Kind of surprised our annual Black Panther type topic has not surfaced. It actually doesn't feel like hunting season is right around the corner without it!

Come on guys, you know those two shiny eyes in your game camera capture is a painter but you just don't want to talk about it.

hum....who says there aren't any black panthers.....

Think most have figured out by now that them thar screams heard way back down in the hollows on them cool crisp nights is from a who huntsolo wondering about the woods....

The pictures posted are jaquars. Never heard anyone say there were not black jaguars.

So can take shoot'em?

No, jaguars are protected, even in Texas even though they supposedly don't live in Texas.

Look up black panther on Wikipedia. Seems they are a myth in the U.S.

Jaguars native range includes Texas, where they historically have lived, though it's been decades since the last confirmed animal. Hence, there is no current population, though jaguar sightings have been confirmed in New Mexico recently.

There is no melanistic cougar, a large cat we know exists in Texas.

The incidence of melanistic jaguars is like 1 in every 10,000 animals. So given that there MIGHT be 1 wild jaguar crossing into Texas every few years (none have been confirmed the last I checked), people factually are not seeing "black panthers" in the woods. Yes, I know your dad/uncle/best friend/brother is an honest person that wouldn't lie and swears they're all over the place, but they're wrong.

Bait set.

No. Black Panthers are not a myth, and I can prove it.

Look here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPwGu0vabMM

Ha!

The fact that you haven't seen one just shows how stealthy they are. A friend of my uncle's neighbor once had to chase one out of his blind. Anyone that goes wandering around in the dark without a flashlight is just begging to be attacked. If you're quiet you can hear them breathing just about the time you start falling asleep. I hear they're on you before you have time to scream.

Now it's feeling like hunting season!

Big cats are sneaky and stealthy. A guide my dads friend knows up in Idaho has been hunting mountain lions with dogs for 40 years. Without those dogs he has never seen one.

Awesome!

Most of the weekend warriors that see these type of things haven't had a chance to sit in their blinds this year and let their imaginations run away with them yet.

High fence or low fence black panther?

Here is the evidence of what a black panther can do. If you look close, you can almost see the teeth marks. One minute you're walking in the woods, the next minute you're panther dinner.

I did not know that teeth marks were evidence of the color of panther. How do they differ from the normal tawny-colored panthers?

sisters, aunts, half brothers, cousins, dog...

Here we go...

here's one in Lufkin.

That was a normal tan colored mountain lion they was dyed black by a local taxidermist. It was done since the Lufkin High School mascot is a "panther"

Tis why when i'm way back down in the hollers after dark thirty... Been known ta pic me up two sticks & bang on de trees whilst whoopen & a hollern as i makes me way back to me truck... Some say its a panther, others a squash... It be safe ta hunts the OSBWMA this years... But if ya's hear screamen & hollern & stump knocken... Send me a pm, i gots contact info with Mountain Monster Hunters ... Sent em a pic of that thar huge bed & poop found, just before it stopped up me they be looken into it.... Be safe out thar...