Panther Photo: Oklahoma
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 5th, 2010
This mountain lion was captured on Ryan Ritter’s trail camera near Atoka in southeastern Oklahoma.
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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.
I hunt in northeastern Texas, east of Paris and have seen panthers/cougars on a few occasions over the last few years, this isnt news to me or others in the area, I dont use trail cameras but hunters around me do and have Ive seen quite a few images of them incluidng one of a panther stalking a deer about to pounce from a few feet, the hunter also found the remains of that deer very near that camera. I would say their numbers are quite strong in the area actually.
I was actually not too far from this area during the time frame, and I saw this picture at the local store. Someone had brought it in. There was a deer corn feeder near this Camera, and apparently he was following the trail of the deer. We have been told numerous times that there are no cougars/panthers/mountain lions in Oklahoma, but I know what I have seen. This is wonderful proof that many of us are not crazy. Even better yet is the fact that the Oklahoma State Wildlife Department finally had to admit that they do exist in this area.
This is the official statement from ODWC. “We know we’ve got them, but we don’t know where they are at or how many,” said Alan Peoples, chief of the wildlife division for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation. “It’s kind of hard to monitor something so secretive and so rare as a mountain lion.”
They may be admitting it now, but I was told that we did not have any Mountain Lions in Oklahoma, when one took my elk from me several years ago. Needless to say I let him have it.
Well, when it comes to official statements, Oklahoma’s wildlife people seem ahead of most. And there is a LOT more country for lions there than maybe even residents think, just from my limited experience.
Of course, it could just be a sasquatch in a cat suit. That sort of thing has happened before.
JMonkey: when I read yours I thought: let him have it? How many shots did it take? Did he save the skin? 😀
This is not surprising to anyone in North Texas/Oklahoma. As I’ve mentioned before in a previous posting there have been sightings around the Cedar Hill State Park that surrounds Joe Pool Lake for some time now. The only people who seem surprised are the “experts”.
SIRUPAPERS: “The only people who seem surprised are the “experts”.
I guess that’s not too much of a surprise. Normal folks like us tend to just trust our eyes; Officials are very reluctant to act without evidence tantamount to proof, to them. (And VERY reluctant to admit Ground Truths that complicate their administrative lives.)
Which, mind you, is not to excuse the “experts.” They should more than know enough not to scoff before the evidence is in and evaluated. Scoffing makes normal people who saw something, and know they did, and know what it was, feel like idiots, something that as a normal person I sure wouldn’t appreciate.
PS: for those of you not familiar with Texas geography Joe Pool lake is in Dallas County and runs along the southern border of the City of Dallas.
DWA:
“Of course, it could just be a sasquatch in a cat suit. That sort of thing has happened before.”
No, actually, it’s an OTTER in a cat suit, DWA. More “logical.” 🙂
This story has a personal resonance for me because when I was a young one I was part of a military family and we were stationed in Ft. Sill, Ok. Not really near Atoka but one still heard “tales” from folks who were connected to the hunting scene, you know?. Anyway, occassionally in High School I heard from people who hunted and they described to me tales about how “Panthers” were still around certain parts of OK. I always believed them—these were “reliable” folks—so it is not surprising that confirmation has now been found.
Also not surprising is the reaction of the “experts.” I personally think they’ve always known about these “populations” but denied their existence for whatever reasons they might have had. I guess they fear some sort of “controversy” if they were to admit the truth. Whatever the “controversy” would be, I can only guess at. Waste of time to deny it, I say. Sort of understandable, though.
But hey—this is the land where “the wind comes sweeping down the plain,” right. Sometimes I’m afraid it sweeps from one experts ear to out the other one. Sad, but true. 🙁