New Mystery Cat Photos Questioned

Is there another unknown felid being seen on the University of Maryland campus? Should we question the quick identification being given to this cat?

C & C Savannahs shows off one of its prize examples of the breed. Carol Streit/Callie Ingram Photo.

Authorities at the College Park campus were able to obtain photographs of an unidentified feline that, while not quite a cougar, they said, seemed far larger than a standard house cat, on Friday, August 1, 2008.

The University of Maryland’s Department of Public Safety said it got surveillance camera pictures of a “large feline” at the edge of a wooded area where what was believed to be a cougar had been reported. In addition, the department said, a university police officer got to see the big cat close up.

The verdict, occurring to the Washington Post, after consulting with the state Department of Natural Resources, was no cougar.

In its size and markings, the safety department said, the mystery cat appeared to be consistent with the savannah cat, which it described as a hybrid of a domestic short haired cat and a larger African feline, the serval.

According to a statement from the safety department, savannahs can weigh as much as 35 pounds, and can be much bigger than house cats. savannahs, the department said, have been called the great danes of the cat world.

As of last night, the savannah cat, if that is truly what it is, remained at large. It was not immediately known how it came to be in the area where reports of cougar sightings Thursday created a summertime stir on campus.

But at Cryptomundo, without the benefit of seeing the photographs, I must question this verdict, based on the marketing hype that these savannahs are generally that big.

One of A1 Savannahs playing in the yard. Could you mistake this cat for a cougar?

The weight of the mystery cat pictured is reportedly estimated to be 35-40 pounds, and yet they are saying it is a savannah cat. The first generation savannahs (in 1986) were 10 to 25 pounds, but today they are generally 8 to 17 pounds.

Male cougars have an average weight of 115 to 160 pounds (53 to 72 kilograms). In rare cases, some cougars may reach over 260 lbs (118 kg). Female cougars average weight is between 34 and 48 kg (75 and 105 lbs). Cougar size is smallest closer to the equator, and larger towards the poles, so the Florida panther, for example, is slimmer than the bulky Montana mountain lion.

Someone may have a different species of cat on their hands, that’s for sure. I doubt it is a domesticated breed, such as the savannah cat. That’s the easy answer but it may also be the wrong one.

Meanwhile, a half-a-world away, as they say, Australia announced on Sunday that they have banned savannah cats from their country.

The most anti-savannah cat articles there would share these kinds of remarks about the weight of the animal: “This hybrid carnivore is twice the size of a domestic cat, with occasional giants (18 kg = 39 lbs) as overwhelming evidence of hybrid vigour.”

Environment Minister Peter Garrett has banned savannah cats from Australia, saying they pose an extreme risk to native animals and the environment. Garrett said he would change the legal definition of “domestic cat” to rule out cats with the genes of the African wildcat, the serval.

Of course, as when the exotic animals act was put into place in the UK in the 1970s, what does this mean will happen to all those Australian pets that happened to be savannah cats? Will there be a massive release of them now? Will spotted feral cats larger than domestic cats be sighted all over the Gold Coast of Australia?

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.

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