Sighting from 1965 Large Black Cats Observed
Reported: Thu 12/27/2007 7:33 PM to www.savethecougar.org
Date of Observation: Approx. 1965
County: Jackson
Location: Description: Jackson County near the Grand River between River Junction and Tompkins Center, north of Maple Lane Road.
Sighting Description:
"The year was approximately 1965. The location was near the Grand River in Jackson County between Rives Junction and Tompkins Center, 12 miles northwest of Jackson. My parents owned a 413 acre dairy farm on which my older brother and I saw a Black Panther on two occasions. During my 22 years on the farm we had seen perhaps over 100 times our farm cats in the hay fields and pasture fields hunting for mice. We had also seen hundreds of deer cross our pasture field between the 2 wood lots on either side of the pasture-hay field. We knew then what farm cats and deer looked like in our fields. I was about 18 years old at the time. What my older brother and I saw was a black panther type animal crossing our field. Its body was about as long as a doe deer, shorter legs, jet black in color, and a long tail nearly as long as its body. It was obviously in the cat family. My brother and I estimated at the time that the cat with its tail was about 5 to 6 feet long—from nose to the tip of its tail! We both said, "It is a Black Panther!" as we watched it lope across the well-grazed pasture field-hay field, in the same location that deer regularly crossed the field. We saw it do the same thing on two occasions within a few weeks of each other. I have been an avid hunter since I was 14 years old and now I am 60. A few years ago I harvested a 162 pound tom mountain lion in Montana. I have been a student of wildlife since my early teens. I know the difference, without question, between a domestic cat, a deer of any size, and a mountain lion, and a black panther type cat!"