Two sightings of black panther locks down Oconee County school

[Twenty five ought six]

Hey, it's in the newspaper so it must be true.

Administrators at Colham Ferry Elementary School delayed student recess this morning based on two sightings of a black panther prowling the area between the school and adjacent Bell’s Lake.
Someone cutting brush first spotted the purported cougar — also known as a mountain lion — on Thursday afternoon, and a bus driver for the Oconee County School System reported seeing it again this morning, said Deborah Epps, administrative assistant to the school superintendent.
There also were reports of small animals missing in the area, including a calf, Epps said.
“It has been reported to Animal Control, but we have not heard back from them,” she said in an e-mail to the school principal, Jackie Carson.
Though she expressed skepticism that a wild animal would approach boisterous children, Epps suggested in the e-mail that adults escort students who have to leave the building to get to trailer classrooms.
Principal Jackie Carson said students were allowed to go out for recess with teachers monitoring them, and teachers were asked to escort children from the school to trailer classrooms outside.
Both sightings were reported to the school district’s transportation department, Epps said. The transportation director, Duane VanderKooi, was not immediately available.
Though cougar sightings are reported occasionally (one was seen in 1976 in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in North Carolina), wildlife experts say wild cougars no longer live in Georgia or most of the Southeast.
A small remnant population lives in the Florida Everglades, and the animal also lives in the western United States, generally west of the Rocky Mountains.
Originally published in the Athens Banner-Herald on Friday, February 20, 2009

 

[parrothead127]

Probably someone's pet who got out. Similar to the one near Lagrange during deer season. Would be kind of neat (maybe scary) to have those big cats roaming the woods again.

 

[Craig Knight]

they must have got blown in by the storm last week When they are shot, or some sort of visual proof is shown then I might believe it, till then I say bull.

 

[mikee]

cougar/panther

The wildlife rangers all say this. I have heard them in Arkansas and have seen tracks SE Kansas. They tell you that as to not scare folks.