Years ago north of the calcasieu on west side of river in Hineston a friend and I seen a cougar we were walking on a pipeline. Same story LDWF doesn't care or beleive. I've seen 3 in Allen parish in the last 5 years.

they wont care until someone gets hurt.

I've seen some over the past couple years on my grandma's property in DeSoto Parish in Mansfield. There's also a black cougar that I've seen a couple times. They got to my grandma's chicken and goats a few times.

I saw a big black cougar (panther) near our camp on the calcasieu river just west of Kinder in Allen parish in the early 1980's.
broad daylight at 20 yds. It jumped out of a tree and ran and jumped a gulley. Truly amazing and beautiful animal. Saw it a second time but just a glimpse. Tracks were all around for yrs.
Still have experts and many say they don't exist.
Been in the woods my entire life and I know what I saw.

funny how the are endangered and protected, but the only time i saw that one was killed in La. it was shot by WLF agent
WTH?

I'm gonna get crucified for this but here goes anyway. How do people see black panthers when it has been proven time and time again that they do not exist in this state??
With all the black cougars that people claim to have seen, there should be one hiding behind every other tree.

poppincork - I don't doubt that cougars are seen. I don't understand how so many people see black ones when they do not exist. I also don't get how so many people claim to see them. Everybody and their brother has seen black panthers. If there were as many of them as people have claimed to have seen, there'd be hundreds of them around.

I saw a cat one morning last deer season. I was on west end of plot due to souteast wind sitting in one of my weatherprrof boxes.
I saw movement. Was so dark still i could ahrdly see. Sun was just before shooting time. 40 minutes to sunrise maybe on a clear morning. I put binoculars and then scope on the movement. Black Cat!!!-- I thought I was losing my feeble old 60 yr old mind. After a few minutes of watching it, I discovered it was a very large bobcat and I was seeing it from the shadow side and he looked black because of low light and i was viewing it from the shady side. I think lowlight conditions--angle of sun and shade all combine make people think they see black cats. I never ever saw a black bobcat but in these conditions he looked very black till i figured it out and sun got brighter and i could see spots through scope then. He was trying to catch rats or something in the clover plot. recall the black panther in times paicayune and wwl TV last summer?? was a large black house cat.

well JB,, You ain't gonna believe this one either bud...I was over at a friends place once, just poking around checking out his property.Went out past his hay barn in the back, and there it was. A big fat pure black one, it was facing away from me and the wind was right. I eased up behind a tree to watch it, as its attention was afixed onto something behind some brush out of my view. Its muscles would tense up, then relax as its tail would twitch ever so slightly, a fairly muscular animal I must admit. Not 20 seconds after I spotted it at 40 feet away, it made its' attack, it ran 10-12 feet, leapt up into the air on the other side of that brush pile.Just then as the cats' body was getting out of sight, a redbird appeared, as it was flushed up and just escaped the claws of that cat! After the missed attempt for some breakfast, I called the kitty over to me, picked it up and cuddled it for a minute or so and let it go about its way to hunt some more yard birds. So believe me, there are black cats aorund,, matter of fact, my buddy had a few black and white ones too........ LOL ! R

Allison - ya scared me! Thought they had gotten you too!!!!!

You wouldn't believe the number of cougars you can see at walmart. Yea, they may have a few miles on them but some of them are real head turners.

WalMart is loaded. Only problem is when I get home with the groceries and I have $100 worth of stuff nobody in my house eats, I kinda get in trouble...

All these sightings of cougar, panther, puma are whatever.....be them black, Albino, or regular.....Yet there is estimated that over 100,000 deer cameras are up at the peek of deer season scouting in the state of Louisiana that are in front of feeders and and all manners of attractant to deer, hogs, turkeys, coons, opossum. All this adds up to prime 'cougar' picture taking area seeing that the cougars main food sources should be attracted to these areas. Million upon millions of photos....not one credible WILD cougar sighting of any color. CASE CLOSED.

Let me clarify. There are real life black panthers and they do exist in the USA. They are called jaguars and leopards. Most live in zoos but some are individually owned. Some have escaped. Possibly seen by someone before dying.

Cougars do not come in a black version. If you have seen a big black cat you did not see a big black cougar.

Due to the numbers of big black cats reported it is certain that a large number are misidentifications. Either cougars appearing black or some other animal.

Cougars have been proven to be in Louisiana. They are migrating in occasionally from other states. The males travel away from where they are born and can travel half way across the USA looking for a female.

Unfortunately the females do not normally make such long excursions. All across the Eastern US the cougars that turn up are almost exclusively male cougars.

submitted by Mike Guerin

Louisiana Cougar

Here are some trail cam pics that were never confirmed by the La. Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries because the lease holder of the land didn't want the info getting out.

But I know a guy in the lease and he almost got hung when I posted these pictures. The president was pissed and wouldn't let him send me any other pictures. I agreed before hand to not divulge the location other than it being in Louisiana. I never have.

http://www.thejump.net/multimedia/cougar/LA-cougar.htm

Even if you doubt these pictures are really from Louisiana that doesn't change the fact that a few cougars have been confirmed in Louisiana.

There is likely not yet a breeding population in our state.

If the people of this state wanted cougars we could once again have them back. All it would take would be for the LDWF to get pushed into bring Florida panthers home to Louisiana.

They need to establish a second population and if any place requested cougars from Florida it would surely happen.

It's not that the wardens or Fish and game personnel don't care, it's just that by experience they know that some folks just lie. Of course some folks may have indeed seen a cougar but without solid proof the report will go nowhere. I can't really blame them. I mean look at all of the reports of people saying that they have seen black panthers. There has never been one officially recorded as road kill. No one has shot one or delivered one to the media or to Fish and game. I am actually embarrased for those people who report black panthers. It is sad to think that they actually think that other people will believe them. They are delusional. If anyone says to me that they have seen one I say 'prove it'. They never will be proof because the black panther is pure fiction. Mountain lions in Louisiana and Texas? Yes, I believe there are a few. Breeding populations? I can't say. But last night I dreamed about a purple big foot discovery. That makes about as much sense as a black panther. Best wishes folks and just smile and shake your head whenever 'Bubba' says he saw a black panther.

RS

A guy killed one in Desoto parish a few years ago that was stalking him. After the investigation, he was justified in killing it. It is currently mounted and displayed in the Wildlife and Fisheries main office in Baton Rouge. As far as black panthers, I have have never seen one. I've seen 9 panthers in my years of being outdoors. All here in Louisiana! All of them were brown. Several I watched for quite a few minutes. I believe the Wildlife and Fisheries are finally coming around due to all the game camera's bring us proof. I just hope nobody is stupid enough to kill one. I would hate to have to pay that fine! Not to mention it is a beautiful animal.

Both Dad and I have seen black panthers regardless of what others say. The WLF agent that shot one should be jailed. If it had been anyone else, they would have been jailed or at least fined severely and temporarily lost their license.

My dad is a furrier (yes, one of the last) so he has dealt in more nutria, muskrat, mink, beaver, and bobcats than you have ever seen and we know what they look like vs a panther.

I have seen a bobcat in the woods while hunting deer in Rapides parish but there was no comparison with the panther. The panther I saw was sitting 10 feet in front of the door of our camp in the marsh of Iberia Parish and did not move for at least 5 minutes so I had plenty of time to analyze him before I went back inside to avoid becoming his lunch. Dad has also seen panthers twice crossing the road near Big Woods in Vermilion Parish. There are stories about them in all the folklore books here as well. No doubt there are very few out there, possibly just passing through as others have said, but they are out there.

I have seen 2 big cats while deer hunting, probably the same one..I'm in winnfield

Gotta make a comment here. I spent over thirty years working closely with big cats, all species on a daily basis. There is no doubt in my mind that there are cougars in Louisiana. Cougars yes, black leopards or jaguars, extemely unlikely. Is it possible there are released or escaped black big cats out there? Yes. Anything is possible. Just extremely unlikely. Cougars have been documented in La. LWF has acknowledged this. No one, NO ONE has documented any proof of a black leopard or jaguar in this state. I have a close friend who has worked with all of the big cat species on a daily basis for over forty years. This is a man who knows cougars at least as well as I do. He spotted a cougar while deer hunting his property in the late afternoon. His most notable comment to me was, had he not concentrated on the color of the animal in the shadows and near darkness, he would have sworn it was black instead of brown. Point being, it's very easy to mistake what you see, even if you know what you're looking at.

I hunt in Northern Louisiana and I was asked not to say where exactly.But I had a picture of a rather large cat with a long tail this past hunting season.

i was told many years ago by wildlife and fisheries that cougar/panther/mountain lion whatever you may call it, does not exist in the state of louisiana, i was told on a few different occasions ranging back to atleast 6 to 8 years ago, that they simply do not exist in the state. when we took a friend to his hunters safety class last year, i was talking with the ldwf biologist that was there, he told me that the cats dont exist here, that he gets a call about once a week but never any proof of one. at the beginning of the year i went to lwdf office in baton rouge to get my boat registration, i walked into the office lobby, and there staring me in the face in their display care was this. i dont know how clearly you can read the plaque on it, but it says 'Louisiana Cougar November 30, 2008'

the biologist also told us of the program they have going where they trap and relocate louisiana black bears, i wouldnt put it past them to trap and relocate panthers aswell, i cant say whether they are or not, but just my speculations.

i wont say where exactly ive seen the cats because i dont want to scare anyone, but ive seen one at the edge of an open field in one location, and tracks bigger than a grown mans hand with no claw impressions like a dogs paw would make in another location, but both were in the northern part of east baton rouge parish.


i hate to sound cliche, but i know what i saw, and what i saw wasnt a house cat

I BELIEVE THAT I SAW A BIG BLACK CAT WEIGHTING ABOUT 80 LBS A FEW YEARS AGO. PEOPLE THAT I HUNT WITH SAW A COUPLE TIMES A TAN CAN WHICH IS TYPICAL. AFTER THINKING ABOUT IT I NOW BELIVE THAT IT MAY HAVE BEEN THE WAY THE SUN WAS REFLECTING OFF THE CAT. IT WAS A HEAVY DEW MORNING AND THE DEW MAY HAVE CAUSED IT TO LOOK DARKER THAN USUAL.

1. The cougar in the display case was a CAPTIVE reared cougar. It was in a tree near Shreveport and it was shot because everyone was terrified. Unlike what one of the above posters said, it was NOT stalking a hunter, it was ina residential neighborhood. One of the LDWF biologists is an amateur taxidermist and wanted it mounted so he did, it is now in the display case. After DNA analysis came back, the cougar was found to be NOT WILD

2. There have been cougars documented in Louisiana, and some very recent

3. Whether or not these were actually born here or they are passing thru is not known, can't tell from just a picture on a game camera

4. There is NO, ZERO, NONE, documented evidence of a black cougar, mountain lion, or puma

5. A panther is a generic name for a large cat, Florida panthers are an endangered species in Florida, they are a subspecies of mountain lion also known as a cougar, or a puma. All these names are synonymous meaning they are the same thing.

6. Just from the cougar that was killed in 2008 the 2 people that posted on it have their facts messed up. Imagine if in 3 years the stories change this much, how much they change over a course of 10 or 15 or 30 years. Before long, you guys will be believing stories of Godzilla! Not real hard to figure out how the Honey Island Swamp Monster came about and why so many people watch that Sasquatch hunting show.

Listen to this sound, sounds like 'a woman screaming' which is what I always hear what a cougar sounds like! These are barn owls, which are not uncommon and I would bet that 90% of the 'women screaming' in the woods could be attributed to these extremely dangerous maneaters!


http://www.barnowl.co.uk/editable/sounds/barn1.wav

Good post Slickhead. Barred Owls 'in love' and young barred owls can also make a scream that'll raise the hair on the back of your neck. They've scared the crap outta me more than once in the pre-dawn hours. Agreed, 90% are owls but, having worked with them, I can tell you a cougar can make a scream that sounds very much like a woman or kid screaming.

I was at my honey hole at the beginning of last bow season and had heard of a cougar being spotted in the area. All of a sudden, I heard the loudest women's scream I have ever heard. I got down and went to look and sure enough, there sat the homliest woman I ever saw. He He He !!
Seriously, you don't have to see to believe. There here. Probably always have been.

I SAW WHAT I THOUGHT WAS BLACK COUGER A FEW YEARS AGO WHILE IN MY DEER STAND. MY FELLOW HUNTERS WERE SEEING A TAN ONE IN THE AREA. WE TALKED ABOUT IT FOR AWHILE AND DETEMINED IT WAS THE SAME CAT BUT DO TO THE HEAVY DEW MORNING AND THE SUN ON IT, IT MAY ONLY HAVE SEEMED BLACK. I WISH I WOULD HAVE HAD A CAMERA.

ldwf, just government again!!!

With all the deer study done by the states wildlife biologists, including Dave Moreland when he was the deer study leader, (still is as far as I'm concerned) with all the extensive research of when the exact timeing of fawning is gonna be and timeing of the rut is gonna take place and the time spent putting deer population numbers together, do you honestly believe the state doesn't or hasn't known anything about panthers or cougars being in the state. They have known it for years. An official word from them would spread like wild fire and maybe have every Tom, Dick and Harry on the prowl for one or scared to death to go into the woods.