Might be confirmed panthers in Ga. soon.

[Poppy D]

Okay I will jump into this, I myself have seen 2, 1 just past the bridge going away from the Coopers creek camp ground, My Dad and I were headed to work it was day light we crossed the bridge and as I started up the hill the Black cat came of the hill to the left and jump into the road and crossed within 20 feet of the truck, crossed and went to the edge of the woods, then turned and easied on up into the woods. The cat looked like it would easily go 125 lbs. Beautiful animal.
2nd one was in Jefferson County, quick glimpse crossed in front of me and a uncle, on our hunting club.
I know what I saw. I have been a church going person all my life.

 

[mattl5860]

Back about '90 I was in a club near Thompson Ga. Deer season was in. The DNR came in to camp after dark and told us not to go back in the woods til we heard back from them. They had a pack of hounds in a dog box with them. They left and soon we could hear the hounds running and then baying. They came back 'bout midnight, didn't let us see it but they said they had darted a radio collared cat that had been released in mid FL 4 days earlier. They said it had never stopped traveling after being released.

 

[fishinbub]

I can tell you first hand there are plenty of places for them to hide out and plenty of food. Wouldn't surprise me one bit to hear that they are hear.

 

[Throwback]

Black panthers are everywhere.
Black panthers coming out of my hair.
Black panthers are after me.
Why won't the DNR believe?

Never seen an otter, or a bobcat,
black coyote or feral cat.
But black panthers I've seen two or three,
on the ground and in a tree.

I saw one just the other day,
in a barn sleeping on the hay,
it took off before I could get a pic,
man I tell you them things are slick.

Last night I heard a woman scream,
in the yard or so it seemed,
went and looked and didn't see a thing,
It was a panther--not just my drunk neighbor Irene.

Black panthers are everywhere.
Black panters coming out of my hair.
Black panthers are after me.
Why won't the DNR believe?

 

[shakey gizzard]

Black panthers are everywhere.
Black panthers coming out of my hair.
Black panthers are after me.
Why won't the DNR believe?

Never seen an otter, or a bobcat,
black coyote or feral cat.
But black panthers I've seen two or three,
on the ground and in a tree.

I saw one just the other day,
in a barn sleeping on the hay,
it took off before I could get a pic,
man I tell you them things are slick.

Last night I heard a woman scream,
in the yard or so it seemed,
went and looked and didn't see a thing,
It was a panther--not just my drunk neighbor Irene.

Black panthers are everywhere.
Black panters coming out of my hair.
Black panthers are after me.
Why won't the DNR believe?

Has'nt DNR already darted a few?

 

[Throwback]

Has'nt DNR already darted a few?

no


T

 

[emtguy]

read this months GON, great article in there....i have seen one panther on our farm years ago and by the way there are no black panthers...they are dark brown and may look black from a distance but up close they are all brown/tan color.

 

[steve woodall]

The only cougar im interested in.

 

[emtguy]

Okay I will jump into this, I myself have seen 2, 1 just past the bridge going away from the Coopers creek camp ground, My Dad and I were headed to work it was day light we crossed the bridge and as I started up the hill the Black cat came of the hill to the left and jump into the road and crossed within 20 feet of the truck, crossed and went to the edge of the woods, then turned and easied on up into the woods. The cat looked like it would easily go 125 lbs. Beautiful animal.
2nd one was in Jefferson County, quick glimpse crossed in front of me and a uncle, on our hunting club.
I know what I saw. I have been a church going person all my life.

What does going to church have to do with anything? Satan/lucifer/devil whatever he's called by can quote scripture, he did it with jesus 3 times and with eve once( even though he added one word...the word added was " not")
Heck he even went to a meeting in heaven and God ask him in lay terms " where have you been, watcha been up to lately?"
So going to church dont mean a thing cause the devil goes to!

I do believe you though, im just givin you greif and its great you are a christian man...i go every sunday to.Need alot more men to get involved with church. ever notice how many women are in the churchs and how many men are in the prisons? LOL
Really i do know what you were trying to convey in your post, im JuST MESSING WITH YOU

 

[Bowyer29]

The only cougar im interested in.

That's what I'm talkin about!!!!!

 

[Tim1980]

I know plenty of old timers that used to hunt cougars up in northern alabama. Real rocky up in those mountains. They raised BMC mixed with bulldogs. I don't know how many they found, but enough to keep hunting.

 

[smalljawbasser]

on this thread alone there are 20 "people" (some are cousin's buddies or whatever) who have seen cougars, and 4 of them were black panthers.

ya'll need to open a season on them. especially the black ones, you've got 400% more than any other place in the history of the USA...

 

[HALOJmpr]

They usually say they "believe" the panthers are in the everglades. Simple fact is that I've never seen one in GA. But I hunt and live just south of the GA line and I and others have seen them in N FL in just the last couple of years. I'm willing to bet money the panthers don't know where the state line is if they are hungry.

 

[Fat Daddy]

I've never seen one but my wife and a neighbor have both seen one in Berrien County.
I would guess that a dark brown or even a tawny brown cat would look black in a low light situation.

Just watched a documentary on large bears in the north where a polar bear was killed in Alaska(maybe northern Canada). This was supposedly hundreds of miles south from their normal territory.
Why's it so far fetched that a few cats can come up from Fla?
They don't know the difference between a GA swamp and a Fla swamp. With all the development of once forested land who's to say where a native species will decide the grass looks greener.

Like I say, I've never seen one but I wouldn't be that suprised if I did.

 

[Son]

Early 1950's, saw my one and only Florida panther. I was a just a kid and was with my Dads hunting party. We were working our way into the Big Cypress and saw it running along the edge of a cypress strand. Every one of em said, it was a very rare sighting, even back then. In the 1960, had two run past me in palmettos in Central Florida. Richloam area. I didn't see em, but a friend at the truck saw both cross the road, and showed me the tracks. When I heard em running thru the palmettos, I thought it was a couple hogs. Havn't had a panther encounter since.

 

[Supercracker]

I've seen two. One in a WMA near Okeechobee and what I am absolutely convinced was one crossing the road here in Jacksonville. Everyone I spoke to insisted it had to have been a bobcat. But I've never seen a bobcat that would stretch all the way across a lane in a road and with a long tail.

A couple/three years before that I was shown a trail cam pic of a Panther from about a mile away. But it was before I knew there weren't supposed to be cats here so while I thought it was interesting I didn't get too overly excited. The guy who had it and his trailer are gone now. So....

 

[2011GADawg]

few years ago I was hunting in shellman, GA and i shot a good sized hog when me and my buddy went looking for it we heard that awful screaming noise and it scared the crap out of us we were back at the camp in a lot less time than it would have normally taken us later that night when my buddies dad got back he said he saw a panther getting after my wounded hog while he was in his climber across the bottom from my stand

 

[redneck_billcollector]

Here is a link from WALB-TV in Albany about a possible panther attack on a horse near Valdosta. http://www.walb.com/Global/story.asp?S=12939604
I reckon it is a young male, I give them a few more years before a female makes it on up into north Florida, once a few do, we will have them here for good. There was a female with cubs in Volusia County a few years back.

 

[redneck_billcollector]

I have been reading through the panther threads for fun this morning and one of the constants with folks who have seen plenty or heard plenty is that they stay in one small place, either in the woods behind their homes or on their hunting club. Panthers in good habitat have huge home ranges, it stands to reason, they will take down a deer a week, if they were confinded to a small home range, such as the woods behind the house, there would be NO other wildlife there, they would have all been turned into panther poop. In good habitat a male cougar, panther, mountain lion, etc... has a home range of over 100 square miles and a females range is slightly smaller. With all that being said, the Florida population has more than doubled in the past 15 or so years, young males have been forced to move, cougars, panthers, mountain lions or whatever you prefer to call them are very protective of their home range, and more young males are killed by older males than by any other way, and this is counting cars too in Florida (between 10 and 15 are killed a year by cars down there). There is no doubt that some young males are moving north and have even made it to Georgia, one has been killed here now, after extensive DNA work on the west point panther, there is now no doubt it came from the SWFla. population. We are not going to have a resident population though until there is sufficient pressure on the female population and they start to head this way.

Other than food abundance, the major reason a male will establish a home range is that there is a female or two in the neighborhood so the can make some baby panthers. Study after study has shown that young male panthers will roam far and wide and show up in some unexpected places, BUT they also show that they do not set up home ranges because they are not finding females and they head on back down south in the hopes of finding love, but they tend to end up killed by an older, stronger male panther. If a female shows up in north Florida or south Georgia, then we will start having home ranges here and panthers will once again be a regular part of our piney woods and river swamp ecosystems. My gut tells me it won't be too far off in the future, but just not now. The furthest north a female has been reported is in south Volusia County Fla. The Florida panther population is one of the most studied animal populations in the southeast and there is literally thousands of papers written about it and they just ain't got the females this far north yet, but maybe someday.

 

[northgatrapper]

how many bobcats do you see hit on the side of the road?