interesting sighting(long)
Posted: Sat Mar 15, 2008 12:30 am
I recently quit my coffeehouse job to take a position as a substance abuse counselor which will begin on Monday. Because of this gap in employment, I have had some free time on my hands.
I live in a quiet community set back in the woods in the Big Thicket of southeast Texas, so we get a lot of wildlife. I have seen foxes, deer, rabbits, even a bobcat out here.
This morning around 10am I was washing dishes when I looked out the window and saw a large animal in the woods across the creek. I thought at first glance that it was a neighbor's black lab that hangs around sometimes, but when I looked again, it was stalking quietly like a cat and it moved enough that I also saw it had a long feline tail. So whatever this was, it was definitely a cat of some kind. The odd thing was its size and color. It looked to be about the size of a medium to large dog. But there are no cats in my area that are large and black. Here in the big thicket, resident felids include housecats(too small), jaguarundi(different body shape, and it is uncertain if they have a completely black color phase), bobcats(they do have a melanistic phase, but still no good because this thing had a long tail), ocelots(very rare, but still listed as an endangered resident species), and cougars(which have no melanistic phase at all).
The animal I saw was large, completely black, heavy-bodied like it was relatively muscular, and had a long tail.
That leaves a few options-
First possiblility- it could have been a melanistic ocelot. Would have been a very rare sighting, but not out of the question.
Second possibility- could have been some kind of hybrid. Bobcat/housecat crosses are not uncommon in this area, and that could possibly result in a large, all-black animal with a long tail.
Third option- It could have been a black jaguar. There have been precious few reports of a jaguar wandering this far north in search of prey. However, this is so highly unlikely it's hardly worth mentioning.
Fourth option- It could possibly have been a cougar/jaguarundi hybrid. Neither cat can cross with a domestic cat, but genetically, cougars and 'rundis are very closely related, so they might be able to crross-breed to produce all-black offspring.
I did, however, rule out the possibility that it was just a housecat. I knew immediately when I saw it that it was a large cat, but later in the day I started doubting myself because it seemed so unlikely even in these wild woods. While I was thinking about this, peering hopefully through the window, a deer sprinted flat-out down the same game trail the cat had taken, only heading in the opposite direction. Not only did this give me reason to believe that a large predator had spooked it, but it gave me a scale to work with. The cat I saw was about halfway to the deer's shoulder. My cat also wandered out there a few hours later, and she looked tiny at that distance. It was definitely much bigger than her. (then, thinking about a large predator out there, I got her and put her in the house)
I also went out there where it was to look for pawprints, but it was walking in the leaves, so it was difficult to find any evidence of its presence. I did find some prints in a small stream feeding into the creek that I think may have belonged to the animal, but the mud was so covered in dead leaves it was hard to tell because they were just indentions.
I got some pictures of the possible prints, and a picture of my kitty in the area where I saw it. I am going to try to sketch the animal to scale in the picture as well as memory serves.
I live in a quiet community set back in the woods in the Big Thicket of southeast Texas, so we get a lot of wildlife. I have seen foxes, deer, rabbits, even a bobcat out here.
This morning around 10am I was washing dishes when I looked out the window and saw a large animal in the woods across the creek. I thought at first glance that it was a neighbor's black lab that hangs around sometimes, but when I looked again, it was stalking quietly like a cat and it moved enough that I also saw it had a long feline tail. So whatever this was, it was definitely a cat of some kind. The odd thing was its size and color. It looked to be about the size of a medium to large dog. But there are no cats in my area that are large and black. Here in the big thicket, resident felids include housecats(too small), jaguarundi(different body shape, and it is uncertain if they have a completely black color phase), bobcats(they do have a melanistic phase, but still no good because this thing had a long tail), ocelots(very rare, but still listed as an endangered resident species), and cougars(which have no melanistic phase at all).
The animal I saw was large, completely black, heavy-bodied like it was relatively muscular, and had a long tail.
That leaves a few options-
First possiblility- it could have been a melanistic ocelot. Would have been a very rare sighting, but not out of the question.
Second possibility- could have been some kind of hybrid. Bobcat/housecat crosses are not uncommon in this area, and that could possibly result in a large, all-black animal with a long tail.
Third option- It could have been a black jaguar. There have been precious few reports of a jaguar wandering this far north in search of prey. However, this is so highly unlikely it's hardly worth mentioning.
Fourth option- It could possibly have been a cougar/jaguarundi hybrid. Neither cat can cross with a domestic cat, but genetically, cougars and 'rundis are very closely related, so they might be able to crross-breed to produce all-black offspring.
I did, however, rule out the possibility that it was just a housecat. I knew immediately when I saw it that it was a large cat, but later in the day I started doubting myself because it seemed so unlikely even in these wild woods. While I was thinking about this, peering hopefully through the window, a deer sprinted flat-out down the same game trail the cat had taken, only heading in the opposite direction. Not only did this give me reason to believe that a large predator had spooked it, but it gave me a scale to work with. The cat I saw was about halfway to the deer's shoulder. My cat also wandered out there a few hours later, and she looked tiny at that distance. It was definitely much bigger than her. (then, thinking about a large predator out there, I got her and put her in the house)
I also went out there where it was to look for pawprints, but it was walking in the leaves, so it was difficult to find any evidence of its presence. I did find some prints in a small stream feeding into the creek that I think may have belonged to the animal, but the mud was so covered in dead leaves it was hard to tell because they were just indentions.
I got some pictures of the possible prints, and a picture of my kitty in the area where I saw it. I am going to try to sketch the animal to scale in the picture as well as memory serves.