Cougars in MS?

[BeastMan]

And no I'm not talking about the kind that live in Reunion... There was recently the first confirmed sighting in LA in years. Are there any here in MS?

http://www.louisianasportsman.com/details.php?id=10375

[BrunswickDawg]

Its only a matter of time. There are occasional "wanderings" of Florida Panthers into deep south GA near the Okefenokee - Clinch, Charlton, & Ware Counties. DNR always chalks it up to dumped pets or bobcats - but it is often enough locals swear there is a population.

Bobcats are coming back too. They had been on Cumberland for a few years and finally showed up on Jekyll about 2 years ago. Great signs for the environment.

Now, if we could just find and Ivory Billed Woodpecker.....

[WeWillScrewItUp]

5 or so years back my grandpa and all of his neighbors in Wilkinson County saw a mom and a few kittens. They were regulars for a few weeks then disappeared. I don't bowhunt behind his house anymore without my .40

[Uncle Ruckus]

My step dad shot at one while out working on our huntin land this year. I know it sounds stupid and shooting at one is even more stupid, but he wouldn't lie.

[starkvegasdawg]

The official stance of the MDWFP and the MSU Wildlife department is that there are no mountain lions in MS. Any biologist that even hints at anything different is basically blackballed. We had this drilled into us while taking classes for the wildlife biology degree. Their logic is that MS doesn't have the habitat in large enough unbroken quantity to support a viable breeding population. But, for them to take that and extrapolate it to we don't ever have any in here ever is a bit of a stretch. I can say that because I don't work in the wildlife field so nothing they can do to me. I will say this. A friend of mine that worked for a private wildlife biology agency in the delta several years ago had a woman call him swearing up and down she had seen on in her yard and wanted him to come out and investigate. Coming from the same background as me he was extremely skeptical, but he went. He told me the following and it's as close to a direct quote as I can remember 15 or so years later:

"I'm going to tell you this right now and if you ever repeat one word of it I'll deny til my dying day, but I think she saw one. I took my field guide out there and track shape matched, track size matched, and distance between tracks while walking was a dead on match, too. If this were anywhere else it wouldn't be up for discussion, but I can't say that here."

So, while the official stance is there are none and if anybody happens to see anything they either misidentified it, or saw someone's exotic pet that escaped and will soon be dead...I am of the opinion where there is smoke there is fire. And there is a lot of smoke around mountain lions in MS for far too long. Even my dad said he saw one back when he was a boy and my uncle said he didn't see anything that night but whatever was out there had their dog scared to death and cowering under their car. We know they are in FL, TN, LA, and AR. Why the hell not can one be in MS at least passing through?

Now, this is in no way related to the ubiquitous black panther that everybody claims to see. That, I am pretty sure does not exist. The nearest range of a large black cat (jaguar) is down in South America. I don't think any of those have been able to migrate from Brazil up to MS. Any sightings of those was either an escaped exotic, or a complete misidentification that may or may not have been aided by Budweiser. The large cat native to this part of the world is the tan colored mountain lion - Felix Concolor - that does go by several local names depending on region.

[Jack Lambert]

I have seen a bunch of Cougars in Madison and Rankin counties and a lot of MILFS.

[louisvilledawg]

The last cougar I saw was out at the Hunting club, near bulldog lanes. Latricia was her name, i think

[Westdawg]

i can tell you without any shadow of a doubt that i have seen one on two separate occasions - once in summer of 1999 outside of Goodman near our family farm. I know that's what it was because my brother and i saw it laying down in the grass next to the county road we were going down. we turned around and went back by it three times. it laid there with its tail twitching back and forth over its body....quite an amazing sight, actually. when we stopped beside it on the third time, it stood up and walked back in the woods.
the second one i saw i was with my wife as we were headed from Kosciusko towards West. We made a bend in the road and my high beams saw it on an embankment that went up from the road. we stopped and i pulled out my q beam and watched it for about 30 seconds before it finally walked off. She was scared to death. she had heard mine and my brothers accounts of our time back in college and thought we were kidding with her. Mind you, my wife and i have both seen many bobcats and i and many members of my family have killed several large bobcats over the years, so we knew what we were watching was not a bobcat. it also had a long tail that curved and went straight out from its back along the same horizontal line as its back .
There is no biologist that will convince me of what the MDWFP says. They say if you find one to turn it over, but if you do happen to kill one, then you face federal charges for killing an endangered/protected species. That is why those who have probably done so have never turned it over.

[BulldogBear]

The official stance of the MDWFP and the MSU Wildlife department is that there are no mountain lions in MS. Any biologist that even hints at anything different is basically blackballed. We had this drilled into us while taking classes for the wildlife biology degree. Their logic is that MS doesn't have the habitat in large enough unbroken quantity to support a viable breeding population. But, for them to take that and extrapolate it to we don't ever have any in here ever is a bit of a stretch. I can say that because I don't work in the wildlife field so nothing they can do to me. I will say this. A friend of mine that worked for a private wildlife biology agency in the delta several years ago had a woman call him swearing up and down she had seen on in her yard and wanted him to come out and investigate. Coming from the same background as me he was extremely skeptical, but he went. He told me the following and it's as close to a direct quote as I can remember 15 or so years later:

"I'm going to tell you this right now and if you ever repeat one word of it I'll deny til my dying day, but I think she saw one. I took my field guide out there and track shape matched, track size matched, and distance between tracks while walking was a dead on match, too. If this were anywhere else it wouldn't be up for discussion, but I can't say that here."

So, while the official stance is there are none and if anybody happens to see anything they either misidentified it, or saw someone's exotic pet that escaped and will soon be dead...I am of the opinion where there is smoke there is fire. And there is a lot of smoke around mountain lions in MS for far too long. Even my dad said he saw one back when he was a boy and my uncle said he didn't see anything that night but whatever was out there had their dog scared to death and cowering under their car. We know they are in FL, TN, LA, and AR. Why the hell not can one be in MS at least passing through?

Now, this is in no way related to the ubiquitous black panther that everybody claims to see. That, I am pretty sure does not exist. The nearest range of a large black cat (jaguar) is down in South America. I don't think any of those have been able to migrate from Brazil up to MS. Any sightings of those was either an escaped exotic, or a complete misidentification that may or may not have been aided by Budweiser. The large cat native to this part of the world is the tan colored mountain lion - Felix Concolor - that does go by several local names depending on region.

Yeah, I don't know what the denial is all about. I mean, nobody thinks we have a large population, if any actually LIVE here. There could be a large number that wander in and through but don't stick around except for maybe a few. But there is no denying that they are both spotted and heard (sounds eerily close to a woman screaming - very unnerving at night I assure you). I've never seen one IN MISSISSIPPI but believe I've heard some occasionally in wetland areas. Growing up in Adams County, people used to complain all the time about hearing "panthers" in the swampy areas. I HAVE seen and heard them in New Mexico. See my comments below Westdawg's post I quoted.

As for Jaguars they are actually sighting a few on cameras these days occasionally in South Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. It's not inconceivable their range might one day head this way but we're probably talking decades, plus a large population, and just the right conditions, etc.


i can tell you without any shadow of a doubt that i have seen one on two separate occasions - once in summer of 1999 outside of Goodman near our family farm. I know that's what it was because my brother and i saw it laying down in the grass next to the county road we were going down. we turned around and went back by it three times. it laid there with its tail twitching back and forth over its body....quite an amazing sight, actually. when we stopped beside it on the third time, it stood up and walked back in the woods.
the second one i saw i was with my wife as we were headed from Kosciusko towards West. We made a bend in the road and my high beams saw it on an embankment that went up from the road. we stopped and i pulled out my q beam and watched it for about 30 seconds before it finally walked off. She was scared to death. she had heard mine and my brothers accounts of our time back in college and thought we were kidding with her. Mind you, my wife and i have both seen many bobcats and i and many members of my family have killed several large bobcats over the years, so we knew what we were watching was not a bobcat. it also had a long tail that curved and went straight out from its back along the same horizontal line as its back .
There is no biologist that will convince me of what the MDWFP says. They say if you find one to turn it over, but if you do happen to kill one, then you face federal charges for killing an endangered/protected species. That is why those who have probably done so have never turned it over.

Again, I don't know what the state of Mississippi's head in sandness is all about. As noted above, I've seen them, just not in Mississippi. Let me be clear to anybody reading this. A COUGAR IS NOT SOMETHING ONE MISTAKES FOR A BOBCAT. Maybe if they're kittens. For that matter the puma/cougar/mountain lion has a tail that is about 1/3 or so of it's body length. If a housecat had the coloring of a cougar, the same fur texture, and somehow or other your depth perception and/or scale perception were off, you would sooner mistake "Max" or "Spot" for a cougar than you would a bobcat. Even then, the cougar has a longer, leaner, smoother look than most housecats. Seriously, the whole mistaken identity thing has become laughable at this point. It reminds me of the movie "The Commencharos" when John Wayne is speaking with his prisoner about telling the difference between "friendly" Indians and Commanches. He also compares it to seeing a hognose snake as opposed to a rattler. He basically said when finally see a Commanche or rattler, you won't mistake it for a "friendly" Indian or a harmless snake respectively. It is similar with the Mountain Lion. If a person is reasonably sure they saw a cougar...they did. It doesn't really resemble a bobcat or housecat very much.


I have seen a bunch of Cougars in Madison and Rankin counties and a lot of MILFS.

Jack, I knew someone would get around that eventually. Yep, I'm married to one. Two years older than me anyway. I mess with her all the time. I used to have a cougar's growl as her ringtone on my phone. I've always thought that once women hit their 30s they get sexier and sexier for a couple of decades. My wife currently falls in that 30-50 age group so I'm living the dream for a while!!!

[TUSK]

The last cougar I saw was out at the Hunting club, near bulldog lanes. Latricia was her name, i think

I saw a Bammer fan with a UA diploma in East Pickens County, once....

[GoToHellOleMiss]

Now, if we could just find and Ivory Billed Woodpecker.....

Last year at the refuge (Noxubee) after a day of deer huntin my son tells me about seeing a large woodpecker. I said yeah they were all around me too. Cutting up and making a racket. He said no...this one was really big. I didn't think much about it.

Two weeks later we're at Bellingrath Gardens to see the Christmas lights and we walk into the Bellingrath home. In the lobby is a large display case with a porcelain statue of an Ivory Billed Woodpecker. My son walks up to it and turns around and says, "Hey dad, this is the woodpecker I saw."

No reason to doubt him....he didn't know the significance of it.

[BrunswickDawg]

Last year at the refuge (Noxubee) after a day of deer huntin my son tells me about seeing a large woodpecker. I said yeah they were all around me too. Cutting up and making a racket. He said no...this one was really big. I didn't think much about it.

Two weeks later we're at Bellingrath Gardens to see the Christmas lights and we walk into the Bellingrath home. In the lobby is a large display case with a porcelain statue of an Ivory Billed Woodpecker. My son walks up to it and turns around and says, "Hey dad, this is the woodpecker I saw."

No reason to doubt him....he didn't know the significance of it.
Pileated Woodpeckers and Ivory Billed look a whole lot a like - enough to be mistake for each other easily. But, there have been sightings in Arkansas and Texas so Noxubee would be plausible. There has been rumor here in the swamps along the Altamaha River - which still has virgin cypress stands. I'd love to see one.

[Westdawg]

I have a friend here in the Delta who has a video that I will try to get a copy of it or the link he shared of it on Facebook.
He had a LARGE cat come out on an 8 ft tall levee around one of his duck holes. Got some decent video of it. Can't tell definitely if it is a bobcat or a cougar, but there is no denying that it is a monster size cat

[greenbean]

With all the trail cams and peeps in the woods with cell phone cameras we would have proof beyond a doubt if there were any.

[patdyeisstilldrunk]

Last year at the refuge (Noxubee) after a day of deer huntin my son tells me about seeing a large woodpecker. I said yeah they were all around me too. Cutting up and making a racket. He said no...this one was really big. I didn't think much about it.

Two weeks later we're at Bellingrath Gardens to see the Christmas lights and we walk into the Bellingrath home. In the lobby is a large display case with a porcelain statue of an Ivory Billed Woodpecker. My son walks up to it and turns around and says, "Hey dad, this is the woodpecker I saw."

No reason to doubt him....he didn't know the significance of it.


I've done a lot of research on this, and your son saw the Pileated woodpecker, no the Lord God Bird. They are similar sized and marked, but the underside of the wings are different. The double-tap that the IB makes isn't like the Pileated. There were some ornithologists from Cornell who thought they got an IB on camera about 10 years ago down in the Choctawhatchee Swamp in FL, but it hasn't been confirmed.

[99jc]

I've done a lot of research on this, and your son saw the Pileated woodpecker, no the Lord God Bird. They are similar sized and marked, but the underside of the wings are different. The double-tap that the IB makes isn't like the Pileated. There were some ornithologists from Cornell who thought they got an IB on camera about 10 years ago down in the Choctawhatchee Swamp in FL, but it hasn't been confirmed.

MSU we did research on the noxubee for endangered species of woodpeckers and the only one that existed there was the red cockaded.

[BB30]

Pileated Woodpeckers and Ivory Billed look a whole lot a like - enough to be mistake for each other easily. But, there have been sightings in Arkansas and Texas so Noxubee would be plausible. There has been rumor here in the swamps along the Altamaha River - which still has virgin cypress stands. I'd love to see one.

Our duck camp is in arkansas and they are nuts for the Ivory Billed Woodpecker up there. My question is how do they verify that that is the bird that was actually seen? Picture evidence? I have seen some pileated woodpeckers that were huge. I just don't know how you could really tell the difference unless you knew what you were looking for to differentiate between the two. I know Arkansas has spent a ton of money trying to find that last damn Ivory billed WP in that state and have come up empty handed.

[Duckdawg]

Had one jump across the road in front of us in Line Creek Bottom in Clay Co late one night after a State football game. No doubt what it was. My dad asked a game warden about it and he said, "oh yeah, we get reports of em all the time". He said they thought it was ones people had bought as exotic pets and released when they got too big.

[CrosscityDawg]

You nailed this one. MDWFP will not admit they are in Mississippi. I was called out to investigated numerous reports over the years. Some were credible some were not. I even had track castings and was told they were not lion tracks. After 100+ hours of every kind of "ology" class you can think of and on the job training, I'm pretty confident in many of the calls I investigated.