New Maned Lion Report From Virginia

Besides the Mystery Cats known as “Black Panthers,” the other major North American felid cryptids seen are “African Lions,” as per Chapter 13 of Mysterious America.

Not seen as frequently as their melanistic companions, nevertheless, some reports do come in. And the more dots we have, the more often a pattern develops. Such is the case for a new account just sent to me.

Observed on November 10, 2008, a medical clinic employee on her way to work reported that she saw “an African lion, mane and all, chasing cows in a field near her house in Bluefield, Virginia.”

She phoned the police and was so upset by what she’d seen she even phoned several local schools to warn them.

Reportedly, many Mystery Cats reports have surfaced in the Bluefield area in the last year, according to correspondent E. F.

The location of Bluefield, Virginia, is intriguing. It is on the northern border of Virginia, right next to West Virginia. Bluefield proclaims itself as “Virginia’s Tallest Town,” being “nestled in the heights of the Appalachian mountains.”

As the crow flies, it is less than 75 miles south of Trout, West Virginia, the center for some “maned cat” sightings from 2007.

The accounts were published a year ago of an “African lion” being reported from nearby West Virginia. Here at Cryptomundo, I discussed the sightings in which, for example, bow hunter Jim Shortridge saw a full-grown, male African lion weighing between 250 and 300 pounds at the foot of Cold Knob Mountain in October 2007. Other info on the West Virginia maned cat reports are here and here.

What new Virginia sightings will occur before December? Or will this Mystery Cat disappear into the hills?

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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