A panther on the prowl? Area woman sees wild cat(Missouri)

The Neosho Daily News ^ | 15 Aug 2006 | Todd G. Higdon

[Marius3188]

A couple of weeks ago, Kathy Robertson was driving near her home on Tiger Road in eastern Newton County when out of the field jumped a black panther.

“I had heard that they ate chickens around the area,” Robertson said. “But we no longer have chickens in our chicken houses.”

According to Robertson, the panther was long, beautiful, and weighed about 100 pounds.

“When he ran, you could actually see the muscles in him,” said Robertson. “He even had a long tail.”

This was not the first time that Robertson saw a panther. Back in March, she saw another one in a field a few miles away from her farm. Her and her husband, Richard, have lived at their home for more than 20 years.

“I have heard of other people in the area seeing the panthers,” Robertson said.

“I personally have never seen one, but we do get lots of reports that people have seen them,” Missouri Department of Conservation (Neosho office) Resource Technician Roger Schmidt said.

Although mountain lions, sometimes called cougars, pumas, panthers or catamounts, were common in Missouri and elsewhere in the Midwest prior to European settlement, they were eradicated during the 19th century. As the countryside was settled and developed, the large predators were shot. The last native wild mountain lion in Missouri was killed in 1927.

To address the sightings, a Mountain Lion Response Team was formed in 1996. The team responds to calls and collects and analyzes physical evidence of the presence of mountain lions in Missouri.

According to the department's Web site (www.mdc.mo.gov/ conmag/2006/06/20.htm), “we have had only a handful of confirmed mountain lions in Missouri, despite hundreds and hundreds of reports. There have been eight confirmed mountain lions since 1994. One of these was hit by a car near downtown Kansas City in 2002 and another one near Fulton in 2003.”

This is not the first time that rare animals have been spotted in Southwest Missouri. For example, not too long ago, a car struck a bear cub near Elwood Junction.

According to the Missouri Department of Conservation, the bears come from Arkansas.

If anyone sees a black panther or bears, contact the local Missouri Department of Conservation.

[highnoon]

I saw one near Marble Falls, very late in the evening about 10 years ago. It jumped over an 8' game fence as easily as a house cat jumps onto a chair. We heard it scream later that night and it is indeed hair-raising.

[cyborg]

OMG... animals on land. Who would have imagined!

[RedWhiteBlue]

I've always heard that the panther, cougar, mountain lion, and puma are just subspecies of the same animal -- just different names. If you google one of those names, you'll see that idea implied (or even said outright) in all of the sources.

[mugs99]

Weird that they are black. All the mountain lions I've ever seen or seen pictures of are tawny. Do black ones exist? I thought only Jaguars and pehaps Leopards had black variations?

I've seen many mountain lions where I live but I've never seen a black one.
.

[Defiant]

Her and her husband, Richard, have lived at their home for more than 20 years.

Another Neosho HS product writing for the hometown paper, I see.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

I remember Neosho getting smacked by a tornado back in 74 or 75... I was in the town about an hour afterward.

[Kay Ludlow]

Weird that they are black. All the mountain lions I've ever seen or seen pictures of are tawny. Do black ones exist?

There's an area in central PA known s 'Black Panther'. A relative has a camp out there, and says they regularly see a black mountain lion (panther) out in their fields. They aren't likely to get the game commission involved though - who wants those officers checking out your property all the time? The PGC already knows they are a law unto themselves.

They also are notorious for denying the existence of mountain lions in PA unless they are "escaped pets". A guy my brother works with saw one hit along the road in central PA - he knows it was a mountain lion because he got out and looked at it up close. He called the game commission about it (they are responsible for picking up road kill). When he called back and asked about it, they denied it existed. When he persisted and said he saw it and he called them, they said well, ok, there was a mountain lion but it was an escaped pet. Really adds to their credibility when they reflexively deny, deny, deny.

[stainlessbanner]

FL Panthers are tan in color and have webbed-feet to prowl the swamps.

[CDHart]

"Her and her husband, Richard, have lived at their home for more than 20 years. "

This reporter needs a grammar lesson.

Carolyn

[Pete from Shawnee Mission]

"As the countryside was settled and developed, the large predators were shot."

And we can thank the white settlers for doing this before "Bambi" and PETA came along.

Also, Kudos to the earliest inhabitants of this continent for wiping out cave bears and saber-tooth tigers. (And that with nothing but stone tipped hunting gear!) We have enough problems with raccoons in our trash cans let alone large powerful hungry carnivores stalking about our neighborhoods and suburbs.

[TexanToTheCore]

There have been big wild cats in Missouri for many years. No big news here.

I suspect that most of the sightings are real.

[sure_fine]

" We had a black bear cub at the bird feeder in our yard three years ago. I called the local MO Conservation office and the guy asked, "Are you sure its a bear ? "




they act like people are as stupid as they are

[OB1kNOb]

I, my neighbors,and several of my nephews and friends have caught glimpses of them here in the central Arkansas Ouachita Mtns. too. Typically it's around October-November when we see them come through. I think they must be migrating through our area during that timeperiod. The one I caught a glimpse of was when I was muzzleloading on top of a mountain ridge in October. It made the hair on my neck stand up! I won't forget it.

[livius]

When I lived in Northern California about 25 years ago, I saw a large mountain lion scouting through a field on a hillside. Of course, the fish and game people told me I was nuts, there hadn't been mountain lions there since who knows when, etc. Suffice it to say that now, after several people in that area have been killed by mountain lions, they are no longer denying it...

[Defiant]

I've been through there many a time. It's a nice little town. I wonder if it's become a suburb of Joplin.

[GladesGuru]

Actually, the "Florida Panther" is now over 50% Texas panther, thanks to another hair-brained project funded under the section six cooperative agreement of the Endangered Species Act.

Lest any non-biologist be misled by the panther panderers/panther profiteers, ALL such cats living north of the southern border of Mexico are all the same subspecies.

In the woerds of one of the world's leading DNA researchers, "the fifteen previously identified subspecies in North America are not affirmed (by DNA analysis)."

We are paying hundreds of millions of dollars to support a swarm of agency "scientists", and one of the national leaders in such research, one Deborah Jansen, can't even correctly identify the gender of a captured cat on which she hung a radio collar.

And, if you think she is merely 'being blonde', her project vet, Dr. Blankenship, signed the erroneous capture report. One can conceivable understand a blonde rangerette making such an error - but a vet? ? ?

Not to mention the "houndsman" who was on the scene.

And there is more, so don't go away.

Later,two treeings of the panther family later, 'Lil Debbie realized her error. Rather than admit she and her entire team of "panther experts" erred, she rationalized (falsified, in my opinion), the annual report.

Google the Big Cypress National Preserve's Panther Project Annual Report for 2004, Deborah Jansen, Project Leader.

Any who want the actual capture reports, either FRmail me or go www.EvergladesInstitute.org in a few weeks when both an article on this panther debacle and all the data will be posted.

In the meantime, consider that both cats and 'crats (bureaucrats) lie in positions of concealment. There has been so much outright fraud by agency scientists that I fear for the reputation of science/scientists.

[knuthom]

I live in southwest MO. We had something that looked like a bear in our pasture. It was a little far away to tell, but it sure wasn't a dog. I called the conservation dept. and asked if there were bears around here. They told me yes.

[MarkL]

I called the local MO Conservation office and the guy asked, "Are you sure its a bear ?"

Well, it might have been a starling... Or a squirrel. You never know...

Mark

[MarkL]

I called the local MO Conservation office and the guy asked, "Are you sure its a bear ?"

Well, it might have been a starling... Or a squirrel. You never know...

Mark

[MarkL]

And they'll add you to the list of "hundreds and hundreds" of obviously confused people who *think* they've seen something. I mean, the mountain lions were "eradicated during the 19th century" and Missouri Department of Conservation (Neosho office) Resource Technician Roger Schmidt has never even seen one!

No kidding. The MO DoC just laughed off reports of mountain lions in Kansas City, until the one was hit by a car. It wasn't just near Kansas City. It was in a wooded area, with all sorts of natural caves, that's adjacent to "Worlds of Fun," which is an amusement park. Lots of little kids wandering around there.

It's doubtful that there would be any attacks, since there are so many people around there, and the DoC said that it appeared that the lion had been feeding on deer (and there's really been a huge increase in the deer population around KC), so the lion probably wasn't desperate. But if the deer population drops, or the cat is old or sick, then I'd be more than a little bit concerned.

Mark