I have been talking to someone that insists they have seen a black cougar in the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. I have shown them pictures of Bobcats, which are native to the area, but they claim it is too small, and that the face perfectly matched a cougar. They said that it was certainly not …

I will definitely try to find out if it could have been a domestic cat, or a fisher like “tristanmcknight” suggested. Thank you for all of the help everyone, and I will keep you posted on if I can figure out what my friend saw!

“Black” and “Great Smoky Mountains” makes me immediately think of black bears - they are plentiful in this area and love to climb trees, but I’m not sure how likely one would be to mistake them for large cats. I guess it would have to be very foggy for that.

Nice reference! I encountered a Fisher while in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. I had never encountered the animal previously or known of its existence, being a resident of rural Mid-Atlantic. My first thought was that it may be a feral cat but the tail, the way it moved, and its size left me wit…

Would you be able to point me to such an example?

Thank you to everyone for all of the help! In the end, it is believed that they probably saw a bobcat, although they said it possibly could have been a black bear. Since there is no evidence, we will never know for sure, but at least now we know that it was probably a bobcat or bear, and not a “blac…

The odds are that the person saw an unusually large house cat and in the fog did not accurately judge its size. But if several eyewitness all agree that it was too large to be a house cat, then indeed maybe we all should consider that it there just might be a large black feline on the prowl. But it …

Black panthers in North America, Bigfoot, and house cats the size of cougars are all in the same category: totally unsubstantiated. But show me physical evidence of any of these and I’ll revise my thinking. I’ll wait.

Depending on when and where this animal was seen, my bets are on bear. They’re all over Great Smoky Mountains National Park, plus prowling the streets of surrounding towns like Gatlinburg at night to look for food, many having lost their fear of humans. My personal experience is about 1-3 bear sight…

[puma] could be a bear. could be a feral hog. could be a black lab (i’ve seen people insist that golden retrievers were cougars). But I’ll need solid evidence before I buy a black cougar/leopard/other cat hanging around

Black Cougars in the Great Smoky Mountains

Nature Talk

ptexis February 5, 2022, 11:04pm 20

Housecats NEVER grow to the size of cougars. That is an unsubstantiated and ridiculous claim.

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Black Cougars in the Great Smoky Mountains

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