Songdoghunter
Twelve Pointer
This was in the most recent issue of the Pender Post from Pender County. I didn't know there was a Panther Project!
Eyewitnesses all say, ‘I know what I saw’
Authorities say no, but witnesses say otherwise.
By Jefferson Weaver
Post Staff Writer
Bill Hall said he expected people to say he was crazy.
Frankie Todd carries a pistol when she goes to her chicken coop at night.
Sandy Rooks will never forget what she saw, and she wants to know exactly what it was.
The Pender Post Panther Project has been gathering firsthand accounts of sightings of large wild cats for nearly a year. While Carolina Panthers, a subspecies of the Eastern Cougar, officially disappeared in the early 20th century, reports of large cats persist even today throughout the state.
Since the Panther Project began, nearly 85 reports of large tawny or black cats with long tails have been submitted to The Post and The News Reporter. The reports are almost evenly split between Pender and Columbus counties, with a large number of the responses being in the area around the Bladen County line near Canetuck, Kelly, Rowan and Currie.
Hall said he was driving to work in Jacksonville early one morning when a large black cat leapt across the road in front of his truck. He was in extreme northern Pender County, near the Onslow line. “It cleared the road and the right of way in about three leaps,” he said. “It wasn’t a dog or a bobcat.” Ronnie Young of the Currie area has seen cats on three occasions, and shot one years ago.
“I didn’t think about it until after I’d killed it,” he said, “and then I was worried I’d end up in jail.”
Young said he hid the animal’s body, and later told Victor French, a biologist with the Wildlife Resources Commission, about the kill. French asked Young to retrieve the skull, but when Young returned to the scene, he couldn’t find any remains of the animal.
“I know things don’t last long in the woods,” Young said, “but the scavengers must have worked hard.” The cat was black, Young said, and had a long tail. It was markedly larger than a bobcat, he said, covering the tailgate of his truck. Young shot the black, long-tailed cat about 10 miles from Colly Bridge on N.C. 53 near the Bladen-Pender line, where he saw a grown black cat twice this year. The cat he saw in July had a cub running alongside it. “I am not saying everybody that says they saw a cat saw a panther,” he said, “but I know I wasn’t seeing a coyote or a bobcat.”
Young has hunted and trapped all his life, and said he recently saw a full-grown black coyote near the same spot where he has seen the panther and its cub. “There wasn’t any question that what I saw was different,” he said. “You can tell the difference between the two.” Sandy Rooks said she saw something at the same location in spring of 2008. “I spotted a pair of large black cats with long tails crossing Highway 53 just east of the Colly Creek Bridge, less than a quarter of mile from my home,” she said. “They crossed between me and an approaching red pickup truck. The people in the truck saw the cats also because when I looked in my rear view mirror, the truck was backing up to get another look.”
Rooks said the cats were an amazing sight, something she won’t soon forget. “I just wish I could find out who the people were in the truck,” she said. “I’d love to know what they saw.” Colleen Olfenbuttel, furbearer biologist for the Wildlife Resources commission, says there has been no physical evidence of cougars or panthers discovered in North Carolina or the neighboring states. Florida Panthers have migrated to extreme southeastern Georgia and Alabama, but big cats haven’t been proven to exist in North Carolina for decades. “We have no documentation – verified photos, tracks, or scat – of wild cougars, panthers or mountain lions occurring in North Carolina,” Olfenbuttel said.
“When evidence has been presented, it has been proven to be domestic dog, deer, red fox with mange, coyote, bobcat, domestic cat, or another wildlife species. I have received phone calls in which the caller described a mountain lion perfectly, then sent me a picture of their evidence and it was a photo of another animal species or a dog track.” Frankie Todd and her family made plaster casts of tracks left by what they say was a big cat on July 21 of this year. Wildlife officials say they believe the cast made by the Todds, which was examined at the office of The Pender Post, came from a bear. Todd’s neighbor Wayne Barnhill says otherwise—he saw the cat make the tracks in the sandy road behind the Todd home.
“He had a long tail,” Barnhill said, “and looked over his shoulder as he walked down the road, like he was saying ‘Ain’t I beautiful?’ I ran for the house.” It wasn’t the first time Barnhill saw a big cat near his home off the Borough Road. He saw another one near an old cemetery while clearing the property a number of years ago, and also spotted one crossing a railroad bed while returning from hunting stand. Todd said she and her husband Jerry have seen the cat several times, usually while spotlighting deer with their grandchildren. They have seen both a tawny brown cat as well as a black feline.
“My husband saw something on the bank, and told the kids, ‘Look, there’s a bear,’ but then we saw the tail, and that wasn’t a bear.” The family had time to look at the cat through binoculars before it ran away. The tracks Todd cast July 21 are a short distance from her home and from Barnhill’s. She says she carries a pistol with her now when she goes to her chicken coop. “If my life is in danger,” she said, “or if my grandchildren are threatened, I’m not going to ask if it’s an endangered species.”
Olfenbuttel said the state receives numerous reports of big cats, but still has no solid evidence. “Once in awhile, I do think that a mountain lion sighting may have some credibility,” she said, “ but what I think is being seen is an escaped captive mountain lion. I once heard that there are almost as many mountain lions in captivity as there are in the wild.
Though illegal in North Carolina, you would be surprised at the number of people that have exotic pets.” Some big cats that were kept as pets were documented as being released (again, illegally) during the 1980s, when exotic pet laws were tightened. Reports of former pet cats running free came from across the state—including in Holly Shelter and Colly Bay, two places that are rife with reports of big cats. Ironically, one of the last documented Carolina Panthers killed by hunters occurred in the Onslow County portion of Holly Shelter in the 1920s. “The only confirmed sighting of a mountain lion in North Carolina for decades were two captive cougars that were killed back in the 1980’s,” Olfenbuttel said.
“These cougars were either illegally released or escaped from captivity. We were able to determine that they were captive because they had worn pads and tattoos in their mouth.” Olfenbuttel said it’s frustrating, but the lack of physical evidence points to anything except big cats. “Despite our extensive road network and the number of hounds in North Carolina, we have yet to have a roadkill mountain lion or one treed by dogs,” she said. “During the 1970’s, two different researchers did extensive searches for evidence of mountain lions in North Carolina and other southeastern states. They both found no evidence.” At the same time, a number of new or restored species have been tracked by the state, she said.
“The Wildlife Commission has successfully been able to track the occurrence and increase in distribution of several wildlife species over the past 50 years, including bears, coyotes, armadillos, nutria, striped skunk, feral hogs, wild turkey, alligators, groundhogs, otter, and fox squirrel, to name a few. But, since the late 1800’s, there is no documentation of mountain lions. “The closest population is the Florida panther, which has now been documented twice in southern Georgia over the past few years. Perhaps in ten years or so years, a Florida panther may make it to North Carolina.”
Todd said she doesn’t know where the cats in Currie, Colly, and Holly Shelter came from but she knows they are there. “I just wish somebody could get some hair, or something to prove it,” she said. “We aren’t crazy—we know what we’re seeing out here.”
–To report big cat sightings email JeffersonWeaver at jeffweaver@whiteville.com.
Eyewitnesses all say, ‘I know what I saw’
Authorities say no, but witnesses say otherwise.
By Jefferson Weaver
Post Staff Writer
Bill Hall said he expected people to say he was crazy.
Frankie Todd carries a pistol when she goes to her chicken coop at night.
Sandy Rooks will never forget what she saw, and she wants to know exactly what it was.
The Pender Post Panther Project has been gathering firsthand accounts of sightings of large wild cats for nearly a year. While Carolina Panthers, a subspecies of the Eastern Cougar, officially disappeared in the early 20th century, reports of large cats persist even today throughout the state.
Since the Panther Project began, nearly 85 reports of large tawny or black cats with long tails have been submitted to The Post and The News Reporter. The reports are almost evenly split between Pender and Columbus counties, with a large number of the responses being in the area around the Bladen County line near Canetuck, Kelly, Rowan and Currie.
Hall said he was driving to work in Jacksonville early one morning when a large black cat leapt across the road in front of his truck. He was in extreme northern Pender County, near the Onslow line. “It cleared the road and the right of way in about three leaps,” he said. “It wasn’t a dog or a bobcat.” Ronnie Young of the Currie area has seen cats on three occasions, and shot one years ago.
“I didn’t think about it until after I’d killed it,” he said, “and then I was worried I’d end up in jail.”
Young said he hid the animal’s body, and later told Victor French, a biologist with the Wildlife Resources Commission, about the kill. French asked Young to retrieve the skull, but when Young returned to the scene, he couldn’t find any remains of the animal.
“I know things don’t last long in the woods,” Young said, “but the scavengers must have worked hard.” The cat was black, Young said, and had a long tail. It was markedly larger than a bobcat, he said, covering the tailgate of his truck. Young shot the black, long-tailed cat about 10 miles from Colly Bridge on N.C. 53 near the Bladen-Pender line, where he saw a grown black cat twice this year. The cat he saw in July had a cub running alongside it. “I am not saying everybody that says they saw a cat saw a panther,” he said, “but I know I wasn’t seeing a coyote or a bobcat.”
Young has hunted and trapped all his life, and said he recently saw a full-grown black coyote near the same spot where he has seen the panther and its cub. “There wasn’t any question that what I saw was different,” he said. “You can tell the difference between the two.” Sandy Rooks said she saw something at the same location in spring of 2008. “I spotted a pair of large black cats with long tails crossing Highway 53 just east of the Colly Creek Bridge, less than a quarter of mile from my home,” she said. “They crossed between me and an approaching red pickup truck. The people in the truck saw the cats also because when I looked in my rear view mirror, the truck was backing up to get another look.”
Rooks said the cats were an amazing sight, something she won’t soon forget. “I just wish I could find out who the people were in the truck,” she said. “I’d love to know what they saw.” Colleen Olfenbuttel, furbearer biologist for the Wildlife Resources commission, says there has been no physical evidence of cougars or panthers discovered in North Carolina or the neighboring states. Florida Panthers have migrated to extreme southeastern Georgia and Alabama, but big cats haven’t been proven to exist in North Carolina for decades. “We have no documentation – verified photos, tracks, or scat – of wild cougars, panthers or mountain lions occurring in North Carolina,” Olfenbuttel said.
“When evidence has been presented, it has been proven to be domestic dog, deer, red fox with mange, coyote, bobcat, domestic cat, or another wildlife species. I have received phone calls in which the caller described a mountain lion perfectly, then sent me a picture of their evidence and it was a photo of another animal species or a dog track.” Frankie Todd and her family made plaster casts of tracks left by what they say was a big cat on July 21 of this year. Wildlife officials say they believe the cast made by the Todds, which was examined at the office of The Pender Post, came from a bear. Todd’s neighbor Wayne Barnhill says otherwise—he saw the cat make the tracks in the sandy road behind the Todd home.
“He had a long tail,” Barnhill said, “and looked over his shoulder as he walked down the road, like he was saying ‘Ain’t I beautiful?’ I ran for the house.” It wasn’t the first time Barnhill saw a big cat near his home off the Borough Road. He saw another one near an old cemetery while clearing the property a number of years ago, and also spotted one crossing a railroad bed while returning from hunting stand. Todd said she and her husband Jerry have seen the cat several times, usually while spotlighting deer with their grandchildren. They have seen both a tawny brown cat as well as a black feline.
“My husband saw something on the bank, and told the kids, ‘Look, there’s a bear,’ but then we saw the tail, and that wasn’t a bear.” The family had time to look at the cat through binoculars before it ran away. The tracks Todd cast July 21 are a short distance from her home and from Barnhill’s. She says she carries a pistol with her now when she goes to her chicken coop. “If my life is in danger,” she said, “or if my grandchildren are threatened, I’m not going to ask if it’s an endangered species.”
Olfenbuttel said the state receives numerous reports of big cats, but still has no solid evidence. “Once in awhile, I do think that a mountain lion sighting may have some credibility,” she said, “ but what I think is being seen is an escaped captive mountain lion. I once heard that there are almost as many mountain lions in captivity as there are in the wild.
Though illegal in North Carolina, you would be surprised at the number of people that have exotic pets.” Some big cats that were kept as pets were documented as being released (again, illegally) during the 1980s, when exotic pet laws were tightened. Reports of former pet cats running free came from across the state—including in Holly Shelter and Colly Bay, two places that are rife with reports of big cats. Ironically, one of the last documented Carolina Panthers killed by hunters occurred in the Onslow County portion of Holly Shelter in the 1920s. “The only confirmed sighting of a mountain lion in North Carolina for decades were two captive cougars that were killed back in the 1980’s,” Olfenbuttel said.
“These cougars were either illegally released or escaped from captivity. We were able to determine that they were captive because they had worn pads and tattoos in their mouth.” Olfenbuttel said it’s frustrating, but the lack of physical evidence points to anything except big cats. “Despite our extensive road network and the number of hounds in North Carolina, we have yet to have a roadkill mountain lion or one treed by dogs,” she said. “During the 1970’s, two different researchers did extensive searches for evidence of mountain lions in North Carolina and other southeastern states. They both found no evidence.” At the same time, a number of new or restored species have been tracked by the state, she said.
“The Wildlife Commission has successfully been able to track the occurrence and increase in distribution of several wildlife species over the past 50 years, including bears, coyotes, armadillos, nutria, striped skunk, feral hogs, wild turkey, alligators, groundhogs, otter, and fox squirrel, to name a few. But, since the late 1800’s, there is no documentation of mountain lions. “The closest population is the Florida panther, which has now been documented twice in southern Georgia over the past few years. Perhaps in ten years or so years, a Florida panther may make it to North Carolina.”
Todd said she doesn’t know where the cats in Currie, Colly, and Holly Shelter came from but she knows they are there. “I just wish somebody could get some hair, or something to prove it,” she said. “We aren’t crazy—we know what we’re seeing out here.”
–To report big cat sightings email JeffersonWeaver at jeffweaver@whiteville.com.
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