I didn't bother to report it to the DNR since they claim there are no wolves in lower Michigan.
Posted on 10/06/2006 9:11:45 AM PDT by MrNationalist
(Adams County-WANE) After NewsChannel 15 aired video of a big cat sighting in Adams County, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources and the Adams County Sheriff's Department received phone calls from people who also claim to have seen the mysterious cat.
The big cat sightings have been taking place for about a year. Now with the existence of video of the animal, there appears to be proof the cat really exists. An Adams County resident and her daughter videotaped what appears to be a big cat on two separate occasions. They're not sure if it's the same animal because one of the video sightings is very shaky.
NewsChannel 15 showed the video to an expert at the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. Mark Weldon says the animal could be a cougar or a leopard. Kevin Pensinger, an officer with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources agrees the animal is a large cat, but he's not certain what kind. The animal could have been someone's escaped pet. Law requires people to register wild animals like cougars, but if someone had such an animal and it got loose they might not report it to authorities.
I have practiced that method for beaver that keep blocking my spillway for years, then I found out that if they are creating a problem you can shoot the darn things anytime around here, they're like rodents. All that shoveling at night for nothing.....
Tell that to the people at Kensington Metropark in Brighton, they think there has been one or two running around the nature preserve for a few years now.
It's a man in a cat suit. Just like that fake Bigfoot film clip!
From what I could see I bet its a coyote.
And it's way too big for a house cat -- an animal that small would be completely obscured by the tall grass.
Good choice.
They need to take the video taker back to the same spot they taped it at. Have another person or persons stand in the field at approximately the place the cat was filmed. Film the person. Have them walk around the area until one can match up the same area the cat was in.
From this, we can determine it's size. Whatever the size of cat it is, it's well fed. It appears fairly bulky.
It is a proven fact that the cougar is making a comeback throughout its historical range (which is pretty much ALL of North and South America). That one would be in Indiana, before, say, Rhode Island, is perfectly understandable. But even Rhode Island has plenty of thick woods and deer, otherwise known as cougar country. Today cougars are not hunted or disturbed in almost all areas that they were wiped out from. The only places they're still hunted is where they have never been eradicated. So it makes sense that some would wander into the previously eradicated areas and then thrive.
Cool! Have you ever found sasquatch tracks? I mean besides the FReeper Sasquatch.
I agree with YOU.
I think its a mountain lion. It looks like one and moves like one.
There HAVE been verifiable sightings of cougars in Michigan's Upper Penninsula, and there is book out which indicates they might be in the lower penninsula.
Indiana is just next door to Michigan.
I DOUBT anybody who owned this as a "pet" would release the animal. But the best way to check for sure is by capturing it and chekcing out the fangs. Sometimes people who keep these animals mutilate them by defanging them. If the fangs are missing, its an escaped pet. If not, it may be wild cougar or an escaped pet that wasn't defanged.
My bets are on a wild cougar.
They ARE expanding their range eastwards and southwards.
Pretty neat.
In the same leap, a cat's back undulates, first shoulders up, then a ripple along the spine until the hips come up above the shoulders.
The only dogs I have ever seen with any undulation in the spine are the field type Labrador Retrievers, their backs are so long that they ripple as they run - but it's a different type of movement, and it stays horizontal, not up and down like a kitty.
Until it's in your yard.
I'm doing performance events now, nobody ever heard of doing such a thing with a cat until recently, when a bunch of loons decided to do "Cat Agility". What a joke. They have to literally get down on their knees with treats and peacock feathers and beg and plead for the cats to go over each obstacle, and the obstacles are in a net cage because otherwise the cats would go off about their own business.
Funny part is, it had a locator collar on it. Another local claims that he lost a calf, and later found the remains. In a tree...
Rumor is that the Iowa DNR is bringing them in to control the deer population and not telling anyone. Makes sense to me, I never figured out how a cat could cross either the Missouri or Mississippi river that border the state to get here......
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