Those cats (the adult males) have been known to range hundreds of miles. I recently read of a couple of black cat sightings in the Texas Big Thicket. Stirred up quite a controversy, supposedly none exist in the East Texas woods..
The three together have to be juveniles litter mates. That's the only reason they would tolerate each other.
would prefer a large pair of male Dobermans or Irish Wolfhounds both breeds are smart and strong with good strong bite so if they get in a tussle with a wild animal they are used to working together as a team
QuoteThose cats (the adult males) have been known to range hundreds of miles. I recently read of a couple of black cat sightings in the Texas Big Thicket. Stirred up quite a controversy, supposedly none exist in the East Texas woods..As I write this I sit about as deep in the Big Thicket as you can get. In a creek bottom, between two creeks. This neighborhood is habitat encroachment of the worst kind. I am blessed to be here, but humans don't belong here. You just would not believe the bio-density here. They are here, apex predators, in numbers much greater than the gentleman ranchette terrain where those three were photographed. An A/C repair man told me one time that their game cameras photographed a black cat. An absolutely HUGE black cat. They showed the game warden the pictures, he reported it to Texas Parks and Wildlife. They in turn reported it to U.S Fish and Wildlife Service. They sent a biologist down here from Virginia who had been gathering evidence that black cats exist in the US. He showed him the pictures and the guy was just blown away. He did not believe it was a melanistic cougar, but rather possibly a melanistic jaguar. Jaguar have been spotted from Arizona into West Texas, but this was the first pictures he had seen of one this far east. And also the first pictures he had seen of a black one. He said the biologist was like he had found the link he had been looking for. The repairman sad they got three pictures if I remember right, one in which the cat was looking directly into the camera at close range. If I remember right he said that the biologist told him that he estimated the cat's head to be approximately SEVENTEEN INCHES WIDE. That is why he was almost 100% certain that it was not a cougar. One thing is for sure. This was on the Neches River out from Chester Texas. It's not easy to get back in there, and because of the leases in that area not many people have access to those river bottoms. You can't run up that part of the Neches easily either with all of the snags in the river, so people don't go in that way. It is one of only two really wild rivers left. If Jags wanted a secure place to thrive, that area would be it. It does not get much more remote than that in these woods. Hold your hands 17 inches wide. Can you imagine the size of a cat that has a head that big? I know the cougar I saw behind my house was big, but not that big. The thing that sticks with me most about that night was just how impossibly big and impossibly GREEN those eyes were, a green like none others I have ever seen, and how impossibly wide the distance between them. You know you are looking at a big cat immediately, but you just sit there thinking, "Sonofabitch! How can eyes be that far apart, and if they are that far apart, how BIG and BAD is that sonofabitch!". Listen, no eyes you have ever seen at night prepares you for eyes that big and that wide. Most unique outdoor moment of my life. Your senses sharpen immediately. That, and just the total lack of fear in those eyes. Very sobering to me, and I have been in the woods most of my life. Not much gets to me, but that fearless, stoic cat spooked me, just sitting there calmly and staring me down like a piece of meat, and I am still spooked five years later. He did not fear me one bit, and really did not want to leave.
The last Jag was killed in this part of the country in 1932. But these kitties had been photoed a few years ago 14 of them.
Quote from: Paulus on February 13, 2019, 08:43:34 PMThe last Jag was killed in this part of the country in 1932. But these kitties had been photoed a few years ago 14 of them.Wow, i’ve never seem a pic of that many together before.Females with last year’s cubs??We’ve had them here for many years despite what fish and game used to say about it. Don’t know what their stance on it now is.Lots of folks here say they’ve seen the black phase color, but all i’ve Ever caught sight of was the tawny colored ones...3 of them over the years, and two of those were in my yard when I lived in the country.I think they’ve been migrating here from the Florida glades for a long time now.One of those was a very young half grown one, but another left a track in my garden about the width of my closed fist, but a bit longer and wider in the soft dirt.Lol, there is a good story behind that one, as I walked by it within 25 yds. at 2 am in the morning, and did’nt know it was there till it made a very low and soft growl.
Quote from: 35 shooter on February 14, 2019, 05:22:45 PMQuote from: Paulus on February 13, 2019, 08:43:34 PMThe last Jag was killed in this part of the country in 1932. But these kitties had been photoed a few years ago 14 of them.Wow, i’ve never seem a pic of that many together before.Females with last year’s cubs??We’ve had them here for many years despite what fish and game used to say about it. Don’t know what their stance on it now is.Lots of folks here say they’ve seen the black phase color, but all i’ve Ever caught sight of was the tawny colored ones...3 of them over the years, and two of those were in my yard when I lived in the country.I think they’ve been migrating here from the Florida glades for a long time now.One of those was a very young half grown one, but another left a track in my garden about the width of my closed fist, but a bit longer and wider in the soft dirt.Lol, there is a good story behind that one, as I walked by it within 25 yds. at 2 am in the morning, and did’nt know it was there till it made a very low and soft growl. please do tell the story. I’m all ears Peter
seventeen inches wide? Are you sure it wasn't a misplaced tiger? That doesn't sound like a jaguar head. A normal one, at any rate.
Quote from: PeterL on February 14, 2019, 09:24:58 PMQuote from: 35 shooter on February 14, 2019, 05:22:45 PMQuote from: Paulus on February 13, 2019, 08:43:34 PMThe last Jag was killed in this part of the country in 1932. But these kitties had been photoed a few years ago 14 of them.Wow, i’ve never seem a pic of that many together before.Females with last year’s cubs??We’ve had them here for many years despite what fish and game used to say about it. Don’t know what their stance on it now is.Lots of folks here say they’ve seen the black phase color, but all i’ve Ever caught sight of was the tawny colored ones...3 of them over the years, and two of those were in my yard when I lived in the country.I think they’ve been migrating here from the Florida glades for a long time now.One of those was a very young half grown one, but another left a track in my garden about the width of my closed fist, but a bit longer and wider in the soft dirt.Lol, there is a good story behind that one, as I walked by it within 25 yds. at 2 am in the morning, and did’nt know it was there till it made a very low and soft growl. please do tell the story. I’m all ears PeterPeter,When I was in my early 20’s my ex wife and I had a house next to Big Swamp Creek out in the country.I had a little shop in the back yard about 50 yds. From the house and next to the woods.I had gone out to the shop late that night to mold bullets for my 44 mag. handgun.I had the side window down for ventilation while I was casting, and about an hour later(about midnight) I heard this cat squall not a hundred yds. Or so inside the woods and somewhere along the creek bottom.Don’t know if it was a mating call or what, but it sounded like a growl that turned into more of a scream than anything.Lol, I thought about letting the window down just in case, but I was in the middle of casting bullets and in the shop, so was’nt too concerned. About 2am I had forgot about the cat and had finished casting, so I locked the shop door and started for the house.The only light was a security light 20 yds. On the other side of the house, so could’nt see much.... that’s when i remembered what I had heard earlier and had a very sudden bad feeling.This was late spring early summer, so my garden plot was growing well, and the rest of the yard was wide open.I knew my dogs were out(a huge black lab and a German short hair pointer), but did’nt see them( usually they would come to me the second I came out of the shop.I called to them and heard a “wuff” from the carport in front of the house.I got about halfway to the house with the garden on my left and heard a slight rustle in the bean patch, then heard that low growl that I almost thought was my imagination.I called the dogs again and the pointer stepped off the carport and locked up on “point” on the garden.I took a few more steps sideways toward the house so as not to completely turn my back on the garden and the lab came to me.She was all bristled up and was trying to pass me to go to the garden, but I grabbed her collar and walked to the house.Lol, as soon as I opened the door, they both about knocked me down getting inside and ran down the hall and jumped in the bed with my sleeping wife.Lol, that did’nt go over well and took a moment to calm her down and explain the situation.I got my flashlight and 44mag. handgun and went back out. When I approached my end of the garden I saw something big long and tawny colored run out the back end of the garden and over the barbed wire fence at the back of the yard. A few bounds and it was in the woods and gone.The next morning was when I found the tracks in the garden and realized just how close I had been to it.I could see where it had laid down across 2 rows of beans and watched me go by.You could clearly see where it swished his tail back and forth in the dirt of the third row😯!I think it was after the dogs, but was hesitant because there was 2 of them and then I came walking out of the shop confusing it further.