Dogs can't do much with a decent size cat. I have been a many miles behind tree dogs day and night and I've never seen a bobcat treed. We have ran and treed what I think was a bobcat several times. Each time at night and we got nearly to the tree and the dogs would leave out and tree again a couple hundred yards away. One night we walked several miles just trying to catch the dogs. From what I have been told it takes a big pack to run a cat. I have killed one bobcat while hunting with dogs. I think the beagles were tracking it but I can't swear to it. They were running in a thicket and we let them run for a while , several loops then went in. The dog owner thought he saw a rabbit, said I just saw it and it's a big one set here and you will kill him. Dogs made the loop and went within 20 feet of me but nothing ahead of them. I thought I must have missed it then the cat came slipping behind them. I gave him both barrels of 12 gage bird shot when he looked at me. I think he had got that far ahead of them and was probably 30 yards behind them.

Sure are a lot of definite yes answers on here for something that does not exist in AL.

From the comments:"
I saw a large dark brown cat 3 days ago on my way home from work in south side alabama ( etowah county)!! It was approx 5.5-6 feet in length and had a long tail. It just walked slowly across the road and down into the woods. "

Which one of y'all is this?

Yep. I think I remember seeing one at Paul's sporting goods on 69 south in ttown back in about 1990 or so.

No, I have not.

I have never seen one for sure, but I had a big cat cross the road in front of me one morning headed to church. It came trotting off the side of a mountain, across a deep ditch and the road in about three steps. I honestly dont know what it was other than BIG, like German Shephard size. I don't remember seeing a tail, but it was much bigger than any bobcat I've ever seen.

About 3 years ago, my wife called me about 3 in the afternoon. She said " what kinda cat is dark tan, about the size of Claire ( my parents yellow lab), and has a long tail with a black tip?" I asked why. She said one just walked across the road in front of her.

Jackson, Madison, Marshal countys. Not Bkack, just mountain lions.

I was bow hunting with a buddy of mine in Bullock county around 2004. We were hunting a hardwood bottom and this big cat came in about 30 min before dark. It was tan with a long tail and no doubt it was what it was. Not a bob cat, not a yote, not a dog or even the Easter bunny. We both saw it and looked at it through binocs. Having said that, we ran cameras in that area before and after seeing it and never got a pic. A guy that hunted with us said he saw one not far from there a few years prior. Mountain lions/cougars may not live in Alabama, but they must visit from time to time.

I was around 12 or 13. I was sitting in my stand kept hearing something move around behind me. Never got to see it. But right before dark i heard a scream from a big cat between me and the truck. Lol I dont what kind it was but in my mind it sounded hungry and my stand was pretty comfortable. I hung around until my dad came to see what was wrong.

I have never seen one, but know a couple of people who I trust 100% that say they have seen them from the stand while hunting in Bullock county.

Where is Bluetick when we need him?

He's running a still...and on the run last I heard.....

Here is the problem. The DCNR does not take the stance that there isn't an occosional cougar seen. The problem comes into play with us having a breeding population, which we don't. Any we have are transients or released. We cannot verify big cats with any technique used to sample large carnivors. If every cougar sighting was valid, AL would have the largest cougar population in the country. Lots of folks just aren't seeing what they think they are.

I watched mine for about 5 minutes I am positive what it was.

I am not saying you are wrong but I had a well respected guy tell me the same thing about bigfoot.

A friend of mine says he saw one in Bibb Co. years ago and I know he knows his critters.

which sammy's , lol one of the two in b'ham or ft walton or pensacola . was this back around 82 or 83 ?

I can tell you how to get rid of them. just yell real loud "get out of here" and they will never come back. I learned that from watching mountain men.

I went ahead and read the article before reading this thread. When I saw the results of the survey, stating that right at 50% of the folks that answered said that they have seen a panther in Alabama, I laughed.

Now, I read the entire thread, and see that about 80% of the people in this thread think they've seen one too. Instead of laughing, it scares me. Not because of the presence of panthers in Alabama, but because some of you are toting high powered rifles around in the woods, spotting things that just aren't there. No wonder hunters get shot in the woods every year.