Texas is famous for its exotic wildlife.
Drive through parts of the Hill Country and South Texas and you might encounter axis deer, blackbuck antelope or other animals originating thousands of miles from the Lone Star State. But could something much larger and more dangerous occasionally escape into the Texas wilds?
Could African lions and other exotic cats be roaming Texas?
It’s a question I’ve considered for years while investigating reports of unusual cats across Texas and other parts of the South. Most strange-cat sightings probably have much more conventional explanations. Mountain lions can appear in unexpected places, bobcats can look surprisingly large under the right circumstances and eyewitness identification is never perfect.
But some reports are much harder to explain.
Hear the Investigation on Dark Outdoors®
I recently explored one of the strangest big-cat accounts ever brought to me, along with giant cat tracks and other unusual sightings, on Dark Outdoors®.
Listen: “He Found an African Lion in His Chicken Coop in Texas”
Apple Podcasts:
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/he-found-a-lion-in-his-chicken-coop-in-texas/id1630809603?i=1000788610512
Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/3QaAVZ7vnU4cvByWbY8CJg?si=Xw1X5E8NR5KmIzzt8pHNGQ
An African Lion in a Chicken Coop?
One of the strangest accounts ever brought to me came from a Texas man who said he walked outside and discovered an enormous cat in his chicken coop.
What he described wasn’t a mountain lion. He believed he was looking at an African lion.
There was no DNA test or other definitive evidence to prove the animal’s identity, so this case has to remain exactly what it is: an extraordinary eyewitness account. But it raises an interesting wildlife question.
Texas has a tremendous amount of privately held exotic wildlife. While most discussions involve exotic hoofed animals, large exotic cats have also been kept in captivity in the state. If one escaped or was released, how long could it survive?
And how quickly would anyone know it was there?
Big Cats Can Be Hard to Find
Anyone familiar with mountain lions understands just how elusive a large predator can be. A big cat can travel tremendous distances, move largely under the cover of darkness and live surprisingly close to people without being regularly detected.
Texas also offers enormous expanses of suitable hiding places, from the thick forests of East Texas to river bottoms, coastal marshes, South Texas brush country and sprawling ranches.
That doesn’t mean prides of African lions are secretly living in Texas. There is no evidence for anything remotely like that. The more reasonable question is whether individual exotic cats have occasionally escaped or been released and survived in the wild for some period of time.
That’s a very different proposition.
What About the Other Mystery Cats?
I’ve investigated unusual cat reports for decades, and not all of them involve animals described as lions.
Some people report exceptionally large cats. Others describe unusual coloration or physical characteristics that don’t seem to fit what they expect from a mountain lion or bobcat. I’ve also personally investigated enormous cat tracks that raised some fascinating questions.
Tracks aren’t proof by themselves. Mud can enlarge an impression, overlapping tracks can create strange shapes and photographs can make judging scale difficult. Any responsible investigation has to consider those possibilities.
But unusual tracks combined with credible eyewitness reports are worth investigating rather than simply dismissing.
Evidence Is What Matters
There is a big difference between asking whether an exotic cat could be roaming Texas and claiming that one is.
Photographs and video are valuable. Clear tracks can provide additional clues. Hair, scat or other biological material could potentially provide much stronger evidence, particularly if DNA analysis were possible.
Until that kind of evidence exists in an individual case, these reports should be treated as reports—not confirmed animals. That doesn’t make them uninteresting. In fact, that’s exactly why I continue investigating them.
Texas is big enough, wild enough and has enough exotic wildlife that unusual animals sometimes turn up where they aren’t supposed to be.
Does that mean every report of a mystery cat is an escaped exotic? Certainly not. But could an African lion or another exotic cat occasionally escape into the Texas wilds and remain undetected for a time?
That’s a question worth investigating.
Chester Moore
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Email Chester at chester@chestermoore.com.