Big Cat Mystery[Indiana]

NewsChannel 15 WANE ^ | Sep 30 2006 | WANE

[MrNationalist]

(Adams County-WANE) After NewsChannel 15 aired video of a big cat sighting in Adams County, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the Adams County Sheriff's Department received phone calls from people who also claim to have seen the mysterious cat.

The big cat sightings have been taking place for about a year. Now with the existence of video of the animal, there appears to be proof the cat really exists. An Adams County resident and her daughter videotaped what appears to be a big cat on two separate occasions. They're not sure if it's the same animal because one of the video sightings is very shaky.

NewsChannel 15 showed the video to an expert at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. Mark Weldon says the animal could be a cougar or a leopard. Kevin Pensinger, an officer with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources agrees the animal is a large cat, but he's not certain what kind. The animal could have been someone's escaped pet. Law requires people to register wild animals like cougars, but if someone had such an animal and it got loose they might not report it to authorities.

[MrNationalist]

The link has a video of the UBC[Unknown Big Cat]. The video starts off very shaky, and about 1:15 into the video you can clearly see the details of a very large feline.

[paul51]

Hard to judge the size without some sort of reference in the video however I'm pretty sure that's not the neighbors tabby.

[Hoosier-Daddy]

Jaguar.

[southlake_hoosier]

I agree, looks like a large cat to me.

[kinoxi]

Odd to say the least. It leapt like a cat.

[Tenacious 1]

Just to be clear...It is a LARGE cat.

Here kitty, kitty, kitty. Here kitty. Nice kitty. How about some milk?

This "cat" is not starving. Lock up your chickens, dogs, children and drunk husbands, or else lose them to the neighborhood kitty.

[dighton]

... one of the video sightings is very shaky.

As well it might be.

[Redcitizen]

Wow! Now there is a Viking Kitty.

[mewzilla]

[EBH]

Looks like a very large healthy big cat. When it leaps you can see a white underbelly... cougar is my guess.

[Psycho_Bunny]

The gait on that animal makes it clear it's a tad larger than a housecat. lol

[Abathar]

If I caught it going after my pets and shoot it, will I go to jail if it's endangered? I always wondered about that...

[Tenacious 1]

[Odd to say the least. It leapt like a cat.]

I noticed the same thing. At first, I thought it could just as easily be a cyote, we have lots of them here. But that tail, the bouny gate and the way it jumped....I doubt it to be anything but of the feline species. If it is a cougar or whatever, it may be feeding off a healthy diet of young deer.

Can you imagine deer hunting and having this thing walk by you? Think of the looks you get at camp. "I saw a couple of does and a trophy buck that I couldn't get a shot at. But man, you should have seen the mountain lion that walked under my tree stand."

[mewzilla]

Wonder if someone had an illegal exotic cat they turned loose?

[Michael_Michaelangelo]

That thing looks like it is between 150-200 pounds, but I am not convinced it is a cat yet.

[ASA Vet]

will I go to jail if it's endangered?

Not if you practice the S.S.S. method of predator control.

[savedbygrace]

Top of the foodchain, and it knows it.

[BJClinton]

[Tenacious 1]

[That thing looks like it is between 150-200 pounds, but I am not convinced it is a cat yet.]

I tried hard not to believe it. But let us consider what else it could be:

Not a deer. Wright color, wrong tail, low profile.
Note a coyote. Leaps, striding gate, and wrong color.
Maybe a dog? I doubt it, but hard to rule out based on video.
Shark. Naah! We don't have sharks in Indiana.
Definitely not the Easter Bunny.

What do ya think?

[Tenacious 1]

I need to go get hooked on fonics.

[ASA Vet]

A few years ago a large gray wolf ran down a deer trail I was watching. It then went by my son.
I didn't bother to report it to the DNR since they claim there are no wolves in lower Michigan.

[Abathar]

I have practiced that method for beaver that keep blocking my spillway for years, then I found out that if they are creating a problem you can shoot the darn things anytime around here, they're like rodents. All that shoveling at night for nothing.....

[Abathar]

Tell that to the people at Kensington Metropark in Brighton, they think there has been one or two running around the nature preserve for a few years now.

[Dr. Bogus Pachysandra]

It's a man in a cat suit. Just like that fake Bigfoot film clip!

[proudofthesouth]

From what I could see I bet its a coyote.

[mewzilla]

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, nothing else moves like that but a feline. The undulating spine and the way the hind feet push off in the leap is unique. (I bred and showed cats for 15 years, now I'm showing dogs instead - that is clearly a cat of some kind.)

And it's way too big for a house cat -- an animal that small would be completely obscured by the tall grass.

[ASA Vet]

[ASA Vet]

now I'm showing dogs instead

Good choice.

[mad_as_he$$]

Two weeks ago I was hunting in very Northern California. Rough country and very brushy. Two cats had been walking down the road - from the looks of the tracks just minutes before me. This was very early in the morning; rechecked the rifle status, cocked the side arm and proceeded very carefully. Got to where the road ended and the tracks went down a deer trail. Called up FReeper Sasquatch and got in the Jeep and split. One big cat maybe but two I didn't want to deal with.

[Alas Babylon!]

They need to take the video taker back to the same spot they taped it at. Have another person or persons stand in the field at approximately the place the cat was filmed. Film the person. Have them walk around the area until one can match up the same area the cat was in.

From this, we can determine it's size. Whatever the size of cat it is, it's well fed. It appears fairly bulky.

It is a proven fact that the cougar is making a comeback throughout its historical range (which is pretty much ALL of North and South America). That one would be in Indiana, before, say, Rhode Island, is perfectly understandable. But even Rhode Island has plenty of thick woods and deer, otherwise known as cougar country. Today cougars are not hunted or disturbed in almost all areas that they were wiped out from. The only places they're still hunted is where they have never been eradicated. So it makes sense that some would wander into the previously eradicated areas and then thrive.

[Alas Babylon!]

Cool! Have you ever found sasquatch tracks? I mean besides the FReeper Sasquatch.

[ZULU]

I agree with YOU.

I think its a mountain lion. It looks like one and moves like one.

There HAVE been verifiable sightings of cougars in Michigan's Upper Penninsula, and there is book out which indicates they might be in the lower penninsula.

Indiana is just next door to Michigan.

I DOUBT anybody who owned this as a "pet" would release the animal. But the best way to check for sure is by capturing it and chekcing out the fangs. Sometimes people who keep these animals mutilate them by defanging them. If the fangs are missing, its an escaped pet. If not, it may be wild cougar or an escaped pet that wasn't defanged.

My bets are on a wild cougar.

They ARE expanding their range eastwards and southwards.

Pretty neat.

[Red Badger]

[AnAmericanMother]

Excellent photo. Shows how the coyote in a leap has his back entirely straight.

In the same leap, a cat's back undulates, first shoulders up, then a ripple along the spine until the hips come up above the shoulders.

The only dogs I have ever seen with any undulation in the spine are the field type Labrador Retrievers, their backs are so long that they ripple as they run - but it's a different type of movement, and it stays horizontal, not up and down like a kitty.

[Sparticus]

Pretty neat.

Until it's in your yard.

[MrNationalist]

Considering that White Tail Deer are at it's highest levels, I wouldn't doubt the chances of a cougar comeback.

I was surprised that the video of it shows it in broad daylight. Also, I don't know if that area has been hear a 'scream' of a cougar in the area.

If you've every heard a wild panther scream you will never forget it. I heard one once, in N. Florida I it still lingers in my mind. Imagine a loud women screaming in childbirth, but amplify it, and have it directed at hear husband watching a football game on Sunday after not cleaning out the garage. Truly a nightmare.

It does appear to be a cougar, look at the long tail, and large front and hind legs. Usually a canine, will stop more and sniff the ground.

[AnAmericanMother]

Well, all I can say is that a cat show is like a bench dog show, only more boring.

I'm doing performance events now, nobody ever heard of doing such a thing with a cat until recently, when a bunch of loons decided to do "Cat Agility". What a joke. They have to literally get down on their knees with treats and peacock feathers and beg and plead for the cats to go over each obstacle, and the obstacles are in a net cage because otherwise the cats would go off about their own business.

[mcshot]

That pic is of a friend of mine and it's a photoshop prank by another friend. Look at the left hand, for example.
He has a big house cat but not that big.

[cspackler]

I saw a cougar in the back of the field at my in-laws farm here in Iowa about 3 weeks ago. I didn't believe it until I talked to a farmer down the road last weekend. He claims some other locals shot a cougar earlier this year.

Funny part is, it had a locator collar on it. Another local claims that he lost a calf, and later found the remains. In a tree...

Rumor is that the Iowa DNR is bringing them in to control the deer population and not telling anyone. Makes sense to me, I never figured out how a cat could cross either the Missouri or Mississippi river that border the state to get here......

[mcshot]

They have no credibility up here either.

[Beagle8U]

There have been dozens of cougar sightings in southern MI. ( near Indiana line) the past 5 years or so. Even mothers with cubs have been sighted.

Some in the DNR have admitted that there is little doubt that there is a breeding population.

[ZULU]

Then I reach for my rifle - the Garand,or U.S. M 1917, .54 Hawken, .50 caliber Hawken, .577 Caliber Enfield, or various other assorted toys I have and as long as it is just passing through - fine.

Otherwise, shoot, shovel and shut up.

[ZULU]

"Another local claims that he lost a calf, and later found the remains. In a tree..."

Maybe he should put locator collars on his cattle. (sarcasm)

[ASA Vet]

You're a friend of Cordell Hauglie?

Snowball

[ASA Vet]

I'm doing performance events now

You'll really like this.

Dog

[Alas Babylon!]

I never figured out how a cat could cross either the Missouri or Mississippi river that border the state to get here......

Actually, cougars are very good swimmers. Also, if it gets cold enough in winter, rivers freeze over, especially in places they don't flow fast. And big cats are smart enough to use man-made resources such as little used railway bridges dams and spillways, locks, etc. Think about a cat's natural ability to climb, and using an old railroad trestle bridge makes sense.

[mombonn]

I didn't bother to report it to the DNR since they claim there are no wolves in lower Michigan.

DNR says there are no cougars in MI, either, in spite of numerous sightings.

[mombonn]

There HAVE been verifiable sightings of cougars in Michigan's Upper Penninsula, and there is book out which indicates they might be in the lower penninsula.

There have been sightings of cougar right here in lower mid-Michigan as well. My neighbors watched one for 20 minutes or so a couple years ago.

But, DNR says there are no cougars in MI.

[razorback-bert]

I thought I saw a putty tat.