Attack Panther “Like a Woolly Mammoth”
Posted by: Loren Coleman on August 4th, 2007
The photograph of the “Sidney Mystery Cat” taken in Maine late in June 2007.
Articles about incidents in British Columbia, Ontario, and Maine have appeared recently, detailing breaking news and updates about mountain lions, cougars, panthers, puma or whatever you wish to call these great cats (Puma concolor) of North America.
Here’s a roundup of panther news, from west to east:
A cougar attack has left Colton Reeb with strange memories, but little fear of the big cats that roam rural areas such as the B.C. Interior region where the 12-year-old was scratched and bitten this week.
“Colton remembers seeing the big eyes and the teeth and he says he remembers punching at it,” Colton’s father, Robin Reeb, told a news conference [on August 3] at BC Children’s Hospital where Colton is in good condition with multiple lacerations to his face and scalp.
“He says it kind of felt like a woolly mammoth to him.”
* * *
The boy was with [Teri] Patterson, her husband Marc, and their 12-year-old daughter Larah at the couple’s cabin near the village of Clinton when Colton was jumped by the cougar while going to the outhouse after dinner on Wednesday night [August 1, 2007].
Marc Patterson has been called a hero – “He’s a superhero to us,” Mr. Reeb said – for taking on the 27-kilogram cat, kicking and punching it, and pulling it off the boy. [For more click on:]Animal Attack, by Ian Bailey, August 4, 2007, Globe and Mail.
Meanwhile, in London, Ontario, the debate rages on about whether or not cougars are being seen or not. In an article entitled “Cougar presence still lacks evidence,” published on August 3, 2007, as the headline would seem to indicate is skeptical.
But within the article, it notes: “The city and police have received 32 reports of cougar sightings in four general areas: in the west from Byron to Lambeth; in the northeast near the Thames River, east of Adelaide Street; in south central London, near Exeter Road along Dingman Creek; and east central London, south of Wilton Grove along Dingman Creek.”
Despite finding fecal material and hair, “Natural Resources officials won’t send the evidence for DNA testing at its wildlife lab at Trent University unless it meets criteria that warrants further testing.”
While tracks from dogs and other animals may be being confused with some of the new cat prints, “during the last few years, there have been hundreds of cougar sightings across the province, including in London and the outlying area. In May [2007], Frank Mallory, a professor at Sudbury’s Laurentian University, announced DNA evidence of a cougar had been found in Wainfleet Conservation Area near Port Colborne.”
Onward to Maine, where in a recent article, it also gives a skeptical headline, “Cougar sights may indicate imported cats,” perhaps too quickly. The Sun Journal may be jumping the gun before any DNA results have been analyzed.
Oxford – After a rash of reported sightings of cougars this summer from Oxford to Sidney, there’s no doubt in the minds of Maine Warden Service Major Gregg Sanborn or service spokesman Mark Latti that a cougar or two might be in Maine.
The catch, however, is that both suspect the alleged mountain lions, pumas or panthers, as these big cats are also called, were probably trucked in from out of state as pets that either escaped or were freed.
“It’s very possible and it wouldn’t surprise me at all,” Sanborn said by phone late Thursday afternoon in Augusta. “Of course, it would be illegal and very hard to prove. But the loser of this is the animal. It’s being kept out in captivity and then turned loose, so it’s going to eat whatever’s easiest, like garbage from garbage cans or pet cats.”
“Could there be a single mountain lion, puma or panther here? Certainly,” Latti said by phone Tuesday in Augusta. “But it could be either an escaped pet or one that someone brought to Maine and couldn’t care for it and let it go.
“We know we don’t have a native population of mountain lions, or we’d be seeing plenty of evidence out there like deer kills, reports from hunters or trappers, or even road kills. But it’s just not happening.”
Importing a mountain lion or any other non-native wildlife, bird, amphibian or fish species into Maine without first getting a permit, or possessing species considered to be exotic without a permit are Class E misdemeanor crimes punishable by fines ranging from $100 to $2,000, and substantial jail time, Sanborn said.
“It’s quite a big deal. We get numerous requests from people who want to bring their exotic animals to the state of Maine, animals that may be native to Florida and other states but not here. We run into it frequently,” Sanborn said.
Last year, wardens removed huge snakes from a trailer that were in Maine illegally, and Warden Neal Wykes took a three-foot alligator found in Maine Audubon’s farm pond in Falmouth and gave it to the York Wild Animal Kingdom Zoo. Another alligator about the same size was discovered in 2000 in Kennebunkport, Latti said.
“When we get wind that someone’s got exotics, we try to go and bring them into compliance. Most of the time, it’s ignorance. People go to an animal pet store in New Jersey, get something, put it in their VW microvan and drive to Maine. We explain the situation to them and say, ‘These are your choices, either take it back to the pet store or, here’s your warning. It’s going to cost you big dollars.’ People don’t realize that trade in wildlife is a big business, but we have to take it serious,” Sanborn said.
To legally bring exotic critters into Maine, people must either be involved in professional husbandry, like the owners of the York Wild Animal Kingdom Zoo; or research, like that done at Jackson Lab in Bar Harbor, the world’s largest mammalian genetic research facility; or for therapy, because it benefits a person, he said.
Additionally, the critter must usually be on Maine’s list of allowed exotic species, a list that is currently being revamped.
Although mountain lions have yet to be found in Maine or documented through photography, reports of sightings annually top any other non-native animal, Latti said.
“Most cougar sightings are quickly resolved as bobcats and even big house cats. I remember a time in the middle of the winter when I saw a 40-pound bobcat feeding on fresh road-killed deer in a ditch beside the interstate. It was a gorgeous bobcat. Two hours later, we got a report of a mountain lion sighted on the interstate there, and I knew exactly what it was,” Sanborn said.“Cougar sights may indicate imported cats,” by Terry Karkos , Staff Writer, Friday, July 27, 2007,
Unfortunately, nature sometimes is not so easy to figure out. Bobcats have been seen at the same place that a mountain lion might frequent, as they both can be attracted, for example, by the same roadkill. It has happened. But then, of course, Sanborn never checked, so we don’t know, do we, if it occurred in the instance he gives for Maine?
In general, without DNA results one way or the other discussed or acknowledged, the overall editorial tone of this article merely gives some indication of the approach of the wildlife officials. These are the same officials who refused to even come out and look at the roadkill that created so much of a stir last year around the “Maine Mutant” non-mystery. That mystery could have been “officially” solved immediately, if they would have merely looked.
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.
Although, it would be nice to know if mountain lions are what are being seen in certain areas, they shouldn’t be any cause for panic. I know they roam the area around my house here and I have never even seen one in over a decade that I have been living here. I would love to see one, but so far I have only been lucky enough to spot a bobcat upon occasion, once in my backyard.
Sitting roughly 200m from where over a dozen people saw the Cougar in London, Ontario a few weeks ago, I can tell you that while the police weren’t sure the local people know what they saw. It literally laid out sunning itself on a patch of green near the forest that follows the river while people wandered by and stared at it. (Unfortunately, I wasn’t one of them.)
The article’s assertions about big cats moving through our area doesn’t seem out of place to me at all, they’ve probably been doing it for a very long time. One of my friends who is a lifelong resident of Windsor, Ontario (South Detroit, to you Americans) has often told me of how in that city every couple years “something big” comes into the city and literally decimates the local cat and dog populations under the cover of night. The general assumption long being that it’s a cougar.
As a government agency, sometimes Fish & Game agencies do slip into “bureaucratic inertia” that frequently plagues government at all levels.
In Missouri, we are taking sightings seriously and to date there have been nine cats confirmed. The escaped pet theory has been discredited in several cases where DNA testing was done or a carcass was examined for stomach contents. Standards are pretty rigorous for “proof” of a cougar sighting but that is as it should be. People who are not skilled outdoorsman frequently misidentify what they look at. Even skilled people can make mistakes depending on conditions at the time of a sighting. Distance, lighting and length of sighting can all play a role and even in the best of circumstances, cats often don’t leave signs of their passing. I speak from personal and professional experience here.
Cougars have received protection and proper management in much of their range for the past 35 years. Conservation efforts have led to the reforestation of much of the cougars former habitat and their primary prey, deer are now abundant everywhere, even the suburbs. It is only natural that as cougar numbers expand, their range will expand and we will likely see recolonization of areas where they have been extirpated for 100 years or more. Ear tagged male cougars have been known to travel over 600 miles in a nearly straight line. Another decade or two should tell us how successful recolonization of the east will be.
I suspect that game officials would not know a cougar if they fell over it. They say it was a bobcat. Well every bobcat that I know of has a short tail and people see a long tail. Each case should be investigated but to just flat out say the cougars or mountain lions are not the critter is for lack of a better word, stupid. And don’t forget the escaped ones too. Well I think in most places a permit is required to keep them in captivity and when one is reported you would think the police or game officials would check owners inventory just in case they did not know they lost a big cat!
Alligator I also live in Missouri, and I had a experience with a cougar and Wild Life Management in 1993. I was at Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in Puxico Missouri (Southern Missouri) when I ran into a cougar.
I was walking down the trail toward the boardwalk and came to bend in the trail. As I came around a left hand bend there was a rock ledge at approximately head level to me. Laying on the ledge was a cougar. We were staring each other in the eyes so I backed around the corner quick! After I backed off the cougar walked off in plain view to me and my friend that was hiking with me.
As we were leaving I told a Ranger about our sighting. He was adimant that we saw a Bobcat and that there are no cougars in Southern Missouri. I tried to explain that the cat had a long tail, tawny in color, about 7 foot in length, and guessing about 130 lbs., but he wouldn’t listen to me. He would believe nothing except that I was mistaking a Bobcat and that there are no cougars in the area. If I ever see a Bobcat that large I’m going to expect to see saber teeth in it’s mouth! LOL I was less than 3 feet from the cat when I rounded the corner there were no ear tuffs, no spots on it’s coat, and no long hairs on it’s cheecks. So it couldn’t of been a Bobcat!
I wouldn’t have minded the Ranger being cautious about a cougar sighting and wanting to verify it. This Wildlife Management Officer just treated me like I was an idiot that couldn’t tell a 20 lbs. Bobacat from a 130 lbs. Cougar! He never even wrote anything down. Just told us we were wrong and dismissed us out of hand.
If there are 9 confirmed Cougars in Missouri how many are off living in the Mark Twain National Forrest? MTNF takes up a huge chunk of the state. Southern Missouri is perfect habitat for cougars with it’s mountainous forrests and large deer herds. Cougars don’t like people and can live most if not all of their lives without ever being seen by a human.
Scrabbydoo – Your sighting is about as good as it gets. Times have changed a bit since 1993. Reported sightings will now be treated sceptically but seldom are they dismissed out of hand. Several factors now come into play: credibility of witness, location and date of sighting, do ground conditions improve the odds that physical evidence may be present?
I had a sighting in the summer of 2005 on a unit of the Big Muddy Wildlife Refuge. I had two witnesses present. The tan colored animal was 100+ yards away walking down a gravel road with its back to us. It had what appeared to be a turkey in its mouth, making it difficult to really see the head. It turned, lept off the road with the turkey still in its mouth, cleared a drainage ditch filled with water and the last thing I saw was a long tail sailing into the timber. The sighting lasted about 5 or 6 seconds. We spent a half hour looking for physical evidence but couldn’t find any other than a few loose feathers. It was extremely dry and of course it hadn’t stepped near the mud in the ditch.
We reported the sighting to the refuge manager and our local agent and were taken seriously. I wish the sighting had lasted a few seconds longer or that we could have been a bit closer or had binoculars, just so I could be 110% certain of what I saw. But when we replay this event in our minds, by process of elimination the behavior and details we did catch just doesn’t correspond with bobcats, coyotes or foxes or large dogs. Since we work for state parks, we see those critters frequently in the course of our routine work. I know other park employees have had good sightings, especially in the Ozarks parks. But big cats by nature rarely leave good physical evidence of their passing.
Mingo was where the last verified cougar in the state was shot in 1927. Then in 1994, an adult female was shot by hunters in Carter County – it cost them $2,000 each. then in 1996 adult cougars were videotaped in Christian County and one in Reynolds County over a deer kill. Then in 2002 we had our first road kill and it was definitely wild in origin.
It seems likely that many of the current reports are of young adults migrating from the west, looking to establish new territory. Some possible are released/escaped captives but like all cats, they can quickly return to nature, especially if they still have their claws and teeth. The real question now isn’t so much are they are here, it’s are they reproducing here?
You might be interested in checking out the Cougar Network to see about recent sightings. By the way, Maine, Quebec and New Brunswick all have had verified sightings in the past few years.
http://easterncougarnet.org/index.html
They are there and government officials know they are,but they don’t tell people so as not to scare the public.
I tried posting something like this before, but I’m pretty sure it didn’t show up. If it did and this has been read before, I apologize.
Growing up in New Brunswick, I’ve heard allot of stories of Black Panthers being spotted. When I was young, we used to hear them call at night near a lake that we were down the road from. A friend of the family saw one in his yard at least once.
My father heard them screaming where the Dungarven Whooper is supposed to be. He saw one jump in front of him while driving once as well. It landed in the middle of the road, looked at his vehicle coming towards him, and then lept out of sight to the other side of the road.
My great grandparents used to see them playing in a field near where they had a hunting lodge. They were quite far off in the field, but they said they were sure that they were what they said. My great grandparents spent most of their years in the bush, hunting and fishing. My great grandfather has passed, but I should ask my great grandmother if she has any other stories about them. She still lives in the bush by herself in the same hunting lodge… she even has email now. Not bad for 92 years old 🙂 .
Cougars are everywhere.
Yeah it was a good sighting. Wasn’t good for my shorts tho! Which was the only place we could find evidence of our encounter. Suddenly looking a cougar in the eyes tends scare the pajeebies out of someone! LOL