Tiger Sighted In Texas
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 19th, 2009
Beginning last Tuesday, December 15, 2009, several folks around Oyster Creek, Texas, (population 1200) began reporting they were seeing specifically a mystery cat with black and orange striping patterns, crossing near the Buc-ee’s Truck Stop at FM 523 and Highway 332. One sighting on Friday, December 18, 2009, was by a fisherman who said he saw a tiger on the shore of the stream actually named Oyster Creek.
The town in Brazoria County is about fifty miles south of Houston, just north of Freeport, and very close to the Gulf of Mexico, in Texas.
Oyster Creek Police Sgt. Rick Hempel told the Associated Press on December 18, 2009, that police have received “several recent but unconfirmed reports of a tiger sighted.” He noted that most eyewitnesses “described the animal simply as a large cat.”
Media reports have been coming in from the Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, KHOU, MyFox Houston, and other Texas sources.
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.
Since Texas is within its historical range, could this “large cat” be a jaguar moving back into its old territory? I’d like to think so. The only other chance I see is an escapee from a safari park or maybe one of those obscene “big game hunter ranches” where semi-tamed exotics are slaughtered by delusional “big game hunters”. If the cat is from a safari park or one of those hunter ranches, its chances of surviving in the wild are slim. So let’s all pray for the jaguar.
There are thought to be around 4,000 tigers in the wild and around 5,000 privately owned in North America. One is bound to get out. That being written I have heard of large mountain lions being sighted around Joe Pool Lake (south of Dallas) on several occasions by individuals I know. While there are large cats migrating into areas where we haven’t seen them before (or in quite some time) with all of the “exotic” animal ranches around Texas a tiger getting loose is to be expected… why doesn’t that thought frighten me more than it does?
As long as people are allowed to buy ANY type of big dangerous animal without ANY type of control or record keeping ,this “pets” are going to get out or let out without any legal problems for the “owners”. I hope that this “big black and orange cat is just a hybrid savana domesticated house cat. Personally if I saw a Tiger in the wild outside my house in the East Texas woods I think I could tell the difference. And probably need to change my pants. I hope this cat is found before someone gets killed. Of course the “owner will not have to worry about any criminal charges, as it is not required to report to the authorities if your “pet” tiger gets lose. Just look what happened to the chimp on drugs did to the lady and the courts said the owner was not at fault in any way of letting her “pet” 200+ lb chimp run lose in the neighborhood and try to kill a lady AND the officers that responded to to the call that the chimp was trying to kill her friend.
Maybe ths could be a jaguarundi, or a jaguar, but I doubt that anyone would be confused between a tiger and one of the local big cats like a jaguar or jaguarundi. The size difference is obvious. Even a small tiger is bigger than a large Jaguar. I would say that some idiot either lost or released their exotic pet. These big animals are not pets. When aare people going to wake up. If Sigfried and Roy were attacked anyone can be, they worked with tigers for decades, and all their training was still not enough to stop an attack. I sincerely hope noone loses their life over this.
Interesting. I live about 40miles north of Oyster Creek. I’m an avid news reader and must have missed this story. I have also been busy with the holidays. I wonder if by chance it is a domestic variety of the Savannah Cat or Bengal Cat or Toyger. Probably just a mis-identification, but who knows! There are some very rural areas down this way, this cat could easily survive in the wild down here. I’ll keep my eyes open when I’m in the area.
SIRUPAPERS, I have a friend camping at Joe Pool Lake this coming New Years. I’ll be sure to let him know to keep his eyes open for large cats. Matter of fact I camped there last Memorial Day, but I’m sure we made enough noise to scare off any creatures.
Graybear makes an excellent point. Could indeed be a jaguar (i.e., “panther”) returning to its habitat. Stretching, I know, but wouldn’t it be fun if it WAS the case???
Firstly, the Dallas Museum of Natural History has a stuffed jaguarundi (which I have seen often) in its display and it is no larger than a common tom cat, so I doubt that this little thought of feline is the offender (not to mention that the average jaguarundi is grayish brown and black not orange). Secondly, I’m starting to get a little tired of people claiming misidentified alley cats as the cause of alien big cat sightings. As pass holders to the Dallas Zoo my children love going to see the tiger exhibit every time we go, I simply cannot believe that someone would look at a loose house cat and mistake it for something as large as a tiger. I know that being a trained professional artist gives me an advantage in the realm of observation of the natural world but that would be like mistaking one of those two-seater smart cars for a fully loaded 18 wheeler! I just don’t buy that.
Oh, and planettom, I’d be more concerned with wild pittbulls than mountain lions. Most wild animals stay alive by avoiding human contact, but with all of the recent abandoned pitts running around the South Dallas region (that have no fear of humans) they’d be my primary concern. But I hope they enjoy themselves, Joe Pool is beautiful in the winter.
PS: MonsterQuest, in their episode on the alien big cats in England, did an excellent job of showing that people could generally tell the difference between a house cat and a larger exotic cat at distance.
Well, I think people could tell the difference between stripes and spots at a distance. My best guess is that someone owned a pet tiger without a license (you need one in Texas) so they didn’t report it when it escaped.