Posted on 04/02/2009 11:41:13 AM PDT by Scythian
Mystery Of Big Black Cat Deepens
In NY Suburb Number Of Black Cat Sightings On The Rise
Near State Park 'Suspicious Animal Sightings' Signs Posted Around Rockland County PALISADES, N.Y.
Mysterious big black cats are scaring residents of Rockland County, N.Y. Wildlife experts aren't sure what they are, or how they got there. Halloween is long gone. So what's up with the black cat sightings near New York's Tallman Mountain State Park?
Signs posted around the Rockland County park warn the public about "Suspicious Animal Sightings."
Other sightings were reported in the hamlet of Palisades. One was in a driveway. Two were in a backyard.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation says wild cat sightings often turn out to be a large dog, coyote or bobcat.
Orangetown police are increasing patrols. State park police have installed cameras to snap pictures of passing animals.
These are described as sleek, long-tailed, black felines. They're larger than mid-size dogs.
No regional zoos, veterinarians or residents have reported a missing large cat.
The State of Michigan denies having an active population of mountain lions even though there’s been hundreds of sightings of black and brown cats accross the state. A houswife on the Ohio/Michigan border even videotaped a pair of them....the police weren’t hitting them with sticks or anything so the footage received scant attention.
I guess the State doesn’t want to deal with the paperwork that acknowledging another endangered species would create
Fishers only go up to about 18 lbs - not really as big as a medium-sized dog. Tho' they do look a bit bigger 'cause of that fluffy fur...
More like the state doesn't want to acknowledge that if they're so many of them they're not really "endangered"
Mich...Nah!
Fishers are really mean, but as the pictures above show, they don’t really look all that much like cats. That picture at the top certainly looks like some sort of panther escaped from a zoo.
We have fisher cats, so called by the locals, here in Vermont. The one in our neighborhood has eaten several pet cats in recent years, and has wounded a couple of dogs, including one next door. And our basset got his side torn open last year, I’m not sure by what. About twenty stitches.
That's a thought. We've got them around here in significant numbers. They'll prey on small house pets, so you've got to be careful. I'd happily shoot the SOB's but they are, of course, "endangered".
More like the state doesn't want to acknowledge that if they're so many of them they're not really "endangered" the fewer "endangers" species there are the less need for satate employees to waste tax dollars screwing with the paperwork
Here we go again...profiling.
Yeah, they don't really have mountains in OK. Just hills. :-)
Maybe people are seeing the really big pussycats, Maine Coon Cats.
Perseus was a scrawny and sickly runt of the litter- a Maine Coon rescue. Three years and several thousand dollars of vet bills later- he's now 21 lbs (easily the size of two Yorkies). He's a lovable headbutting purrer, gentle, playful, and good with dogs. Amazingly, he leaps almost four feet into the air after his favorite mouse on a wand toy, and makes it to the top of his 72" cat tree with just a few leaps.
That looks exactly like my kitty! He is a huge black main coon cat too...the best breed! They act more like dogs. ;)
Has Julie Newmar been in town recently?
She tends to wear a tight-fitting Catwoman costume when she's on the prowl,
that might fit the large black pussycat description.
Foxnews's Megyn Kelly has a leopardskin outfit.
Maybe she's been jogging in that in the park, mistaken for an unknown mystery feline.
I shouldn’t have looked at that picture. With three rescued cats already I have enough, but I SO want a Maine Coon Cat. Its more like lust :-)
Compared to a black panther.
Hope it chomps on an anti-gun, anti-hunter liberal.
According to the article, "Two were in a back yard." That would mean that two panthers escaped from a zoo and have remained together. That seems unlikely to me. My guess is a Fisher particularly since the area where the "cats" were seen is populated with a lot of NYC transplants who do not know the difference between a Fisher and a Fisherman let alone recognize a panther/cougar/mountain lion.
On the other hand, the video link has a fairly clear shot of the tracks, which are way too big for a bob cat and lack the pointed claw of a Fisher. The tracks to me look like a panther's tracks.
This is New York. Another endangered species is good for about a 1000 new bureaucrats and an excuse to raise taxes.
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