Cat Tales

Folks in the region love their cat tales.

Not to be confused with the wetland plant cattails, these cat tales are accounts of people who attest to encountering large, wild felines.

Stories make their way around as word of mouth, catching fire sometimes as coffee shop chatter. Most cat tales aren't registered through official channels, perhaps for fear of rejection or maybe because no action is warranted.

Reports of big cat sightings are ingrained in the fabric of western Kentucky and apparently the rest of middle America. They've always been there as urban legend – or in this case, suburban or rural legend.

Most area cat tales invoke one of two subjects: the mountain lion or cougar, names for the same animal, or the reputed black panther. Kentucky has a history of cougars. The eastern mountain lion was native to the state and eastern North America in general. Trouble is, that cat is thought by wildlife scientists to be extinct, wiped out during the 19th century.

At present, only the subspecies of Florida panthers, a genetically distinct variety of eastern mountain lions, survives in the southern part of the Sunshine State.

That doesn't stop people from occasionally reporting a cougar. Such reports have come from most or all far western Kentucky counties. Hunters, farmers, motorists – all sorts of people have stepped up with mountain lion reports. Some cat reporters know little about wildlife, but some are well versed.

At least one wildlife biologist in the region has reported seeing a mountain lion in the open in good daylight, this one in Lyon County. Other accounts of cougar sightings have come from law enforcement officers.

Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources biologists say cougars don't live here. Yet, the wildlife managers won't say cougar sightings are impossible. Biologists maintain that cougars aren't out there naturally – but an occasional one might show up because many western cougars are in captivity, and releases or escapes are possible. Indeed, a couple of cougar cubs were struck and killed on an eastern Kentucky road some years back. Managers suspect they had been dumped.

Meanwhile, adult mountain lions have turned up dead in both southeastern Missouri and downstate Illinois. These exhibited no signs of previous captivity, and some speculate they may have been young males spinning off populations in the easternmost areas of western cougar ranges. Young males seeking their own territories are known to roam lengthy distances.

Black panther sightings are something else again. Some folks swear they have witnessed big black cats. Some say they've seen cats of cougar size (100 pounds plus) in light good enough to tell that they are solid black. You know, black panthers.

If wildlife manager doubt some of the mountain lion reports, they tend to roll their eyes at the very mention of black panthers. These lack any biological explanation.

No native North American animal matches the description of alleged black panthers. Aside from a history of a few jaguars in the far Southwest, the continent's only large native cat is the mountain lion. Alas, it has been called a panther (as in Florida panther) or “painter.” But mountain lions almost never occur in melanistic form. They don't come in black. The real black panther, by common language, is the melanistic form of African or Asian leopard. Nothing says we absolutely couldn't have released or escaped exotic leopards roaming our woodlands. But captive leopards are far rarer than captive mountain lions – and among leopards, spotted ones are the routine. Nobody reports seeing them. So maybe there's a yet-undocumented species afoot in our outback. Or perhaps earnest folks are just a little confused about what they witness.

Maybe instead of a black panther it's a cougar in poor light, or maybe just a misunderstood Labrador retriever or a misjudged black house cat.

Most folks who offer reports really are seeing something. Some very likely have seen mountain lions. Those that report black panthers may be stretching their credibility a bit.

But when something slinks by and the sight of it makes the hair on your arms stands up, who can say different?