I know that there is always a controversy about animals in the wild that are supposed to be extinct but show up every now and then. I live in along the Cherokee/Smith county border where there is a lot of woods, water, grasslands and brush. There are the usual coyote, fox and bobcat around and I have seen lion tracks based on my experience with them in the California mountains. But, there is some kind of feline that shows up occasionally in the middle of the night making all kinds of strange sounds and leaves tracks that are something between a bobcat and lion in size and pad shape. I have never seen it but, after 60 years in the woods from California to Michigan, I have never heard sounds like this.

Any chance of jaguarundi still being around?

Before you laugh, I ridiculed a friend of my son many years ago when he insisted he saw a wolverine in the Sierra Nevada near Donner Lake near the California/Nevada border. I told him there was no way a wolverine could be in that area. About 10 years later the California Fish and Game followed up on repeat sightings and documented a number of these rare critters right where Adam told me he saw them.

Not sure about the jaguarundi; maybe its just a chupacabra

I’m fairly certain I saw one on the Kennedy Ranch shoreline a few years back.


Prepare to be ridiculed by the expert

Well, I am 74 so I am pretty familiar with ridicule

I had to look it up, kinda freaky looking

On my children, 2 years ago I saw a large black cat north a Abeilene. I'm not sure what it was, but it's tail was 3 ft long and had some serious muscles.

What were the sounds like?

Has there ever been a sighting outside of far south Texas?

Squatch make crazy sounds.

Not questioning your tracking ability at all, but how many prints have you seen in a series?

I ask because sometimes if you're only able to get one or two clear prints from a cat the size can get misrepresented by a double step; the back pad is stepping into the same track the front foot made and this would make the size look a little questionable or odd.

You can usually sort that out if you have a series of tracks versus just picking up one or two in some mud in otherwise a rocky area or vegetated area for example where you don't get a series of track.

How to say you are married without saying you are married.

https://pictures-of-cats.org/texas-mountain-lion.html

probably more likely a mountain lion that jaguarundi.

MO

Are you confused with a Coatimundi? Not that unusual in South Texas.

Jaguarundi aren't"still around" because they have never been around there. There have only been 5 documented jaguarundi in Texas. The. Last one was in 1986 and all 5 were in 2 counties in the very southern tip of Texas. They require a very specific habitat.

Plus #1.

I have actually seen one years ago at the Santa Ana Wildlife Refuge, down in the Valley. We were sneaking in to lay in on a crossing, from Mexico, to catch some smugglers. It was at about evening twilight. no sun, but not quite dark.

Wisdom !

Same time of day I saw it. Was casually walking the shoreline in this pic

Were you in those two counties where they historically reside? I also assume (yeah, I know) that this was prior to 1986.

Impossible ! Way too far north.

I never said it was impossible to see one along the border of their territory. It's highly unlikely but not impossible. The op asked about smith county. That would be impossible. I don't understand why some of y'all get offended if someone knows more about a certain subject than you do

Ok.

It's amazing how many of y'all don't realize animals ranges and habitat requirements

Some animal ranges and habitat have historically changed over time. Google it.

I don't need to "google" it. I'm very aware. That's why jaguarundi are extripated from Texas. The little suitable habit they had anywhere near their range is no longer suitable

Maybe only 5 documented but more than that have been seen. I’ve seen two, one on the Gary Morgan Ranch in South Texas and another on one of the deer leases I had in Mexico. Jaguarundi are not common but they get seen.

Finding a cat isn’t as easy as finding a deer or hog, they’re elusive, nocturnal, and hard to find. I’ve heard big cats in plenty of places, including northeast texas.

A lot of those "Seen" were probably Ring-Tailed-Cats.

He’s already googled it. This is straight off TPW website.

We would be finding their skeletons if they were still around in any numbers.
Now it is certainly possible that some East Texas Vape and THC king had one in his personal wildlife refuge sanctuary and it escaped into the wild.

could have been one of these sub species

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_Coast_jaguarundi

Could it possibly be an ocelot? I have seen them twice on the bank at Fayette County Reservoir.

It’s getting deep in here. Better get my mud boots on.

Couple of years ago, a long time family friend told me he saw one on his daily drive through our small town, about a mile south of me on our main CR. I was skeptical. 2 days later, one evening I saw something cross the road about 80yard ahead of me almost big as a dog but was not. It was moving like a cat, dark color pattern, and definitely wasn’t a bobcat(They’re in my area too) The area was at a corner turn very close to the bayou. Heavy brush and cover. I see lots of deer around there too.

Dubee, I’m going to blow your mind here but back in the 70’s Conoco’s Conquisti project which was a uranium mining operation dug two out of a deep cave on the corner of Karnes and Wilson counties. Not knowing what they were they were killed. One of them was taxidermied and to this day hangs in mule skinners bar on the county line. I drank many a beer looking at that ugly thing and most of my family worked for Conoco back when this happened and had first hand knowledge. The owner of that bar finally died but I’m sure it’s still there. And before you say it was mis identified I predator hunt year round for nuisance animals and have killed a bunch. I have never personally called one in which makes me think those were the last two around there.

I've predator hunted my whole life. Killed dozens of bobcats, two mountain lions, and 100's of feral cats. At noon one day, in Coleman county, a jaguarundi stopped in the middle of the road 20 yards in front of me. I was sober, and had three three soberish witnesses with me.

My guess is they are more widespread than we think and cause the majority of "black panther" claims.

Cool looking animal with an unusual sound if this video is real.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaGxJMVwSrU

His mind is not blown, it is set in its ways and thus an immovable object. Those animals can't exist there due to the habitat there because it will not contain prey species for those felines.







No, your guess is wrong and they are not there. Impossible ! Obviously even when sober it is possible to hallucinate. Coleman county is way, way, way out of any possible range of these predators. You probably had a vision or mistakenly and amateurishly identified a common house cat as a jaguarundi. Dubee has read Wiki the internet, and what TPWD has to say and they all say not possible. NOT possible ! There's no suitable habitat or prey (see my above response).

I even saw a TPWD video where a biologist (20 something young guy) said they were extirpated from Texas. Haven't been one here in 40 years and then only in those 2 counties.

No wavering on this! Set in stone! Or concrete (5 sack mix). No wiggle room!

Sober?


BTW, there are very few if any pumas in East Texas. Probably none! No support habitat! No hard evidence.


Next !

I have been in Zapata full time for fifteen years, and I speak to many ranchers and hunters from Zapata and Starr counties. I have probably heard of four or five sightings over the years that folks are sure they saw a jaguarundi.

Whether they did or not I do not know, but I'd bet that some or the sightings are real..

Still have heard of no Bigfoot sightings down here..

Squatch will not roam south of I-10, unless forced by urban development.

In 1969 (10 years old), a bunch of us kids were roaming the hills on the backside of City Park(Emma Long). The hills had cuts that you could climb to the top. Back then, there was nothing west of Austin except for scattered homesteads.

After roaming one day and climbing back down, rocks came tumbling down. We stopped and looked up and saw a large black cat cross the cut. May have been a melanin type of a cougar but still black.

I can’t remember what year but years back Texas parks and wildlife magazine had a really good articulate on Jaguarundi. I want to say they had a pic of one taken at Laguna Atascosa on the front cover.

What are we looking at here? Old busted up boat houses dont go that far north?

Land cut. WAY south. It’s an absolute blast…I’d highly recommend it. Can spend a week out there and never see another human. Nilgai roam the shores…pretty cool to see

Cougars don't exist in the melanistic phase.

Black panthers simply don't exist in the U.S.

The only possibility is a black jaguar. Black Jaguar's make up a small percentage of the jaguar population. So if people are seeing black jaguars, why are there so many more reported sightings of black panthers than of the more common jaguar coloration?



I was at Lake Stamford this weekend and made a quick trip to town. While crossing the lake on the southern end, I saw a black animal with a longish tail crossing the road. From a 1/2 mile away I thought it was the size of a coyote. Really got me curious about what I was seeing. As soon as a made it across the bridge I stopped and looked around. There just off the road stood a standard sized black house cat eating on road kill. It looked way bigger from a 1/2 mile away than it actually was.

99% of people could not differentiate between a black panther, a black jaguar, a black cougar, or a black mountain lion.
Because the Carolina Panthers have a black panther on their stadium and helmets, people will just say black panther.

I didn't goole anything. I just happen to have a little knowledge on the subject.

There are less than 100 ocelots in Texas. Unless you were visiting the Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge. Then you didn't see one. They certainly aren't anywhere near Fayette

Lol

How would someone misidentify a 15 pound cat that looks like an otter with a 200 lb jaguar?

Jeez, I'm a one percenter.

FWIW (not very much if anything) I dislike the Carolina Panthers

To be clear, killed a bunch of nuisance animals not Jaguarundi. And by the way I bow hunted Laguna Atascosa for about 10 years. Saw quite a few Ocelots and even had one curl up and sleep under my stand one day.
Incredible animals.

If you want to see a ocelot. That's the place to do it

Is that supposed to be something I haven't seen dozens of times?