California Black Panther Sighting
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on April 26th, 2007
Another Cryptomundo reader news tip sent this story our way.
Yet another black panther sighting, this time in California.
Panther spotted near Avila Beach
An enormous cat is spotted roaming San Luis Obispo County.
The Department of Fish and Game has confirmed several sightings in the area of Fern Canyon and Squire Canyon near Avila Beach.
Witnesses say the animal could be a black panther or jaguar.
One woman described the creature as being six-feet in length and weighing between two and three hundred pounds.
Game wardens report finding a paw print consistent with a mountain lion in the area, but said it’s not unheard of for someone to keep an exotic cat as a pet and have it escape.Amy Andrews
KSBY6 Action News
You can watch the newsclip on the station’s website here: Panther spotted near Avila Beach
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
well, being down there, I wouldn’t consider this cryptid much at all. Either someone tried to have a big pet or it escaped from a zoo or something of that sort. I’ve all over the hills and mountains of northern California and I am pretty observant when nature is involved and I’ve never seen any large black cats. I’ve seen my share of mountain lions, one was even in my back yard when I was about 9. I would love to see that one, must be beautiful–at a distance of course.
Leave it alone, don`t need some nut job with a gun trying to shoot it, one reason we have so many endangered species on our planet.
Interesting to note that in Mysterious America page 118 Loren Coleman discusses the Black Panthers of California Panther or Mountain lion? Jaguars have a melanistic phase found mostly in the tropics, Cougars are a tawny color but domestic cat breeds have exhibited and can have as many as 15 different color phases, so who is to say that there are no black cougars.
Karl Shucker has reported a blue Tiger from China.
There used to be rumors of a black panther that escaped from a pen near Lake Tahoe that never was found or captured.
This could be something similar like and exotic pet getting loose.
Hello! I have also seen a black panther in the San Luis Obispo county. I was on a school feild trip to the Oso Flaco bird sanctuary back in the mid 1990’s. Our class walked single file on a trail. I was at the back of line. The classed passed under a large tree and none of the children noticed it but me and the teacher I was walking by. Laying on a big branch up in the tree was a black panther resting in the shade. The teacher did not want to alarm any of the other children and she told me to be very quiet and keep walking. It didnt bother any of us, but what are black panthers doing in SLO county?
A friend and I was poaching the kings deer around 1989 when we spotted the big black cat sitting high above a Hwy somewhere near the Pacific coast. We sighted it in with our scopes but not wanting to shoot it we looked at it in awe and amazement as the muscular beast surveyed it’s domain. After a few minutes it got up and walked up the hill into the tree line. We vowed not to give a specific location as not to cause more unscrupulous hunters than ourselves from going after it. We both waited several years before mentioning it and where met with skepticism for the most part. But that’s OK because we know what we saw.