A recent report of a possible mountain lion near Sacramento International Airport turned out to be something very different. According to KCRA, the animal spotted lying in a muddy canal was not a cougar at all, but an abandoned French bulldog.
The dog was rescued and taken to a shelter after wildlife responders determined it had likely been dumped. While the story quickly went viral, it also highlighted a familiar issue in wildlife reporting: misidentification.
When you think of animals that look like a mountain it’s of course the French bulldog.
But misidentification doesn’t mean reports should be dismissed outright. It means they should be verified.
That distinction matters when discussing mountain lions, especially outside the western United States. In many regions, cougars are still considered absent based on official range maps. When sightings occur outside those boundaries, they are often written off immediately.
Sometimes that’s justified. Sometimes it isn’t.
I recently documented clear photographic evidence of mountain lions outside the accepted range, taken in East Texas. These images are not folklore or rumor. They are photographs evaluated in context with known mountain lion anatomy, behavior, and dispersal patterns.
I break down the evidence and what it does and does not suggest — in this video:
Mountain Lions Where They’re Not Supposed to Be (Photographic Evidence from East Texas) 👉Click here to watch.
The Sacramento case ended with a dog being rescued because someone took a report seriously enough to investigate. That same principle applies everywhere.
Verification matters.
Chester Moore
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A family hike turned into a fight for survival when a father, his wife, their toddler, and infant daughter came face-to-face with a mountain lion. Dark Outdoors dives deep into the wilderness dangers that most people never see coming.
On this gripping episode of Dark Outdoors,® we recount the terrifying true story of a family’s dangerous encounter with a mountain lion.
What began as an ordinary hike quickly spiraled into a life-or-death struggle when a father, hiking with his wife, three-year-old son, and infant daughter strapped to his chest, came face-to-face with one of nature’s most feared predators.
Listeners will hear how this quiet day on the trail turned into a desperate fight for survival. With his young children and wife at risk, every decision mattered. The father’s quick thinking, protective instincts, and raw courage kept his family alive against all odds.
This episode goes beyond the story itself, exploring the realities of mountain lion behavior, how families can prepare for dangerous wildlife encounters, and what survival experts recommend if you ever come face-to-face with a predator in the wild.
What you’ll learn in this episode:
A firsthand account of a family’s mountain lion encounter on the trail.
How a father protected his wife, toddler, and infant from a deadly threat.
Survival insights and safety tips for hikers and families in mountain lion country.
The hidden dangers of hiking with young children — and how to prepare.
If you’re fascinated by true survival stories, wildlife encounters, and the resilience of the human spirit, this episode will keep you on the edge of your seat.
The existence of mountain lions (cougars) in East Texas has been a controversial topic over the last 50 years.
Wildlife officials have balked at their existence and at one point their distribution was officially designated as living only West of Interstate 35 with breeding populations only in the Trans Pecos (far West Texas) and the South Texas Brush Country.
The fact is cougars are native in East Texas and have never been eliminated completely.
They are indigenous to the entire Lower 48, much of Canada and extend their range into the southern tip of South America.
When wildlife was wiped out in the late 1800s and early 1900s cougars like everything else declined. But as science-based wildlife management took root whitetail populations rose from 500,000 continent-wide to 25 million.
Cougar populations rose too.
It is my opinion through much research and many interviews they never left East Texas but they did decline and their seems to be ample of evidence more are showing up in the region.
In 2010-11 I reached out to many hunters, hunting clubs and wildlife enthusiasts and was given three different photos of cougars taken in that span in Newton and Jasper Counties. These photos were never circulated on the Internet. These were firsthand accounts. I thought I had lost these but was recently able to recover an old computer and found them.
These two photo were taken near Newton, the seat of Newton County on the Louisiana border. They were taken a few miles apart a fairly short time apart and me and the taker of the second photo believe it’s the same cat.
My beautiful picture
This next photo is a much larger cat-a mature male (no doubt) and this was taken on a hunting club in Jasper County. This is not the same animal and was taken the previous year.
These are not grainy shots with a motion blur showing a bobcat with the tail obscured. These are actual mountain lions and none of them showed up on the Internet before I published them in a series I was doing at the time in the Port Arthur News.
I get photos of cats sent to me multiple times a week for identification. Some think they’ve seen a black panther while others are wondering if they got a cougar.
The vast majority of the “cougar” photos are bobcats. People have a hard time judging scale and recognizing bobcats actually do have tails and some of them are pretty long.
Some of these “cougars” are actually feral house cats.
And I don’t fault anyone for misidentification. Not everyone is a wildlife expert.
But there are cougars out there west of Interstate 35 in Texas and there are legitimate photos and videos nows from Louisiana, Arkanas and other states.
There certainly isn’t a dense population like those that exist in Colorado or even the Trans Pecos of Texas but there are cougars out there. They have a big range and I believe they are reestablishing themselves in areas where many have thought them extinct for decades.
They are in East Texas.
How many? No one knows but their existence is unquestionable.
If you have photos or videos of cougars -mountain lions -or of any mysterious cat email me at chester@chestermoore.com. I would love to see the photos and can maybe share some insights with you.
Cougars are amazing animals and their ability to remain elusive is what makes them so special. I’m grateful we have trail cameras now to even the odds a bit and give us a look at their lives in the wild areas-even of East Texas.
Chester Moore
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Our readers love the black panther topic, so when Paul Fuzinski of Aptitude Outdoors asked to interview me about the topic I was glad share my thoughts.
What is the source of these black panther reports?
Here’s the conversation.
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In an official statement from the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD, they noted that in the early morning hours on Tuesday, Dec. 10, a mountain lion was struck by a Longview Police Department (LPD) patrol vehicle.
The police department contacted the Gregg County Game Warden and coordinated the retrieval of the deceased lion.
TPWD noted their staff took possession of the deceased lion to collect DNA and other biological samples. The lion was estimated to be a 3-4-year-old female weighing 83.5 pounds.
Several of the samples will be sent to the Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute as part of an ongoing research project and some were retained by TPWD staff as part of our effort to learn more about mountain lions in Texas.
In Texas, mountain lions are primarily found in the Trans-Pecos and parts of South Texas, however individual lions can move long distances and can show up in areas where they are not typically known to occur.
That’s the end of the TPWD statement. Here’s where I want to share my thoughts.
*East Texas has had cougars for years. I do not believe the population is high, but I have seen one myself at close range. And I have received two first-person photos from game cameras of cougars in Jasper and Newton Counties. East Texas is part of their natural range as is the rest of the Lower 48, much of Canada and all the way down to Argentina. But like everything else, they were knocked way back in the late 1800s and early 1900s. As deer and hog populations have exploded, cougars have turned up not only here but in Louisiana and other states.
*We will see more of this and in fact this is the second TPWD-confirmed cougar in the region in the last few years. The prevalence of game cameras will reveal more. Again, there aren’t a lot but cougars are here and as they noted they can move long distances.
*People have been afraid to come forward with reports to TPWD because of fear of being called crazy. They are asking for reports now, so if you have a game cam photo, etc., now would be a good time to reach out to them as they are obviously open to hearing reports. East Texas residents are asked to please report any additional mountain lion sightings to TPWD Nongame Wildlife Biologist Dave Holdermann, dave.holdermann@tpwd.texas.gov.
Drones!
Check out this special Dark Outdoors® episode on strange drone encounters in the outdoors including hunters being harassed by drones.
We talk about implications of what is happening on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts.
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On January 2016 an interesting story broke via KLTV out of Tyler., TX.
Landowner Mitchell Cox of Hughes Springs captured on video what he and many others thinks is a “white panther”.
“When I first saw the white animal, the first thing I thought was, it was a dog. I feel blessed to actually be able to see it,” said landowner Mitchell Cox in the KLTV story.
“The cat jumps across about a 6 foot creek there. At first, my initial thought was it was an edited video, but upon talking to people I believe it’s true. A white albino mountain lion,” investigator Hershel Stroman, of the Morris County Sheriff’s Office told KLTV officials.
The video is interesting and the animal moves like a cougar but without a closer video (this one was shot 50 yards away with a cellphone) it is difficult to tell.
The term “white panther” is rarely used and in this case it is a reference to what is believed to be a white cougar (mountain lion, puma). This might sound like a stretch but whether or not the 2016 video shows one, science has observed white cougars.
In 2011 a white cougar was born at the Attica Zoological Park in Greece and was aptly named “Casper” proving they are a possibility in nature. A 2013 trail camera photo from Sierra dos Argaos National Park shows a white cougar. It’s leucistic which means its white all over with the exception of the eyes. Leucistic tigers for example have blue eyes.
This photo shocked the world-a white puma (cougar) in Brazil. Image: ICMBio
In the mid 2000s there were several reports of a white cougar at Red Rock National Conservation Area near Las Vegas, NV. A “white panther’ is a truly rare animal.
Sightings of “black panthers” are commonly reported.
Many hunters, fishermen, birdwatchers, hikers and people of all walks of life reporting seeing large long-tailed black cats they label as “black panthers”.
The problems there is no such species as a “black panther” anywhere in the world.
What about the large black cats seen in zoos and on television programs?
Those are black (melanistic) leopards or black jaguars.
Melanism is when a hyper amount of black pigment dominates coloration of an animal. It happens in many animals ranging from squirrels to whitetail deer. Melanism is not uncommon in leopards in certain parts of their range as well as with jaguars.
The general assumption with “black panther” sightings i is that these are black or melanistic cougars. The problem is there has never been a melanistic cougar observed by science either in a zoo, captive setting, killed by a hunter, mounted by a taxidermist or otherwise positively identified.
And here we have two extremely rare white ones showing up in the span of a few years.
Is it possible that there could be black cougars? Yes, but not likely.
Now, those of us who appreciate wild cats, can marvel at the idea of a white cougar.
We know they exist.
Perhaps sometime in the future there will be validation of these cat on the other side of color spectrum.
Until then we can appreciate the fact these mysteries deepen peoples love of nature and hope that translates into conserving the habitat of the great cats.
Truly wild habitat in many areas of America is quickly becoming as elusive as the cats themselves.
At the time of the report officials with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) were tracking the animal.
Photo by Chester Moore
Now, TPWD according to Sheriff’s Department officials have said they do not believe a mountain lion was the killer.
Here’s the TPWD statement.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department is aware of this tragic loss of life and has provided assistance to the sheriff’s office in evaluating the circumstances and information available.Texas Game Wardens, TPWD biologists, and subject matter experts conducted an inspection of the scene. There is not any evidence of a predatory attack by a mountain lion at the location where the victim was found. A USDA Wildlife Services trapper also evaluated the evidence and came to the same conclusion as our staff.
Fatal mountain lion attacks on people are extremely rare. In the past 100 years, there are fewer than 30 confirmed deaths due to mountain lion attacks nationwide. TPWD has no records of a confirmed fatal attack on a person by a mountain lion in Texas. Texas Parks and Wildlife also has no confirmed records of a mountain lion from Hood County. The recent confirmed sighing from Rowlett in Dallas County was nearly 100 miles away and is considered unrelated to the event.
Sheriff’s Department officials responded with the following statement.
It appears we have two conflicting reports from two agencies that are experts in their field.We stand behind the preliminary findings of the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office, that rule out a suicide and a homicide on the death in question.The investigation continues and we continue to gather pictures and statements from locals that have seen and capture on film images of mountain lions.
The point of my article was to report the event and to note the response to it would be controversial.
It has proven to be just that.
We will not know the exact story until the investigation is completed but I want to point out a few things here.
TPWD is correct in the assertion that cougar attacks are rare and fatal attacks are even rarer but there have been documented attacks in Texas.
TPWD’s official cougar brochure affirms there have been four non-fatal attacks since 1980.
Since the investigation is ongoing details are sketchy as to why TPWD’s findings were different from Sheriff’s Department officials but that’s not really the point here.
The most important issue is someone died. Human loss always comes first.
Something that I have seen growing and predicted would come with this as listed in the first entry in this series is the following.
A. People blaming other animals. (Dogs, feral hogs in this case)
B. People blaming humans.
C. Denying of cougars being in this area. (We’ll get to the cougar’s range in another post.)
When we reported on the tragic death of an Anahuac woman from a feral hog attack last year people defended the hogs saying it was really dogs. Now people in social media are saying this isn’t a cougar it’s a hog killing, a dog killing or a murder.
Maybe it was not a cougar. We will see.
But if the conclusion were to change for example to another animal people would be defending that one too.
Human populations are growing. And populations of many predators are growing.
Grizzly numbers are growing in the Yellowstone region. Wolf numbers in the Lower 48 are growing. Feral hog numbers are skyrocketing. And in some areas cougar numbers are growing.
Photo by Chester Moore
There will be more attacks on humans. There will be even be more predation on humans. It’s inevitable.
Will it be common? I hope not, but that is irrelevant for someone being mauled by a bear in their backyard.
This is why we have to call a predator a predator.
I am all for the conservation and population sustainability of wildlife, including predators. I am also for the management of those animals and the honest discussion of what they are.
It will save lives.
Hogs can be predators and they sometimes kill. (Photo by Chester Moore)
I’ve read posts regarding to my first story saying things about the alleged attack like ,” Good, they’re finally taking back their land.”
Another said, “I’m all for animals killing more people.”
Are they really?
Would they be happy with a mountain lion or a feral hog killing their child or spouse?
And if they are we have an even deeper problem.
We should get some conclusion to this tragic story soon but this discussion on apologizing for animal attacks needs to continue.
To move forward with true conservation we have to consider animals and people and if that means taking out a bear or cougar stalking kids on a playground, then so be it.
If those who always defend the predator in these scenarios would put a little energy and finance into helping wild tigers from being slaughtered for their parts in Asia or fighting pollution impacting polar bears for example I would stand with them-on those issues.
Sadly, the only thing they typically stand on is voicing their opinions on social media about how much they hate people and pretend to love wildlife.
True love requires action and that means going beyond pontificating the propensity of animals to attack.
Chester Moore
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A cougar (mountain lion) has reportedly killed a man from Hood County, TX.
According to the Hood County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were told Christopher Allen Whiteley (age 28) was missing and last seen on 12-2-20 in the early morning hours.
Photo by Chester Moore
Deputies checked a wooded area nearby and eventually found Whiteley, who was found deceased.
Whiteley’s body was sent to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy. The preliminary findings say he died from a wild animal attack, possibly a mountain lion.
Sherriff’s Office officials said they contacted a Governmental Trapper with the USDA, who specializes in tracking and removing mountain lions.
The Hood County Sheriff’s Office, Texas Game Wardens, and the Governmental Trapper are working on locating the mountain lion.
Animal attacks bring out many responses from the public and various animal interests. Undoubtedly there will be controversy surrounding this so I want to address the following points.
Cougars are native to the region-despite what some will report. Although not common in Hood County, cougars are known to dwell there and it’s part of their native range. In fact, officials with the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department verified on Dec. 1 a cougar sighting near Rowlett which is 111 miles to the northeast of the attack.
Someone will blame a cat sanctuary. In every single instance of cougar attacks I have seen outside of deep wilderness, naysayers claim it is the result of someone keeping a cougar as a pet and escaping or an escapee from a small zoo or sanctuary. I will go out on a limb here and say this was a wild cat, not an escaped captive.
Someone will blame the victim. Cougars kill people It’s not often but tell that to the man who lost his life here and his family. People will say the man shouldn’t have been in the woods, cougars were here first and similar pathetic excuses for the fact they do kill. Cougars are awesome. I believe in their conservation but blaming humans for every animal attack has got to go.
Blame another animal. Last year we reported on a fatal hog attack near Anahuac, TX and people defended hogs saying a person or perhaps dogs killed the woman, not hogs. A cougar attack has specific evidence that is hard to miss. It is most likely a cougar.
Sherriff’s Dept. officials said the public in the Lipan area are urged to be mindful of their surroundings and keep young children and animals inside at night.
“The safety of Hood County Citizens are my priority one, but please don’t interfere with the process of locating the animal and stay clear of the area being actively worked by officials,” said Sheriff Roger Deeds
According to Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD) officials there have been four cougar attacks on people since 1980 in Texas, all of them in the Trans Pecos region.
The author has been interested in cougars since childhood. Here he gets an up close look at a baby cougar on a Texas Parks & Wildlife Department radio-collaring mission in 1997. He got to accompany for a special story on cougars.
This is the first modern era attack I have reported on outside of the Trans Pecos.
Seeing a cougar is a great thrill.
But these are potentially dangerous animals.
Perhaps it’s time for more cougar education in Texas as game cameras and this recent attack along with the aforementioned TPWD-verified sightings are showing these great cats in areas people don’t expect to encounter them.
We should certainly manage these great animals for population viability but keep in mind that means managing cougars around people and people around cougars.
