Eastern Cougars aka Panthers.

[redneck_billcollector]

Here is an interesting article from Michigan about Cougar confirmations up there. Interestingly enough, people in GA "see" more panthers than just about anywhere else outside of their established range. Pay attention to the evidence they have, and plus I would point out most of the trail-cam photos were from State owned trail-cams of which I have seen a couple show up on social media claiming to be from GA, though they are not. With half the people in GA swearing they have either seen them or someone they trust has seen them, have you ever wondered why we don't have the same evidence? https://www.clickondetroit.com/news...irmed-cougar-sighting-in-michigan-since-2019/

 

[Nicodemus]

Interesting. Thanks for the input, Jay.

 

[pjciii]

I enjoyed reading the article but I loved the pictures. None of those cats looked like they were starving.

 

[NCHillbilly]

Here is an interesting article from Michigan about Cougar confirmations up there. Interestingly enough, people in GA "see" more panthers than just about anywhere else outside of their established range. Pay attention to the evidence they have, and plus I would point out most of the trail-cam photos were from State owned trail-cams of which I have seen a couple show up on social media claiming to be from GA, though they are not. With half the people in GA swearing they have either seen them or someone they trust has seen them, have you ever wondered why we don't have the same evidence? https://www.clickondetroit.com/news...irmed-cougar-sighting-in-michigan-since-2019/

Facetious answer:
Because the ones up there in MI are the abnormally colored tan panthers. The ones in GA are the normal black phase, and they don't show up on trailcam pics.

Serious answer:
Because real panthers show up in photos much better than imaginary ones. MI is rebuilding a resident population of panthers that have moved in from surrounding areas, while GA doesn't have a population of panthers, aside from an occasional young male going walkabout through the state

 

[killerv]

I'm not saying it was a panther, I was 15yo bow hunting, had a large blackish cat in the 75lb range walk across my foodplot, and lay down next to a tree 20 yards in front of me, it stayed their until it got dark. I laid eyes on this thing for 20-30 minutes. My dad was hunting a couple hundred yards behind me. I called to him several times, I didn't have a gun, just a bow, and I knew he'd be walking my way shortly.

Rabbit hunting friend of mine watched his beagles chase one.

 

[redneck_billcollector]

I'm not saying it was a panther, I was 15yo bow hunting, had a large blackish cat in the 75lb range walk across my foodplot, and lay down next to a tree 20 yards in front of me, it stayed their until it got dark. I laid eyes on this thing for 20-30 minutes. My dad was hunting a couple hundred yards behind me. I called to him several times, I didn't have a gun, just a bow, and I knew he'd be walking my way shortly.

Rabbit hunting friend of mine watched his beagles chase one.

The problem with "black panthers" is that there has never, not even once, been a confirmed melanistic phase cougar/mountain lion/puma/panther killed, captured or photographed in either North or South America which is the range of what we call panthers. Melanistic Jaguars, yeah, but our cat, nope.

You more than likely saw a Bartram's Wolf, or what some will call a Black Coyoted, I have trapped them close to that size.

 

[earlthegoat2]

I was a teenager hunting in MI throughout the 90s and 2000s. Trail cams were in their infancy and there were still many many reports of cougar sightings back then.

With little social media and lack of photographic evidence it was usually not taken too seriously. Of course, more recently there is now an abundance of proof.

I can say that even with a significant number of larger wild cats, it should not affect the deer population. There are many deer in MI and there is abundant agriculture to support them even through predation. It probably will affect the rabbit population though.

The 2017 sighting in the article was in Clinton county which is the county east of where I still hunt to this day…within a few hundred yards of the county line. There have been quite a few reports of sightings in Ionia county but no evidence. I have family who work for state LE who live in Clinton county who often hear through the grapevine of cougar sightings but who have also seen the photos that were apparently taken in Clinton county but were unpublished.

They are definitely around.

As to all the talk in GA about them, I can’t say. I am waiting for one to show up on my property though I don’t have any cameras out since my last one were destroyed by fire last year.

 

[killerv]

The problem with "black panthers" is that there has never, not even once, been a confirmed melanistic phase cougar/mountain lion/puma/panther killed, captured or photographed in either North or South America which is the range of what we call panthers. Melanistic Jaguars, yeah, but our cat, nope.

You more than likely saw a Bartram's Wolf, or what some will call a Black Coyoted, I have trapped them close to that size.

Maybe, but it didn't look dog like

 

[redneck_billcollector]

I was a teenager hunting in MI throughout the 90s and 2000s. Trail cams were in their infancy and there were still many many reports of cougar sightings back then.

With little social media and lack of photographic evidence it was usually not taken too seriously. Of course, more recently there is now an abundance of proof.

I can say that even with a significant number of larger wild cats, it should not affect the deer population. There are many deer in MI and there is abundant agriculture to support them even through predation. It probably will affect the rabbit population though.

The 2017 sighting in the article was in Clinton county which is the county east of where I still hunt to this day…within a few hundred yards of the county line. There have been quite a few reports of sightings in Ionia county but no evidence. I have family who work for state LE who live in Clinton county who often hear through the grapevine of cougar sightings but who have also seen the photos that were apparently taken in Clinton county but were unpublished.

They are definitely around.

As to all the talk in GA about them, I can’t say. I am waiting for one to show up on my property though I don’t have any cameras out since my last one were destroyed by fire last year.

There is a rather healthy population west of Michigan which is where the young males are dispersing from. There won't be a sustainable population until some females disperse. Females tend to not disperse like males, they get run off, many times by their father, or other more mature or "tougher" males. The females require about half the territory as a male, and the pressure to move on, just doesn't exist that bad for females. GA got one young male out of Florida, his DNA told them exactly who his parents were, unfortunately some idiot hunter killed him. There are now two females across the Caloosahatchee in SWFla, so in a couple of decades (or hopefully sooner) we should start seeing many more actual panthers in GA.