I live in a village with paved roads...the bear came out of my very wet back yard and crossed the road to disappear in the shadows of my neighbors side yard. The road had a bright street light over it...I couldn’t miss the wet paw prints crossing the road. OMG they were HUGE. No panther made those, it was a bear.
I wasn’t suggesting that it was a panther, just that danger lurks in unexpected places. Where I lived in Washington State, we watched for bear that came marauding through from time to time — never panthers. One of my neighbors lost half a dozen sheep one spring. That was blamed on bear, but who knows?
Until my eerie experience, the only Panthers around were members of the HS football team. But, ya know...they got their name from SOMEWHERE.
It took the DNR moving into my (very citified) house to identify the dangers in the woods. We had lost some cats, but never linked it to predators. ust thought they’d wandered away.
And we had paved roads too.