A MonsterQuest Look at "Lions in the Suburbs"

The United States has had numerous sighting of big black cats in the wild. Black Cats from the larger cat species are referred to as black panthers. Eyewitnesses have reported seeing a large black panther that is similar to a mountain lion, about six feet long, and weighing about 250 pounds. While the western United States is the home of many mountain lions, this species does not produce black panthers. MonsterQuest takes a look at what is behind the hundreds of black panther sightings in the United States.

The History

According to biologist Emil McCain from the Borderland Jaguar Detection Project, the United States is home to between 10,000 and 30,000 mountain lions. Encounters between humans and mountain lions have increased as human development continues to encroach on traditional mountain lion territory. Young male mountain lions that are not used to their natural prey find humans that are jogging or riding bicycles to be very enticing prey.

According to Nels Rodefeld of the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, 10% to 20% of all calls reporting mountain lions refer to a black panther yet they have never found one. Feline geneticist Dr. Stephen O'Brien says that black mountain lions do not exist. While it is possible for one to be created through the mutation of one or two genes. This would only occur once every 100 generations. Such odds would make it highly unlikely that one would ever be seen much less hundreds of sightings.

The Director of Big Cat Rescue, Scott Lope, says that it is possible that some of the sightings could be a leopard. Some irresponsible owners of these wild animals may release them when they can no longer take care of them. Leopards are sometimes black with the characteristic darker spots. Leopards are not native to the Americas so it is unlikely that a few escaped specimens could account for all of the sightings.

One interesting possible explanation for the sightings is that jaguars have once again taken up residence in the United States. Biologist Emil McCain and Jack Childs of the Borderland Jaguar Detection Project explain that jaguars were found in the United States up until the 1890s. Jaguars are about twice the size of mountain lions and are the third largest big cat, with only lions and tigers being larger. Unlike mountain lions they can be black with 6% of their population in the Amazon basin being black panthers. They were found in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico and California until they were wiped out by farmers protecting livestock. While no black jaguars were ever found in the United States, McCain and Childs have proven that Jaguars are back. Starting in 1996, the Borderland Jaguar Detection Project has been following the possible migration of Jaguars from Mexico. They have been able to capture conclusive footage from camera traps of three distinct jaguars in Arizona. Two have been identified as male with the third unknown so they are not able to say that there is a breeding population in the United States.

Professor Walter Stephens of John Hopkins University believes that large black cat sightings could be tied to long held traditions. Black cats show up in literature as being associated with demons or the devil as far back as the thirteenth century. Cats are nocturnal creatures that roam around in the darkness and this darkness strikes humans as being black.

In the spring of 2006, Eric Atkison had several goats disappear from his farm in Choctaw, Oklahoma. He said that some of his neighbors lost dogs at the same time. At first, he thought that wild dogs or coyotes were responsible but that changed when he spotted a black panther near his house in March. Later that spring, a 250 pound llama was killed on his farm by what he believes to be the black panther. Nearby rancher, Dale Smith, has had 10 calves killed and dragged of by some animal.

Many black panther sightings occurred in the daylight and some of the witnesses took photos. In 1999, David Johnson of Hugo, Minnesota reports seeing a black panther in a pasture. He took 13 pictures of the cat which he believes to be as long as a German Shepherd dog.

Jon Lutz of the Eastern Puma Research Center has notated numerous black panther sightings throughout the eastern United States. He believes that there is definitely a population of black felines roaming around like the one Pastor George Loar of Frostburg Maryland recorded. On 14 December 1995, Pastor Loar saw a large black cat near his house. He grabbed his camcorder and was able to capture footage of the creature. Unfortunately the video is not clear enough to identify the size or species of the cat.

Another piece of video evidence was captured by Jason Bowers in Franklin, West Virginia. Bowers saw what he thought was a bear walking through a field near his house. He then realized that the creature was some sort of large feline. He took a video of the creature that may prove key in the investigation as it also had trees in the footage that provide a good size reference.

In 2006, a number of residents of Palestine, Texas saw the carcass of a large black cat near a road. Pattie Gray was driving on the road with her husband when she stopped to look at the carcass. She described it as being large with a body of about three feet long. Awhile later, Patrick Walsh heard about the carcass from other locals and wanted to see it for himself. When he arrived at the spot, the carcass appeared to have decayed but he was able to collect vertebrae and rib bones from the site.

The Plan

Dale Smith and Eric Atkison will work together to place camera traps around the areas of their farms. These camera traps are motion activated and should find predators in the area. They will leave the camera traps out for several days and then the photos will be identified

The MonsterQuest team will analyze the existing evidence of the black panther sightings. The Bowers video and the Johnson photos will be sent to wildlife experts for species identification. The Bowers video was the only one that had some objects in the picture for size reference, so it will be sent to forensic video analyst Peter Schmitz for size analysis..

The Palestine Cat remains will also be tested. The samples collected by Patrick Walsh will be sent out to New York University for testing. Results can be compared with known species.

The Results

After several days Smith and Atkison return to gather the photos. No predators are found on any of the film from the camera traps. Smith is able to find some bones from one of the missing calves under a tree. It is unknown what type of animal would have dragged the carcass so far.

David Johnson had taken 13 photos of what he believed to be a black panther. The experts however disagree with his assessment. Director of Big Cat Rescue Scott Lope and biologist Heidi Bailey agree that the creature in the photo is a large domestic cat.

The wildlife experts examine the Bowers video and come to differing conclusions. Scientific Research Director for the Cougar Network, Dr. Clay Nielson, believes that the creature in the film is a large domestic cat. Feline geneticist Dr. Stephen O'Brien disagrees. He believes that the creature is too big to be a domestic cat and is most like a released leopard, a jaguar, or a less likely mountain lion mutation.

The size estimates of the cat in the Bowers video is completed by forensic video analyst Peter Schmitz. He has the MonsterQuest team take on site size measurements of the known objects in the video. They also shoot video of Bowers in the same location using the same camera to get a comparison video. Schmitz is able to obtain the length of the cat in the film by utilizing the specifications of the camera, measurements of known object and the computer alignment of bark patterns in trees from the two videos. Schmitz says the creature's body, not including the tail, is 25" long. This would be on the large size for a domestic cat but not out of the realm of possibility.

The remains of the Palestine cat were sent to Professor Todd Disotell of New York University for DNA testing. The testing showed that the DNA did not belong to a cat at all. According to Disotell, the DNA matched up with a domestic dog or a wolf.

The MonsterQuest team was unable to find any good evidence for black panthers in the United States. Sightings may increase as humans continue to encroach on historical cat hunting grounds. The future could be made more fascinating by the reintroduction of jaguars to the wildlife of the United States. Black panther sighting may increase in the years to come.