Cross Breeds

Do black panthers exist?

I am from Kentucky and yes i have seen a BLACK PANTHER. It was running across the parking lot at Paintsville Lake State park. I was on guard duty that night. This thing wasnt slim like a house cat. It was very Muscualar in the shoulders and black as coal. It was running across a small area behind the guard booth where you drive to the Rv and tent areas. but it was running from the direction of the lake to the wooded area to the right of the guard booth. I saw it and that Doctor whoever he is on Monster quest is DEAD WRONG because Black Panthers are in Kentucky. I had a cousin who caught a black cat when i was about 7. This cat was about half the size of a boxer dog and its teeth were about 1 inch long and about 3/16 inch thick where they went into its gums. About the size of a dogs canines. This cat was kinda mean and sneaky. Ill never forget this cat. Im thinking maybe an offspring of one of these panthers. No pictures of this cat so noones gonna believe me. This was about 1979 or so. I saw this thing from about 25 feet and it was Muscular in the front shoulders. Also we saw a Cougar at the same lake jump down on a picknick table and eat someones hamburger meat. These people left it there because their grill was heating up to fry them. The Cougar was slimmer than what we should NAME the BLACK PANTHER and meke it a new species. Heres the reason. Being so close to it i know that the tail was nearly the same length. But this cat was bigger in build in the front shoulders or as a scientist ( WHOM DONT KNOW EVERYTHING)haunches is way bigger and more Muscular. This cat would tear a cougar or (Mountain Lion) a new one in a confrontation. If you get what im saying. So im telling you people now i purposely answered my own question because im sick of hearing all this garbled trash talk saying there is no black panther. Remember the Snow leopard. Well They discovered a new species of slow leopard in 2007. Do not tell me we have discovered all things because we have not. I saw a guy on Monster quest claim that a Black Panther wasnt a different species and black pantheres dont really exist as a species.Well I hereby name this Species Black Panther. If some idiot can breed 2 pure breed dogs and call it a picapoo after making a mutt just because he or she is rich I CAN NAME THIS CAT. I know they are here whether we like it or not. Personally i find them stunningly beautiful. I saw one up close for a fact. Now for all you scientist who think you know how to study something. First of all you dont get on a 1 hour program (Which Sucked By the way) and go to areas for 2 days at a time and expect a sighting. Heck you dont go to a place for 5 years and expect a sighting when what you are looking for is this elusive. YOU LIVE there if you really want to know. Also you go out at night alot and go on alot of camping trips and hiking trips. It may take a year it may take 10 years. However you may be one of those people who always get what you want because of luck and see one in the first week (Of course terrified and in disbelief like i was) They are real and they are a different species. You are not staying in a place long enough to see one. If you scientists wanna see one take my advise. Its gonna take more perhaps than even 15 years of living in a very secluded wooded area. There you go there is your tool use it you will see one. James Dheel out. Also this thing was Way bigger than a bobcat. About the size of a black lab or rotweiler. No this was not any bobcat. I was 25 to 35 feet from it . It was Very muscular in front also. And like i said way larger than a bobcat.Id say by the density of its muscles about close to 100 LBS.

Public Comments

1. Hyper-melanism is a trait found in occasional individuals in almost all cat species. The classic "blank panther" is actually a hyper-melanistic leopard. They tend to be more common in jungle areas, rather than open territory - probably because the black colour doesn't work well as camouflage in grasslands. So I would guess that the critter you saw was a hyper-melanistic bobcat. Very cool, but probably not a new species.
2. DO WHITE PANTHERS EXIST? I think all panthers are awesome no matter what color they r ;)
3. There are only black leopards and black jaguars, there are no black cougars, and panther isn't even a species. I'd guess you may have seen a cougar, which is still extremely rare out there, and it was at night, so its fur probably just seemed black. If you saw a grizzly at night it would look black, too. It's just extremely unlikely that we've never discovered something that lives so close to humans and is so large, snow leopards live in the middle of nowhere. We have no bodies, no prints, no evidence for these supposed cats.
4. There is no actual species called the black panther - it's just the name commonly used for melanistic leopards. That is, leopards with an excess of the dark pigment melanin, resulting in an almost entirely black coat (the markings will still show up against the background in certain lights). Leopards are native to Asia and Africa, not the US, but of course there is always the possibility of one escaping from a zoo or private owner. In the UK, where I live, there are numerous sightings of large black cats which are believed to be the descendants of pets released in the 1970s, after a new law meant you had to have a licence to keep them. This would explain the frequency of black individuals - humans breed curiosities like melanistic animals far more often than they would occur naturally. Some people also refer to melanistic jaguars as panthers. Jaguars are native to South and Central America, but recent evidence suggests they are moving north and may be recolonising the US - a couple have been caught on camera-traps in the extreme southern US. Given that normally-coloured animals are far more common than melanistic ones, the likelihood is that a jaguar seen in the US would be normally coloured rather than black, but of course that doesn't mean it's impossible for a black jaguar to turn up in the US. Melanism can occur in any species, so a black puma (also called the cougar, mountain lion, etc.) is not out of the question, and this species is found in large areas of the US. However, black pumas are almost unheard of - if you saw one, you are very lucky. All three of these animals are larger than a dog such as a Boxer, though of course the one your cousin caught could have been a juvenile. A leopard can weigh up to 200lb, a jaguar up to 350lb (though that is exceptional), and a puma up to 230lb. They are also longer than a dog. I'm not doubting that you saw something, but are you absolutely sure that it wasn't a dog, wolf, bear or something else? The mind can play tricks, especially in the dark. Was it definitely feline, and not a smaller cat like a bobcat? (The tail should be a clue - bobcats have short, 'bobbed' tails, whereas leopards, jaguars and pumas all have long tails). And was it definitely black, rather than appearing black due to being in silhouette or covered in mud?
5. There are two species of "big cats" native to the US. The cougar, and the jaguar. The jaguar can be melanistic, but has only been seen in the southwest in very small numbers. The cougar doesn't have a history of being melanistic, but a rare unrecorded trait is possible. People have been seeing black "panthers" all over the US and Canada for years. Many scientists think that the black panthers people are seeing are escaped melanistic leopards and jaguars. That has actually been seen happening in England and Australia. Back to the cougar, a lot of people say they aren't back in the Eastern US. But hey, for years many people said they weren't in the Midwest anymore either. But in the last 10 years. It has been scientifically proven that they are repopulating this area. I believe the same is happening to the East. But cougars with the trait of melanism? I don't know, but there have been lots of possible sightings.