Mammoth Cave Mystery Cat Sightings

Posted by: Loren Coleman on June 10th, 2006

Captured Cougar

This is a frame from the video of a cougar taken in Willmar, Minnesota, which lead to the capture of the animal on February 1, 2006. Most people didn’t believe the reported cat was anything more than a figment of people’s imagination before the video.

Meanwhile hundreds of miles away, officials in other locations are confronted with similar situations with less imagery. Nevertheless, sometimes it becomes “official business,” merely based on the where and the who of the encounters. Take, for instance, the events unfolding now in Kentucky.

What happens when the United States federal government has to deal with mysterious cryptid cat sightings in the midst of a national park, in an area where these large felids are not officially verified? And the eyewitnesses include park employees? They issue a press release, of course, as per the following, to attempt to explain the situation to a wondering public:

Mammoth Cave National Park Superintendent Patrick Reed announced on June 7, 2006, that reports of cougar sightings within the park have increased in the past nine months. Three reports have been received since September 2005.

“Right now, we don’t have a lot of information,” said Reed. “These are only sightings. We have not recovered any hard evidence of a cougar in the park. The existence of a cougar in Mammoth Cave National Park would be unusual because we are hundreds of miles from where cougars are known to exist. However, for the safety of our visitors, employees, and park neighbors, we’d like to make them aware of the sightings.”

Park staff are in consultation with state and federal officials regarding the likelihood of a native cougar (Puma concolor, also known as mountain lion, puma, panther and catamount) immigrating into the area, or the possibility of a non-native animal being illegally released here. In addition, park staff are attempting to confirm these sightings by obtaining credible field evidence – photo, scat, hair, tracks, or an animal killed by a cougar. Presently, cougar populations can be found in southern Florida, from the Rocky Mountains west to the Pacific coast, the Dakotas, Missouri, and south Texas. Male cougars appear to be expanding their range eastward towards the Mississippi River. A single male cougar’s home range can be from 125 square miles to 175 square miles – Mammoth Cave National Park is 80 square miles.

Park staff are also compiling a list of safety tips based on those used in National Park Service areas where cougars are present:

Always hike, backpack, and camp with a companion. Be aware of your surroundings.

If you see a cougar, make eye contact and stand your ground. Make yourself appear large by shouting and waving your arms. Do not bend over or crouch down. Back away slowly – never run from a cougar; this may trigger their instinct to chase. Fight back aggressively if attacked.

Supervise children closely. Don’t allow them to run ahead or lag behind.

“There have been isolated reports of cougars in the park since the 1960s,” added Reed. “The frequency of the recent cougar sightings, and the fact that some of the reports came from our own staff, has raised our level of attention. If there is a cougar using the park, the level of risk to humans is likely to be very low. Mammoth Cave National Park is a natural place – it is not tame. Be aware and respectful of all the park inhabitants – butterfly or tick, wildflower or poison ivy, raccoon or possibly a cougar.”

(News release courtesy of The National Park Service.)

Loren Coleman 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.


19 Responses to “Mammoth Cave Mystery Cat Sightings”

  1. Fyre responds:

    I personally saw a cougar in a different part of Kentucky over twenty years ago. I was riding my horse through a heavily wooded area when I came across one about six feet off the ground in a tree. I saw it just long enough to see what it was, then after it ran off my horse and I scattered. I told the owner of the farm, who alerted the game warden, who basically patted me on the head and said I was mistaken. But the tracks and the claw marks were there, plus the area had more than enough deer to sustain a cougar or two.

  2. traveler responds:

    i have seen cougar in two different states. i have seen one in the UP of MI. as well has my father and my mother on seperate occasions, and i have seen one of the elusive wild florida panthers in charlotte county, fl

  3. One Eyed Cat responds:

    Well at least no one had to get hurt before Mammoth Cave National Park officials released a warning one could be in the area! That’s a positive step anyway.

    Remembering any wildlife park/reserve or just nearby woods is a wild area and people should remain on guard is something EVERYBODY Visiting these areas NEEDS to remember.

  4. larzker responds:

    That cougar’s neck looks unusually long in that photo.

  5. jayman responds:

    When I was growing up in western Illinois in the 50s and 60s, I remember reports of people seeing cougar-like big cats in the area. The local paper had a resident “naturalist” who they always went to with wildlife questions. The guy promptly harrumphed that cougars had been extinct in the area for over a century, implying that people were seeing things. But, maybe not.

  6. twblack responds:

    The more we expand the more places they have to move to live and find food and give birth to their young. This does not surprise me one ounce. I hope no people or Big Cats have to get hurt or killed. But you know the way things seem to be going one day in the future the only places we may be able to see some of the Bigger type wildlife will be in a zoo.
    #4 when I saw the photo the neck jumped out to me also! Just from the angle of the photo I figure.

  7. Jeremy_Wells responds:

    Fyre, What part of Kentucky?
    I know of reports from Greenup and Lewis Counties.

  8. One Eyed Cat responds:

    the cougar’s neck is a optical illusion from the cat having it’s neck turned. I saw it many time in my house cat. Interestingly in his younger days one of my ‘nicknames’ for him was minuture Black panther – he never lost that built

  9. John Ryan responds:

    Another “big cat” sighting, heh? I’m still trying to find witnesses to the sightings a month or so ago around Andrews AFB here in Md. I’m still puzzled by how these “cats” can simply disappear within a congested, urban area.

  10. charlie23 responds:

    “Fight back aggressively if attacked.”
    …sounds like some good advice there…

  11. Jeremy_Wells responds:

    #9
    Well, Mr Ryan, I can’t speak for the Andrews AFB area, but as a Kentuckian born and raised, I can tell you that it isn’t just the 80 square miles of Mammoth Cave National Park that are forested. The entire state is pretty rural. We used to vacation at Mammoth Caves when I was a youngster and the entire area is rural (it’s what the tourists and the natives want). There are plenty of places for a cougar to hide.
    Answer me this, what are the chances of finding one HUMAN who wants to stay hidden within a 125 to 175 mile area? Now instead of a human, make it a big cat that is more comfortable in the environment, has padded paws that let it move stealthily and quietly through the woods, that can hide on a strong vertical branch of a tree, etc.
    I know people that have lived in cougar country their whole lives and never seen one, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.
    I know there are red foxes in eastern Kentucky, but in over 20 years of hunting have only seen one ONCE in the forests. I know we have bobcats too, but the only one I’ve ever seen was a roadkill specimen that someone brought to my taxidermist uncle.
    The very existence of these big predators depends on their stealth. If prey (or predator/man) knows they are there, they don’t get to eat. Simple as that.
    In fact, I’m amazed that we get to see them as often as we do.

  12. DWA responds:

    As the man once said: absence of evidence is not evidence of an absence.

    I’m struck, over 26 years of backpacking, paddling, hiking and x-c skiing, how few predators — and carcasses, and heck, predator tracks for that matter — I have seen. Example: mink: never. Bobcat: one, crossing a road in front of my car. Foxes, one here, one there, maybe not more than a dozen or so sightings all told. Coyotes: six or fewer. I could go on.

    Then we have okapis, which are HUGE, showing up, all of a sudden, in a Congo park where they’ve been presumed extinct since 1959.

    We’ll never give wildlife enough credit for having us figured out.

  13. M Valdemar responds:

    It’s worth noting that cats are probably the smartest land-based predators out there, and most of their intelligence is used for stealth. There’s nothing cryptid about bobcats, for example; they’re widely distributed throughout the midwest, and yet most people — even outdoors enthusiasts and naturalists — never see one in the wild. Because bobcats don’t want to be seen.

    What’s almost more suprising to me about these out-of-place cougars is that they actually let themselves be seen. That seems unlikely, unless they really are out of their familiar element.

    By the way, does anybody actually say “catamount” any more? I mean, other than grizzled old prospecters, consarnit.

  14. John Ryan responds:

    Mr. Wells, et al., I’m not denying that ‘big cats’ were seen at Andrews AFB; I’ve spoken to two people who actually saw three of them. My point was that for a few days the cats are seen, and then they disappear, never to be seen again. As congested as the suburban Maryland area is, I just don’t know where these cats can go and not be seen again. Once again, I’m not denying the sightings; it’s the ‘afterwards’ in these type of cases that always puzzled me. Thanks for the response.

  15. shumway10973 responds:

    very simple reasons for these animals being “where they’re not suppose to be” 1) when our forefathers set things up they never really took inventory of the animals living there. plus if it was a predator, it was killed. 2) since most places killing one of these majestic animals is illegal (in california you almost have to prove you were going to die) so their numbers are out of control. Each year every female has at least 2 babies. They may stay with mommy for about a year, then she chases them off. the average cougar in california has a territory of between 25 and 50 square miles (I believe), so when they are sent away, they have to find their own territories. I’m not sure what year it was that we started protecting them, but over time they have really spread out. There have been reports of cougars being seen in downtown Los Angeles, getting their fill on those little kick-me dogs the rich and famous love.

  16. Kultarr responds:

    Not surprising at all. How hard could it be for a cougar to pick up and move. Their normal territory is mostly houses now anyway. Where do you expect them to go? I don’t think that advice on what to do if you see a cougar is anything special. No matter what you do you’re still a walking hamburger to them. They’ll eat you anyway. Travel in groups, a cougar could take down one person, but not five.

  17. kittenz responds:

    I live in the easternmost county of Kentucky, in the Appalachian Mountains. The notion that the eastern cougar or mountain lion ever became extinct is a fallacy. (And yes, M Valdemar, lots of people in these parts, ‘specially the old folks, still say “catamount”- usually prononced “cattiemount” – and “painter”). There has always been a remnant population of mountain lions. There are a LOT of whitetail deer here now, after a population rebound, and there is a pretty sizable elk herd too. And there is lots and lots of wild, hilly country, forested and with huge sandstone cliffs and monoliths topping nearly every mountain.

    The most appropriate of the cougar’s many names is puma, since it is a native American word. You don’t often see pumas because they go to great lengths to avoid being seen & they are few, and far between.

    I did see one in Kentucky, but not close to home. I was driving out around Cave Run Lake, down in the Knobs. The country there is all rolling foothills and very rural. It was a cold day in late March, in 1992. I saw an animal running beside the highway, far ahead of me, maybe a half mile. I thought at first that it was a dog, but as I drew closer to it I saw that it was not running the same way that a dog runs. I slowed down as I got closer to it and realized that it was a puma. It was not huge, it was maybe about 6 feet long or so. As I drew level with it I saw its beautiful face. It was so wild and beautiful. I guess I spooked it because just as I drew up beside it, it disappeared into the brush on the hillside. It was there one second and then seemingly without any effort it was gone.

    I will never forget it.

  18. cantuckee responds:

    I also live in southeastern Kentucky and the old timers around here are talking about the big cats coming back into the areas. My Mother living in north central Kentucky had close encounter with a black panther laying in the cornfield adjoining her garden a couple of years ago. They were a 1/4 mile from a small town on the banks of the Ohio river. Look at the amount of streams, creeks and smaller rivers in the State. This animal ran back for the cover of the creek bottoms when it discovered it was seen. This is how they are moving around without being seen. Few people live in the bottoms that flood regularly. There exists lots of wildlife and cover there. Why should they come up around people?

  19. Jehanks0615 responds:

    In late summer of 2007 I was with my son in-law scounting a family farm where we have hunted for years. One side of th efarm is bordered by a large creek that empties into the Ohio River less than a mile from the farm.

    While scouting one day, we noticed several tracks adjacent to the creek that were not familiar. We took several pictures and researched the tracks on the internet. The only tracks that matched what we found were Puma Tracks.

    Later in the fall, I was driving into the back area of the farm. There is a stretch of this gravel road that runs parallel to the creek for a few hundred yards. This feild forms a corner with a patch of bottom woods exactly where we had seen the tracks earlier. Just then an animal came out of the woods, cross the corner of the field and went over a short berm into the crrek. There is no doubt in my mind what I had just seen. It was only in view for several seconds then gone. Low, sleek and a long curled tail. It was the Puma / Cougar we had seen the tracks of earlier.

    We then realized why that summer and fall, we had neither seen or heard coyotes.

    J.H

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