Black panthers do not exist as a species.
If you open any field guide to wild cats of the world, there will be no species as a “black panther”.
All of the large black cats you see on television and in zoos are black (melanistic) jaguars and leopards. They are not a separate species but a variant of those cats that show an overload of black pigment in sort of reverse fashion of albinism.
Update Oct. 2025: Best Black Panther Photo Ever? Video Below.
With that said, there are thousands of reports of “black panthers” in the United States
Having investigated this phenomenon since the beginning of my career most who share a report assume what they saw was a black cougar (mountain lion).
UPDATE: WHITE cougars proven to exist! Follow this link to our blog.
The problem is there has never been a black cougar born in a zoo or captive setting (and there are thousands there), killed and brought in by a hunter or observed by a biologist.
There are some fake black cougar mounts out there including this one sent to us by researcher Todd Jurasek who saw it in Oklahoma. There are even taxidermists advertising dying cougars black but there are none in the wild to kill and mount.
As noted on my “Moore Outdoors’ program on Newstalk AM 560 KLVI most of the photographs sent to me that were allegedly “black panthers” were feral house cats. Check out our video on topic here.
One of these cats was a jaguarundi and the other was a black bobcat.
Some of the photos were indeed big but they were of some domestic lineage.
I did an article for Texas Fish & Game in 2019 entitled Mystery Of The Black Longtail. In it I explained the name for these cats I gave them in my Field Guide To Texas Wild Cats book.
And I believe they are the source of the vast majority of “black panther” sightings.
I believe this for three key reasons.
- People Cannot Judge Size: I have received hundreds of photos of bobcats people sent to me thinking they were cougars. I have now come to the conclusion many cougar sightings in nontraditional habitat are bobcats. I have personally identified dozens of “black panther” sightings as domestic cats.
- Distribution: Feral house cats are distributed throughout North America, have large populations in many forested areas and are the only known black cat to dwell continent-wide. I have received multiple photos of readers wondering what kind of wild cat they captured on their game camera. It turned out they were white, tabby and other colored feral house cats. People are not prepared to see a feral cat in the woods but they are abundant. When they see a black one they often label it “panther”.
- New research in Australia, which has a massive feral cat problem suggests these cats are growing to much bigger sizes than anyone would expect. Recent stats attributed to Oklahoma wildlife officials state sizes of up to 35 pounds for feral cats.
The long tail on these cats intrigues me.
Many of these cat photos that have been sent to me have extra long tails. This is the photo sent to me five years ago that inspired the name “Black Longtail”. This is from Texas from a reader who wishes to remain anonymous.
The tail length of these cats is intriguing and matches some of the lengths of the extra large feral cats reported in Australia.
I got a photo myself recently in front of a hog trap I set in a woodlot near my home in Texas. Look at the length of the tail on this cat and the tall ears.
Interesting, isn’t it?
These animals having domestic origin does not make them less intriguing.
As noted on my radio broadcast I do not believe they are the total answer to America’s “black panther” phenomenon but I do believe they are the source of the vast majority of sightings.
You can read part 2 of this series here to see what I think the other answers could be.
Do you have photos of a mysterious black cat? I would love to see them.
I begrudge no one for making assumptions about their sightings. Not everyone is a wildlife expert and there are many voices on social media and in the blogosphere that are touting theories that make things confusing.
It’s hard to sort through all of the noise.
(Submit photos and videos of any wild or feral to chester@chestermoore.com. I would love to see them and share with our readers.)
Update Jan. 2025: New interview with Chester Moore on black panthers here.
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Strange Sounds In the Forest
Have you ever heard mysterious sounds in the forest?
Ever heard the cougar-related sound of a “woman hollering” in the woods? Ever heard mysterious growls that don’t match any native US animal?
We play these sounds and talk about others including interviewing Ron Morehead of the famous “Sierra Sounds”.
Chester Moore
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As a Forest Service and TPWD biologist most mountain lion reports I got were of a “black panther”. It’s hard to convince people it was not black if truly a mountain lion.
How can you assume you know what people are seeing? A degree don’t make you smart enough to know that people are lying to you. I have grew up seeing tracks ,and hearing these animals. My dad and his family seen them in the 30s and 40s. They even named a few. I saw one driving to work one night. It stepped up on the berm , I though it was a dog at first. When I stopped It was looking over my hood. with the lights on it. Its head was big as a basketball. When it walked away it must have been 6 foot long with a tail 4 to 5 foot. Then I was bush hoging a gasline right of way . This cat wasn’t 60feet behind me it was following me. When I stopped it stopped and slowly walked over into the brush. This was in the middle of the day and Had a very clear view. It was as big as the other but its hair looked kinda brownish like it was shedding or wasn’t healthly. That night it killed a bunch of my cousins and screamed all the way up the hill. They make a very noticiable sound if you hear it you won’t forget it. You can say Im crazy or just mistaken or what ever. Id say 60% of the people rasied up here can tell you a story about seeing these cats.They aren’t feral cats unless they can weigh up to 200 pounds and 6 foot long with a 5 foot tail. I have lived here 60 years and in the woods everyday That is how I seen these cats it isn’t something you can spend a day looking for and with no results say they arn’t real panthers
I can answer that. 1 a 200 cougar would be record setting. 2 his is correct, people are very poor judges of size especially when it is unexpected. I have seen many many skilled outdoors man claim a bear that was in their area was easily 500 pounds. We would track and eliminate them and of course weigh them and they would be 200. They would claim we got the wrong one but their problem never returned. 3 I have personal experience. In the 70s we realeased a bunch of cotton tailed rabbits into a pine forrest. We saw a week latter a big black cat carrying off a rabbit. So we talked to the famers around and told them, and several had seen a black panther in the area. We asked told them it was a large ferel house cat, and to eliminate any they saw in the area. Few days later we saw the cat and eliinated in. Over teh next few months, we got told by 6 people that they had killed the cat. Of course it wasnt the panther running around the area, but they were all 6 very large very long ferel house cats. In northern michigan. We hunted mountain lions bears and bobcats, so we were very experienced at identifying large game. Google Cart T johnson of Michigan.
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BOMBAY CAT IS A LONG TAIL BREED WITH THE GOLDEN EYES ,MUSCLAR, INTELLEGENT, LOVES WATER , BLACK SHINY COAT NOT LIKE REGLAR CATS RETRACTABLE CLAWS FRIENDLY
I TRIPPED OT THAT THIS CAT WAS SOOOOO DIFFERENT I CANT HAVE I AROND MY CATS ITS A BABY BUT ITS TERRITORIAL AGAINST OTHER CATS AND HAS FOUGHT AT 3 MONTHS OLD ,AND WON AGAINST LIKE 200 CATS [MY NEIGHBOR IS THER CAT LADY]
ITS DIFERENT BECASE SOOO FRIENDLY TO ONE PERSON AND WILL AQIRE THAT ONE TO GIVE 24/7 TIME SO IF ANYBIODY WANTS A SWIMING PARTNER LET ME KNOW
Excellent my brother. You know we share the same passion for mysterious felines.
Hey I seen one in concow calif .it must be175 pounds I was close enough to her I saw the little round spots on its coat it wasn’t no House cat or Bob cat it ar all the house cats on the hill my name is Everett Masters and you can get ahold of me at 5306932989 if you want to talk about it
I’ve seen a black cat twice and it wasn’t a panther. It had the shape of a black cheetah with a skinny waist, long legs, slanted yellow green eyes and a long tail. It was 2.5 ft. tall at the shoulder, 2.5 ft. long (head and body) with a 2.5 ft. tail that curved up on the end. The fur was most intriguing. It was wavy like a terrier, not smooth like a cat. The head had a huge mane of hair that was totally circular in shape, and from the knees down, it had 3 inch long fur. The tracks were even weirder. The front paw was huge and round like a cougar, wider than tall, but the rear foot was more canine, taller than wide. Also, the only claws were on the middle two toes, not all four. I’ve tracked these tracks on multiple occasions and thought the front claws retracted and the rear didn’t, but I finally got a photo of a track with the rear claws retracted as well.
I killed a black panther when I was 17 years old.
I must retell my family legend. This happened in the mid 1960s in late summer, not sure of the month. But the sun was setting late in the evening (7:30-8:00pm?) My grandparents were returning from Chicago, on State Road 231, heading south towards their home in Wheatfield, Indiana.
There is a wooded area just before crossing the Kankakee River, when my Grandfather slammed on his breaks and yelled “What The Hell!” (A devoutly Christian man, he rarely spoke so harshly.)
They watched a large, very black, “cougar” cross the road. They agreed it was easily 5 feet long, shoulder to hip, almost as wide as the car they were driving. It paused to snarl at them, it’s eyes glowing green in the headlights, then trotted on across the road and down into the ditch.
They were told it was a hallucinations, road fatigue and flat out lies, but my grandparents were not such people to make up lies for attention. I don’t know for sure WHAT they saw, but they saw something!
My husband and son saw what they said was a “black panther” in La Porte City Iowa a few days ago. It was all black and large with a very long tail. They said it jumped from the ditch into the middle of the road with one jump, and then looks around and then with one jump it was gone again into the ditch on the other side of the road. my husband is a very big outdoorsman. He said he could not believe what he had seen.
Agree i live in Australia in a bush mountain town with a reputation of black “panthers” with many sightings by quite few locals. We also have/had a large feral cat population remember 45 y ago some of these cats were huge scary animals my german shepard & Kelpies tucked tails & ran
My family and I live in Oklahoma. Four or five years ago, my son and I both saw a large black cat in the neighborhood that resembled a small jaguar, and had an extra long tail. Neither of us could believe our eyes. We live in a small neighborhood of acreages, and we know all of the pets around us. After looking into what the mysterious creature might be, I concluded that it had to be a melanistic jaguarundi. We haven’t seen it again.
I’ve seen a big black cat with a long tail. It was a clear afternoon on the road to Cotulla Tx. I came over a hill and noticed a black animal near the road. It heard me coming and crouched down . As I got closer I seen it get up and slowly walked towards the fence line. Thus beautiful black cat was tall long and slender… very long tail. But it was twice the size of a big bobcat and smaller than a mountain lion. I slowed down and got a good look at it from less than 40 ft. It weighed around 60-70 lbs. I was so excited about it that I posted it on Facebook only to hear several people who have similar experiences near Lake Corpus christi. All my life I had heard of such animals in south Tx but to see one was majestic
Thanks for this clarification, I still don’t know exactly what I saw about 20 years ago but it looked very much like your pictures. I was driving south down Labelle Rd south of Beaumont, Tx. early (around 8:30 am) and had just passed Bayou Din Country Club when I saw it standing on the side of the road. As I got closer, it turned away from the road and went down into the ditch, that’s when I realized it wasn’t a large labrador. The tail was at least 4-5 feet long. It was much bigger in height than a large mastiff. It was beautiful, but I’ve never known what it was. I’ll never forget getting to see this beautiful creature.
So, in 2007 I was at Lake Ray Roberts in Valley View Tx and a black jaguar walked in front of me on the trail I was hiking. Could it have been a feral cat? NO, it was absolutely a black jaguar. I could see the rosette spots under the black fur. I was less than 3-4 feet away from it. It stopped right in front of me for what seemed to be an eternity, prbly more like 45-60 seconds. It was close enough to nearly touch. I’ll never forget that feeling of complete awe and fear at the same time running through my body.
I agree with you. I find it odd that no pictures have been produced. In this day and age of cell phones with great cameras no pictures, but they had time to see it clearly and judge its size to the inch. Come one people. many states have ofered rewards for proof of mountain lions and some even black panthers.
I just saw a big cat with a black with a long cat this morning in Tyler, TX. I was in my backyard and it was on the other end of the property. I own yorkies so as soon as I see a fox the dogs are going inside for the morning and after I saw that I had to gather up the dogs. I came back with my camera but to no avail.