Well, finally, TWRA is scrambling. Trying to explain, "There is no Cougars in West Tenn" well, now we have an honest trail cam pic, of not Only one pic, but several pics within a couple square miles, of a cougar. No denying it now. All pics were taken between Sept. 19-20. in Obion County Tenn. not 12 miles from my house. Look it up on WKRN news out of Nashville. I want to see them explain it away now, I know several guys that have been seeing one for a couple years, in that area.

I Saw a cougar from W Tn a few times. Was a wild one

Here's the link,

http://wkrn.com/2015/10/06/twra-investigating-photo-that-appears-to-show-cougar-in-west-tenn/

Notice walking through soy beans, the land owner next to where this pic was taken got one in daylight, before dark. I'll try and post another link

TWRA has confirmed the sighting, the cougar has been here for awhile. New Link

http://www.jacksonsun.com/story/news/201...&autologin=

You too?


Edit: it was probably a different cougar, mine was just a regular one and not black.....

Look folks. When evidence like that appears in AL then we will confirm one too. They can't go undetected. They're too large. They leave evidence. So far nobody in this state has provided evidence. Just stories. I'm not denying they could possibly be here, and neither would anyone else in our agency. But if there's as many as people claim to have seen we would have a huntable population.

Thing is Matt is that Obion County is maybe, 30 miles as the crow flies form the Mo. State line. I live in the south/west part of Weakley County, the sighting is maybe, 12 miles or so as the crow flies from my house. I live about a mile from the Obion River, the farm where the pic was taken is in the Obion River bottom. I am like you, if as many existed that was reported to be seen, we would all be seeing evidence. I really don't know what I would do if this thing came by while I'm in a tree.

You can take my story to the bank. Perry County, late 90's I watched one walk across about a 200 yard wide hay field. It walked up and stood at a barb wire fence watching cows for about 5 minutes then back across the hay field toward the river where it came from. Never seen it again but it was dang sure a cat like in the story above.

Crap I hope I ain't started the panther sighting thread for the night.

That must mean they have thousands breeding

They're on the verge of extinction... That's why they're so hard to see......

well , let's say one cougar has a home range of 50 square miles here in alabama . take five and you fill maybe 250 square miles .

i don't believe it take thousands of cougars to have thousands of sightings .

I know Cougars that have a lot smaller home range than that thank goodness.

Bingo!

Not trying to single you out Frankie.

OK... How many thousands and thousands of reports do you think TN has had over the years? Now they have 1 confirmation of a cat. Not real good odds for very many of those reports to be plausible.

Like Matt said, if anyone bring us that picture and we can verify where it was taken then we will confirm it. A good set of tracks would work too but we've yet to see any of those either. I guess cougars don't walk in the dirt.

Or trail cams apparently...sneaky bastards.

i don't believe there have been thousands and thousands of reports . more like a few hundred if my memory is right for what i've read in the past for the southeast . but hey my memory may be getting bad .

how many trails cam pictures from any where have yall seen .

Florida has HUNDREDS of trail cam pics and 3 or 4 get run over every year.

i guess i aint going to the same boards as you . i see two or three a year posted here and there . i don't think i've seen any posted on this board .

I probably have at least hundred people a year tell me they saw a cougar. Most of the time when you really question them it turns out they don't know what they saw. Most people missidentify what they are seeing, but then tell everyone try know it was definitely a panther. If we had even half the Cougars that make up these "sightings" there would be physical evidence of some type, but we have no, none, zero evidence. The places where there are Cougars out west and in Florida they do get pictures and road kills. All that said, it is not out of the realm of possibility that one wanders through Alabama, but I want to see some concrete proof.

If only a fraction, a sliver, of the "I seen a cougar ..." or "I know i saw a black panther ..." or "My granny knows what she saw ..." reports were even true then we'd be up to our ears in mountain lions.

And yet there are no legitimate, verifiable photos of all these reports over the years, tracks, scat, kills, dead ones on roads or anything other than the "I seen a ..." stories. They could be here. They probably are, a few of them.

But with all the game cameras, people driving at night, hunters in the woods and somesuch throughout the ENTIRE Southeast, the legitimate, verifiable and real confirmations are miniscule.

During the same time period, a sheep farmer in that area killed one that was getting into his sheep. He is dead now, but he was nowhere near dumb enough to report it. Could have been the same one.

I don't doubt that, on very rare occasion, a cougar might wander through alabama. I just don't believe there are any residents

They do get a lot of game cam pictures in florida. I grew up in Orlando and have seen one dead on the side of the turnpike just north of the 408. That was rare though it made the news. Deer are just dumb I don't see hogs dead on the side of the road, and no one doubts they exist.

The Russians would like for us to believe that.

Because there's an established, known, legitimate and sizable population of them there.

Clearly that picture wasn't taken in Alabama. That cat is the rare "tan" colored cougar. if it had been taken here it would have been the much more common black panther.

I saw a black panther one time.
He was getting his azz beat by the po-po.

My kind of cougar.

Be afraid.. Be Very afraid.......

In 2013 there was an estimated population of 160 Panthers in the state of Florida. That said, when I lived in Windermere, right outside Orlando, I watched one at 75 yards in mid afternoon for about 5 minutes.

I don't get "official" reports all the time but I get the "I saw a cougar" a couple times a month. I know some of our employees get it more than that. I would really like to know the percentage of the population of AL that has had a cougar "sighting."

NightHunter , i learned a long time ago that you never know what you'll see in the woods .

You have to be careful. They're very dangerous. I live with one. My wife is 7 years older than me. I tell her she was a cougar before they'd even invented the term.

I heard Cougar Meat was real Gamey tastin....

Not true, it's all in the way it's prepared.

Why you want go bringing common sense to a Black Painter, Mountain Lion, Cougar thread?

There has been numerous cougar sighting on the Blount/Etowah county line at Foxxys!!!

I have seen one and only one in 53 years. In Skyline.

I don't think there is a viable population what so ever. I have seen a long tail cat, 2 pm in the afternoon bright sunlight maybe 100 yards. I pointed it out to my bro-n-law since he was with me and riding shotgun. At best it weighed 35-45 lbs, but it was long tailed and a solid tan color. It walked off after looking at us for about a minute or so. Bobcat crossed up with a feral house cat????

There was a big cat rescue in Rogersville years ago. It's crazy how many wild critters are kept as pets. I know the Darby's had 2 in Sheffield, kept in their basement. That was back in the late 70's to early 80's. They also had the sign going into the subdivision full of chimps. A friends father had to keep them and hated those things.

Bill might remember those.

I contend it's possible to have a young male cat pass thru from the wild just like the 2 young male black bears photographed in Waterloo a few years back. Not sure they went, never heard of them being seen otherwise.

At the same time, I'd bet better than 95% of sightings are misidentifications.

I know one wildlife officer that will tell you he saw a cougar in north Pike County a few years ago. Also we found cat tracks just below Troy, called a game warden and he called the state biologist. They came down, took a bunch of measurements and pictures, confirmed it was a cougar. That was about 14 years ago.

I have seen one of these before in a large cow pasture. Once I noticed his tail to be so long I knew it was not a bobcat plus it had no spots. we saw him from 300+ yards away with a pair of binoculars. I was the coolest thing I ever saw even tho no one has ever believed me and my dad. Even our Biologist friend looked at us funny when we told him.
Anyways, Once we knew it was not a bobcat we took off at it wide open on our 4wheelers but when it saw us it took off so fast we didnt even have a chance.
This was in SE alabama. I know he has to be around still, I hope we can see it again someday.

There was a florida cougar killed a few years ago on the georgia side of west point lake, so its possible for them to be present in most of alabama.

How do you know?

yea and you kept telling us that malzahn would have the boys ready to play and we see how true that was.

Duh cause he lives in a cougar sanctuary!

It's all a big gubberment coverup. We all KNOW that they keep all of the couger/panther evidence in a warehouse right outside of Fyffe Al. where they also keep all of the UFO (and mutilated cow) evidence. And all of the Squatch and Chupacabra is in a seperate facility near LuVerne Al.

Y'ALL AIN'T FOOLIN US!!!!!! NO HOW, NO WAY!!!!

No I tell you that, coach Gus Malzen will have the boys ready. Go Tigers!

According to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the last confirmed mountain lion in Alabama was killed around 1948 in St. Clair County. Free ranging mountain lions can still occasionally enter the state, but these instances are highly unlikely. Read more at OutdoorAlabama.com.

the question is what hunter hasn't seen a cougar.

Raising hand now.

ive never seen one in alabama

I've never seen one....black or tan colored.

As much time as I've spent in the woods not a single one.

I did however see plenty of cougar evidence in Wyoming over a freshly killed and covered mule deer carcass. Never seen any of that here. Tracks, scat, you name it.

I'm 39 years old and spend way to much time in the woods sitting in a tree or scouting. Started bow hunting at 9 years old and haven't checked up. I hunt more than anyone I know. Never let me in your hunting club! I hunt all of NW Alabama and have never seen any trace of a mountain lion. If I did I would try to kill it then pay my fine and serve my time in the slammer. Just being honest.

Nighthunter or Matt walk us through what one should do if they harvest one?

Get ready to go to prison.

I don't go piddling around a Cougar sanctuary so I don't have any cool stories.

sorry ain't nobody going to prison for violating a Game and Fish misdemeanor, not even county jail. I'll bet the fine wouldn't be over $2000.00 either.


SSS.....

I have seen (1) Cougar in Alabama in 2002 in Morgan County on a very large tract of property in the Oden Ridge / Eva community. The cat was treed by our coon hounds up a old dead snag about 25 ft up which was in the middle of a large clear-cut. The cat was brown in color and looked to weigh about about 130 lbs, the thing that sticks out the most to me was how calm it seemed just sitting there and the tail that looked like it was 7ft long. We got within about 75 yards when it bailed out of the tree as we approached. A few folks asked why myself and my fellow hunters didn't report it and basically we didn't want to hear some state employee tell us there are no cougars in Alabama. It is probably one of the greatest moments I ever experienced in the outdoors.

I had a club member call me last night informing me he had a picture of a cougar on his trail camera. His ability to stretch the truth is known by all, so I just asked him to send me a copy of it..... Still waiting.

He supposedly got the picture next to some property I own here in Colbert County. I have to admit that I did think I might need to always have a gun with me when on that tract of ground. I myself have never laid eyes on one and really don't care to.

http://www.sanctuarywebsite.com/

Not in bama, but on the bama line in Lawrence County tn. Me and my dad were on our shooting range behind our house when our little fist dog Bayes something in the cutover by the pond.

We walked over thinking she had a rattlesnake, bit it was a 4 pt, still in velvet that had been killed and it was eaten from around the crotch up to around its throat. And covered up in branches and leaves.

Whatever had killed that buck was capable of breaking 1" limbs off and moving them on top of the carcass.

It was either a bear or a mountain lion, but which I dunno