather large in relation to house cats. There is a reason why we don't have many ground nesting birds anymore in most of North America.

reply to post by mrsdudara


I see your point about the similarity in the color, but why would a mountain lion turn black? It doesn't really camoulflage it in any habitat except night time. Then again it could be a nocturnal type of mountain lion

reply to post by mikellmikell


Have you seen any of these pictures that people are taking? I am guessing that by something, you mean they are seeing animals that look like black cats. Would be interesting to see another picture.

reply to post by BlitzKrieger


I'm not sure really, but the possibilities are endless. It could be the light pollution, shadows, hard telling.

reply to post by mrsdudara


Yea, the areas we drive animals into living can be pretty polluted and toxic areas and cause some gene mutation resulting in this or it can just be another case of a lose jaguar/panther. Hard to tell until someone comes up with some concrete evidence or find a body.

Somewhere I have a picture that shows a cat print bigger than my footprint. It was walking over a very used trail less than a mile from homes. The cats prints were easily wider than my foot, and even the other guy's foot. The part that disturbed me the most about them was not the size but the depth of the print. It was three times deeper than any other print.

There were my two sets of prints another group's prints ( man and children I think ) and the cat's. I'll browse some cd's and hope I still have it!

I saw the prints in the Southern Los Padres Forest in California

I work for a Land Surveying company and have been in the business for 24 years. I'm also an avid hunter. I have seen many bob cats, coyotes, and wild hogs. I've also seen many tv shows on cougars, panthers, mountain lions, etc...
I live in North East Georgia and a few weeks ago my boss and I spotted a cougar crossing the road a few hundred feet ib front of us. We slowed to a sto, as the animal slowly walked across the road and stopped at the edge of a field, to turn and look straight at us. We saw it very clearly from only 50 feet away.
It was defineately a cougar. While each of us had cell phones with cameras built in. The shock took us by surprise and we didn't take any photos. Go figure!

i dont know about there being a black species of cat native to north america, however i do know that exotic pets where very popular during the 1970's as a status symbol. could it be possible that these sightings are of panthers that have been released into the wild by lazy owners. is it even possible that they have bred with wild mountain lions therefore creating a (sometimes) black hybrid?

I live in eastern Oklahoma, only about 100mi East of the Oklahoma farmer who was featured on the monster quest episode of the "black panthers". I never knew that cougars weren't "in" oklahoma let alone black ones until I watched that episode of Monster Quest, because my whole life growing up in Oklahoma I've heard of the black panther. My exboyfriend lives on a farm about 10miles outside of the small town where i live, and he would always tell me about his livestock being killed by a "black cougar". His dad and he saw it one evening when they were driving in the fields and he said he could hear it "screaming" some nights. Everyone I know who has heard them say they sound like a screaming woman. Where I'm from you hear almost exclusively about the "black cougar". I've never heard of anyone talk about the tan ones here.

I have not personally seen a "black lion", but I did hear a tale from a coworker of mine. He claims that he saw a black panther on the way to work and he's not the type I would expect to lie about such a thing.

His spotting was about an hour north of Pittsburgh near the intersection of Rt. 308 and Branchton Rd. in Boyers, PA.

reply to post by BlitzKrieger


I am sure you mean mountain lion right. There have been many reports all over the US recording sightings of black mountain lions or Black Panthers. I happen to live about ten miles from a location where a very credible man, to me, has seen them before.

When I lived in Kansas, I saw what I assume to be a black panther. I lived up on a hill and down below was a field with grass knee to hip high. Behind that was woods. I saw the cat walking in that tall grass. I'm 100 percent sure it was not a house cat, it was way too big.

Originally posted by fooffstarr
My grandmother has a black cat that has been reported as a panther sighting on more than one occasion.

I am a 20 year old man about 6ft tall, and when standing the cat comes up to nearly my waist. ...

Excuse me, but if that cat comes up to your waist, (whether on all fours, or when standing on it's hind legs) it most assuredly is not a domestic house cat.

Unless you have freakishly short legs.