It kicks off with an eight-part series on the black panther phenomenon with episode one tackling the topic of escaped exotics and the infamous stories of circus train wrecks.
You can watch the episode below. Please subscribe to our channel.
The next episodes will cover the following topics.
*Black Mountain Lions
*The Jaguarundi
*Black Bobcats
*Feral House Cats
*The Black Longtail
*Jaguars
*Hybridization & Other Strange Theories On Black Panthers
Don’t miss the series kick-off and stay tuned for weekly episodes of Higher Calling Wildlife on Youtube.
Follow Chester Moore and Higher Calling Wildlife® on the following social media platforms
Happy Halloween from Dark Outdoors and The Fouke Monster!
This is our second year of the Dark Outdoors podcast and the tradition is to do a spooky special Halloween edition involving movies for fun.
This is the only time of year we talk about these topics so if you’re into this stuff, this will be a real treat for you.
This year we have an epic episode with author/tv host and all around good dude Lyle Blackburn on creepy cryptids including the Fouke Monster and Pamula Pierce Barcelou, daughter of Legend of Boggy Creek director Charlies Pierce. This is an absolute can’t miss episode!
Checkout my review of The Legend of Boggy Creek Blu-Rayhere.
And today I have a second debut to share. I am proud to be lending my narration talents to the epic first episode of the Wild Man of the Woods series produced by Paul Fuzinski.
The first episode of this extremely well-produced program tackles the famous alleged Bigfoot sightings at Ohio’s Salt Fork State Park.
Season 3 of Dark Outdoors begins Feb. 2024 and it will have some seriously deep, dark investigations we are conducting now.
Thank you for supporting the podcast and my work. We are doing lots of great things for kids facing special challenges through our Higher Calling Wildlife outreach and the Wild Wishes program. You can learn more here and maybe we can help a kid you know.
After 50 years, the iconic nature docudrama highlighting spooky encounters with a Bigfoot-like creature in the swamps of Southwestern Arkansas is being released in a form befitting the film’s massive impact.
It has been remastered in beautiful 4K Ultra HD and now includes Dolby 5.1 Surround Sound for an immersive viewing experience.
“It’s like watching an entirely new movie,” said Pamula Pierce Barcelou, daughter of the film’s late director Charles B. Pierce.
“This format perfectly masks the original Techniscope wide-angle film and really makes it come to life in exciting ways.”
Barcelou has overseen the film’s restoration and said it has been a labor of love for the legions of fans of the film.
“I am constantly blown away with how much this film touched people’s lives and I’m excited for a new generation to be able to see it in such an exciting format,” she said.
One of those people impacted was author and television personality Lyle Blackburn.
Author of The Beast of Boggy Creek and Boggy Creek Casebook, he provides film commentary as one of the bonus features.
Another bonus is original film outtakes edited by Justin Beahm of Reverend Entertainment.
It also features a redesigned package with an o-ring slipcover that highlights legendary Artist Ralph McQuarrie of Star Wars fame’s original movie poster artwork.
The Legend of Boggy Creek when adjusted for inflation is the highest grossing nature film of all time. It has inspired generations of researchers to pursue wildlife mysteries around the world and serves as one of the few films that is genuinely scary but still has a level of innocence.
“I’m so proud this is a true G-rated family-friendly film. But that doesn’t take away the spooky factor. So many people have shared with me the moments that made them jump out of their seats when first they saw it,” Barcelou said.
Get The Legend of Boggy Creek and enjoy the groundbreaking film as it has never been seen at www.legendofboggycreek.com.
My Review
The Legend of Boggy Creek had a huge impact on me growing up.
I wasn’t born quite yet when it was first released but my Dad saw it and told me of the Fouke Monster and it’s terrorizing southwestern Arkansas a few years later.
He always seemed to talk about the scariest parts when we were in the woods.
I didn’t see it until I was about to be wheeled into surgery at Texas Children’s Hospital as it was playing on the local cable station in my room and it blew me away.
The idea of such a mysterious creature potentially living only a few hours away from my East Texas home made my world somehow seem bigger.
So, when I heard about the Ultra 4K 50th Anniversary Edition I was excited.
The restoration is brilliant.
I (like everyone else who loved the film) had various VHS and DVD copies that looked grainy and dark. Now, some of that added to the vibe but I am happy to report the vibe is still there but it looks radically better.
Watching it still feels like your’e traveling through the dim swamps but now with the surround sound it has become an immersive viewing experience.
And it’s the sounds that are probably the scariest things in the movie.
When the creature’s infamous growl sounds off as the little boy is running across the field in the beginning, the narrator speaks one of the best lines.
“I was seven years old when I first heard him scream…it scared me then, it scares me now.”
I was seven when I was first saw it and I must concur.
Director Charles B. Pierce
Director Charles B. Pierce was wise enough to keep the actual creature far enough away from the camera that we didn’t see many details and that still holds up although you can definitely notice a little more detail.
It’s still obscured enough that the viewer can project their own fears onto the shaggy beast. And that air of mystery is part of the genius. of the film.
Bonus tracks include a compilation of outtakes and a commentary by Beast of Boggy Creek and Boggy Creek Casebook author and researcher Lyle Blackburn. Lyle is a great storyteller and his commentary unlike many out there never gets in the way of the film but ads to it.
Chester Moore with the new Ultra 4K release.
If you want to get a deeper appreciation of the film get Lyle’s books and turn on the commentary after you watch it the first time. You can get them here.
Although it’s legitimately scary, this is a G-rated film.
You can easily watch this with young children and yes they might have bad dreams but there is no intense violence, blood or sex to be concerned with which are a mainstay in horror.
No, Pierce created a truly iconic film with many of the people who experience the events depicted here, a small budget and a ton of talent.
The Legend of Boggy Creek along with seeing stills from the Patterson/Gimlin film in Argosy magazine made me a lifelong fan of the pursuit of mysterious animals as it did Lyle Blackburn and many others.
I’m happy to see it still holds up after all these years and truly stands out as the greatest film of its kind.
Whether or not there is something unusual roaming the swamps of southwestern Arkansas is up for debate.
But I dare you to watch this and then take a stroll out there after dark.
People are turning up missing at alarming rates in America’s national parks, forests and in other public wild lands.
Delia D’Ambra iis an investigative journalist and host of the Park Predators podcast and has been studying the issue since she came across alarming disappearances in her line of work.
Are these disappearances linked to mountain lions, bears and other wild predators or predators of the human kind?
There was actually once a moose in Texas according to a 1989 story in The Oklahoman.. I included this in a story in the Fish & Game report last week.
Here’s one of the highlights from The Oklahoman.
A wandering bull moose that has been seen on occasion in the Oklahoma Panhandle apparently is in deep trouble in western Kansas.
Kansas wildlife officials said the big bull is in poor body condition and appears to be suffering from severe parasite infestation.
The animal, sporting an impressive set of antlers, was first observed in South Dakota in October 1987. Since then it has traveled through Nebraska and Kansas, across the Panhandle and into Texas. It later returned to Kansas and took up residence in the Kirwin National Wildlife Refuge before beginning another journey last fall. It was seen in Oklahoma last September, near the Optima Wildlife Refuge
This stray moose came over from Colorado and shows that wildlife do not respect maps and boundaries we put on them. Have you ever seen animal that is not supposed to be in Texas?
Chester Moore
Follow Chester Moore and Higher Calling Wildlife® on the following social media platforms
A woman claims she spotted a mysterious animal resembling the long-extinct Tasmanian Tiger while out on a bush walk with her son and sister according to a report in The Daily Mail.
Jessie Milde was on the hike in Belair National Park in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, when her family noticed a strange animal ‘lolloping’ around.
Ms Milde first thought the creature was either a ‘weird looking kangaroo’ or a ‘really scraggy looking dog’ but her sister was convinced it was a Tasmanian Tiger.
The thylacine has been considered extinct since the 1930s although a fair amount of reports exist.
They are without question in my opinion the most intriguing of possibly still alive-considered extinct creatures. The video (linked above) is interesting, but what interests me more is there seems to be an uptick in sightings and possible videos in recent years.
My good friend Todd Jurasek has made several expeditions into Australia and New Guinea. He believes there is a high chance of thylacines still existing.
“I think there are definitely still some thylacine living in Australia and Tasmania,” he said.
Sept. 13 Higher Calling Wildlife the podcast and this blog will begin a three-part series on mysterious wildlife. The thylacine will be the subject of one of these episodes. We will also cover the ivory-billed woodpecker, blue and black tigers and some other obscure animals.
It’s going to be a fun fall with super cool topics.
Defending Against Guys Likes This In The Great Outdoors
In this epic, hour-long episode, Dark Outdoors host Chester Moore dives into the iconic unsolved Moonlight Murders and the Phantom Killer made famous in 1976’s classic “The Town That Dreaded Sundown”.
The Phantom Killer as portrayed by Bud Davis in The Town That Dreaded Sundown.
This show examines how the phantom operated and compares it to dangers lurking today in sububan forest areas from similar predators.
It begins with a personal brush with danger from me and then goes into an interview with John Tennison, a cousin once removed from one of the chief Phantom killer suspects.
Hear a super rare and historic revelation of an eyewitness to seeing a white-masked figure in the night of Texarkana during the Phantom’s reign of terror.
We also interview Pamula Pierce Barcelou, daughter of “The Town that Dreaded Sundown” director Charles B. Pierce. She shares fascinating insight into this cult classic and her Dad’s role creating it nearly 50 years ago.
And learn why we should be super cautious in urban and suburan parks, greenbelts and forests.
The San Francisco Mountains south of the Arizona border in Sonora, MX, barely receive 3” of annual precipitation according to officials with The Wild Sheep Foundation.
WSF Photo
WSF, along with $10,000 from the Dallas Safari Club Foundation, has contributed $82,500 to drill a well to supply water to local people and provide a close and reliable water source for transport to fill water tanks for desert bighorn sheep and other desert-dwelling wildlife.
Before this well, water had to be trucked daily 30 miles to supply the 78 families living in the area according to WSF reports.
For nearly 25 years, residents have worked to conserve and re-populate desert bighorn sheep in this ejido. As a result of their program’s success, desert bighorn hunting on the ejido has expanded, as six permits were offered in 2020. Four of these permits were sold to generate money to pay for additional transplants of free-ranging desert bighorn sheep.
Melanism occurs when an excessive 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. This is also true with jaguars. The black cats you see in zoos and on television are all melanistic leopards or jaguars.
The general assumption with “black panther” sightings in America 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.
For melanistic cougars to be the answer to America’s “panther” question there would have to be many of them, and there is no proof of any of them.
A melanistic jaguar. Notice the spots still appear on the cat but they can only be seen at certain angles. (USFWS Photo)
Update Jan. 1 2024: We have begun an eight-part series on on YouTube channel on black panthers. Here are the first two episodes. Subscribe to teh channel to get all of the updates in the coming weeks.
Jaguars, however, do throw melanistic offspring and are native to Texas, western Louisiana, New Mexico, Arizona and California. They were wiped out north of Mexico more than 100 years ago, but a few individuals have been verified moving in and out of New Mexico and Arizona. And over the years, I have fielded three Texas jaguars reports I believe, two right on the Mexico line and one about 100 miles north of it.
Recent research shows that melanism is a dominant trait in jaguars. In other words, if a male jaguar for example moves into an area and starts breeding females there is a good chance much of the offspring will be melanistic as well.
In the many photos captured on trail camera of jaguars crossing back and forth from Mexico into New Mexico and Arizona, there have been no black ones. (USFWS Photo)
Could a remnant population of jaguars survive that has the dominant melanistic genes? There is no way that’s an answer for the entire “black panther” phenomenon, but it is not out of the range of possibility for some of the sightings reported throughout the years.
It’s unlikely but within the realm of possibility.
Melanism is also present, albeit rare, in bobcats.
Melanistic bobcats have been killed and mounted in Texas. In fact, one by taxidermist Steve Moye was mounted leaping at a quail and hung in the Gander Mountain sporting goods store in Beaumont, Texas for the better part of a decade.
My experience shows that many people cannot differentiate between a bobcat and a cougar. Many are surprised that bobcats have tails at all. In fact some have tails as long as eight inches. A black bobcat could easily be labeled a “black panther” by someone who is not aware of melanism in the species.
USFWS Photo
In fact, I was sent a photo of a black bobcat back in 2011 that the reader believed was a “panther”.
I fault no one for not properly identifying animals or having questions. I consider it an honor and a privilege to get to check out the hundreds of photos sent my direction. But my conclusion is people have a very hard time identifying cats in the wild.
Besides people who don’t understand basic animal identification, the biggest problem in misidentifying cougars and bobcats is scale. A large bobcat seen at a distance with nothing to compare it to, looks much larger than it really is.
The jaguarundi is another prime candidate for “black panther” sightings. A large jaguarundi in the common dark gray or chocolate brown phase, crossing a road in front of a motorist or appearing before an unsuspecting hunter could easily be labeled a “black panther.”
Jaguarundis are one of the least known cats on the planet. Although short, they grow fairly long and someone seeing one of these cats could easily label it “black panther”. (USFWS Photo)
Because very few people are aware of jaguarundis, it’s highly unlikely they would report seeing one. Everyone can relate to a “black panther” and virtually no one has ever heard of a jaguarundi.
These cats are native to Texas (and all the way south into South America) but there has been no verified sighting in years. I do believe as some research suggests, there are isolated pockets of them north of their currently accepted range.
Is the jaguarundi responsible for many “black panther” reports in the United States?
No way.
Are they the source of some sightings?
I have no doubt.
Some suggest the “black panther” sightings are the result of a “circus train” crash where its animals got loose. This story has been repeated over and over in Texas, and throughout the South with exact locations changing with the retelling.
Have circus trains wrecked? Yes but the idea black panther sightings have anything to do with them is ridiculous. Hessels, L. (Nederlandse Spoorwegen), fotograaf
I find no evidence of this.
If black leopards were to escape, the chance of them surviving and producing offspring wide-ranging enough for a phenomenon like this to take place is beyond far-fetched.
Additionally, why would only black leopards escape? Where are the lions, tigers and elephants?
Considering the bulk of a wild cat’s hunting skills are taught, this is not even remotely likely.
There is no way there are hundreds, if not thousands of black leopards running around the country due to a circus train crash. So far, all intensive re-wilding efforts of tigers have failed so how could circus leopards escape, survive and create a nation-wide population?
Isolated cases of exotic cats escaping have occurred, but in my opinion they are not the source of many sightings in Texas or at any other location in North America.
In my opinion the majority of these black panther these black longtails of domestic lineage discussed in part 1 of the series, standard cougars seen in low light conditions, black bobcats (because we have proof they exist), jaguarundis in parts of their historical range and I even leave the door open for a few of them even being jaguars.
The thing people have to consider is we are dealing with cats, not some creature with unknown abilities.
I have personally been sent hundreds of game camera photos of bobcats. Cougars which are one of the planet’s most elusive animals show up on game cameras in the American West all the time and even super rare and shy animals like snow leopards are common on these cameras set by researchers.
A cougar looking quite intense. (Photo by Chester Moore)
So, if these mysterious cats are all either black cougars or black jaguars why does no one get a clear daytime trail camera photo or even a clear night shot? The same exact areas have cameras getting pictures of bobcats and standard cougars so why are the black ones so elusive?
I don’t believe they are.
I believe the main answer is the “black longtail” of very domestic lineage discussed in part 1 of the series. I have seen many of these photos and even captured one on camera myself.
MOULTRIE DIGITAL GAME CAMERA (Photo by Chester Moore)
It’s not an exciting answer if you want this mysterious cat to be something more grand than a feral and perhaps even evolving version of Felis catus but in my opinion it is the clear answer for a vast majority of sightings.
Something else to ponder there are “black panther” sightings throughout the UK, in Australia and other areas with no indigenous leopards or jaguars.
Ask yourself what cat is very common in these areas that is commonly black?
Yep, Felis catus.
I will be doing more features on this topic and communicating with biologists and genetic experts on how feral cats in the wild might be adapting and changing in ways that makes them as wild as any leopard.
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.
With that said, there are thousands of reports of “black panthers” in the United States.
Update Jan. 1, 2024: Black Panther Series Begins On YouTube. Subscribe to get all 8 weeks of updates. Here’s episodes one and two.
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).
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.
Mystery of the Black Longtail appeared in Texas Fish & Game Oct. 2019.
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.
Courtesy Photo
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?
MOULTRIE DIGITAL GAME CAMERA (By CHESTER MOORE)
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.
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.)
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”.
Melanism (think reverse of albinism) is present in many animals including canids.
With recent evidence showing red wolf DNA in coyote-like canids on the Texas Coast, it would be interesting to have a DNA sample from this black one.
The red wolf which was native from Texas/Oklahoma to the eastern seaboard had a subspecies called the “black wolf”. It was later called the Floria black wolf and was believed to be a long-extinct subspecies of red wolf.
In fact, black wolf was a term commonly used throughout the South for what is now known as the red wolf due to the presence of black individuals.
I have a copy of the 1946-47 Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Biennial Report that goes into detail about wolves in the Bayou State.
Under the headline “Predator Control” the following information is given.
“The Legislature of 1946 increased hunting license fees to $2.00. Twenty five percent of these funds (the increase) were dedicated to predator control.”
Interestingly, the article shows the above photo of a predator control officer with a dead “black wolf”.
The red was declared extinct in the wild in 1980 due to hybridization with coyotes.
Whatever this particular coyote’s genetic heritage, it is a strikingly beautiful animal and we are grateful to Todd Jurasek for sharing it with us.
Do you have videos or photos of black coyotes or other wild canids? If so, email them to chester@chestermoore.com.
Chester Moore
To subscribe to this blog and get weekly cutting edge wildlife news and commentary, enter your email at the prompt on the top right of the page.
I found this photo searching for some other images and thought you might enjoy seeing this rare image from the past.
Chester Moore
You can subscribe to this blog by entering your email address at the subscribe prompt at the top right of this page. You can contact Chester Moore by emailing chester@chestermoore.com. Subscribe to the podcast by visiting thehighercalling.podbean.com.
