Large Mystery Cat Sighting In Kentucky
Posted by: Loren Coleman on July 1st, 2012
Ashland, in northeast Kentucky, is having some mystery cat sightings.
Photo for illustrative purposes only.
Ashland Police Maj. Todd Kelley said two people have called in reports of seeing a mountain lion or cougar around the city in the last several days. Kelley told The Independent that the sightings haven’t been confirmed by animal control officers or police, but people should not approach any unfamiliar large animal.
“We thought it was maybe more like a wildcat but they said it was bigger than that,” he said. “We said mountain lion or cougar species in the press release because we don’t know what else to call it.”
Animal control responded to the sighting on Forest Avenue but didn’t spot the big cat, he said. Still, Kelley said, the sightings were enough to warn the public about the possibility of big cats around the city limits. Source.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
So does this mean that cougars, like wolves, possibly inhabit every U.S. state (exept Hawaii)?
They used to, and there’s plenty of prey. It’s not surprising that they would expand back into their former range, assuming they were ever totally eradicated there to begin with.
I’m not so sure about the “wolves” claim, though. “Coyotes” would be more like it, unless you mean Canis lupus familiaris.
When I was doing the research for my book “COUGAR!”, I found remarkable similarities in the responses by various state DNRs when questioned about the existence of Cougars within their respective states. Almost all of them denied that Cougars existed there, but If they were present it was because they were released exotic pets. The most interesting thing is that most hunters believe that their states respective DNRs had a hand in bringing the predators back into the environment, both cougar and coyote.
Ah yes, Fhqwhgads. I meant coyotes.