| Hello, this isnt so much a true sighting as a bit of a mystery to my friends and I on what the animal is. I live i north east Texas, near the border of Louisiana and about an hour south of the Arkansas border in a town called Jefferson. Never heard of it? me niether, haha. Anyways, I and several people that I know have seen very large BLACK bobcats in the woods where we live, and I am sure that there is more than one based on descriptions of the sightings of others contrasted to the animal I saw myself. One of the bobcats is roughly normal sized, dark-basically black, with faint red spots from a normal bobcat pattern. That is the one my father has seen several times while hunting on our land across from our house. One of my fathers friends has seen at least one on his land while hunting, at least several (I forget the actual place, but I'll check and list it) miles away. He said the one he saw was somewhat larger than a normal bobcat with a tail about 7 inches long. Now, the one I saw with my best friend was much larger than any bobcat I've ever even heard of. It was about two years ago i guess. My friend and I were coming back from town, we live in a small country community, there is a long straight away area on the way to our houses from where you have to turn off to go to the community, it is pure wilderness on both sides of the road. You can't NOT go down this road more than twice a day and not see some kind of animal. Anyways, we were on this road going about 45 mph, for what reason i don't remember. There is a house on the left side of the road based on the fact that you are going IN to the community, about 260 feet before our house. About 100 hundred feet before that house, a HUGE, JET BLACK bobcat crossed in front of us in no particular hurry. It was about 2 and a half feet to the shoulder and about four feet long, snout to vent. I did not see any type of markings or pattern on the animal. It crossed in sort of a fast walking speed about fifteen feet in front of us. We probably saw it all together for about 40 seconds. It crossed from the side of the road where the house I mentioned is (our left) and went into the woods that is our property and dissapeared. Now, I have seen enough bobcats to clearly identify a normal bobcat. I am a biology major, and have personally worked with bobcats in person, and this was no ordinary animal. What we cant decide is if these are just abnormally large, melanistic bobcats, or, as my friend put forward a hybrid between bobcats and black panthers which we know very well have inhabited this area for many decades. Personally, I believe that they are just abnormally large, melanistic bobcats. Any comments are welcomed but keep it at least semi professional. |
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