“Tiger spotted at Lake Livingston. (Livingston, TX), y’all be careful out there.”
This text accompanied a photo of a tiger in the water along a brushy area in a waterway that was posted to Facebook and shared thousands of times.
In addition, the post said, “Update: $10,000 reward for whoever can catch it or have information on where this tiger is located.”
That post might have struck my interest a little but I had already seen the same post in stead of Lake Livingston it was allegedly in Bossier City, La.
Then I found another to claimed it was in the San Antonio area.
I found a post attached to the same photos in 2019.
This is simply another example of fake wildlife news.
Photos like this are posted somewhere and for reasons that are beyond me are shared all over the place with locations and details often changed.
I have received the same supposed Texas “black panther” game camera photo on and off or five years from at least half a dozen different locations. The photo is indeed a black panther-a melanistic (black) leopard from Africa.
The tiger situations brings up a fallacy that has been floated for years that Texas has more captive tigers than exist in the wild. I’m not saying that might not have been true 30 years ago, although no one ever did a legitimate survey.
But it’s not true now in my opinion. No way.
There are tigers out there but there’s not one in every city as some have suggested.
There is however an interesting history of tiger escapes that are verified.
*There’s the case of a tiger named India found roaming around the Houston area in 2021.
*Another 2021 story details a tiger that was spotted in someone’s backyard in San Antonio.
*In 2023 a tiger was found in the Dallas area.
Unfortunately, these stories and the fake wildlife news put the focus on captive tigers and unfortunate reality television stars that have them and almost always leave out the fact wild tiger populations are critically endangered.
It’s not as sensational but the fact is in the last 100 years we have lost two tiger subspecies (Javan and Caspian).
There is positive news that numbers have increased slightly in India, China and Russia but they still need major help as habitat loss and poaching are still major threats. Read our story on that here.
An Amur (Siberian) tiger roaming the wild lands of China. (Photo Feline Research Center of National Forestry and Grassland)
I believe it’s important to dispel fake wildlife news and that any attention we pay to tigers should be focused on saving the habitat and conserving wild populations.
In my opinion, tigers are the most beautiful animals on the planet.
I would love to see one of the wild, but it’s not about to happen at Lake Livingston any time soon.
Chester Moore
Follow Chester Moore and Higher Calling Wildlife® on the following social media platforms
@thechestermoore on Instagram
Higher Calling Wildlife on Facebook
Email Chester at chester@chestermoore.com.
Subscribe to the Dark Outdoors and Higher Calling Wildlife podcasts on all major podcasting platforms.
One thought on “A Tiger At Lake Livingston! Or Was It In Bossier City?”