# panther in morganton ga Nick?



## karen936 (Feb 25, 2017)

saw a panther just after dark. Heard a lot of noise thought that's a big animal out there went in and got our big flash light. I found it across the road at a small creek that runs into lake blue ridge. It stared back at me for a long time could make out the complete out line tail and all.
I was up on a hill and it was down in a gully. I don't doubt what I saw as I studied them and did a report on them in college. I love the animal. My question is do they stay in the same area or frequent the same area. I have a dog to take out at night some. And this is a rental home. I am not familiar with this area.


----------



## karen936 (Feb 25, 2017)

went out and looked must have been about
2 hundred feet away


----------



## Miguel Cervantes (Feb 25, 2017)

karen936 said:


> saw a panther just after dark. Heard a lot of noise thought that's a big animal out there went in and got our big flash light. I found it across the road at a small creek that runs into lake blue ridge. It stared back at me for a long time could make out the complete out line tail and all.
> I was up on a hill and it was down in a gully. I don't doubt what I saw as I studied them and did a report on them in college. I love the animal. My question is do they stay in the same area or frequent the same area. I have a dog to take out at night some. And this is a rental home. I am not familiar with this area.


Got a buddy that does rescue work for those that think a cougar would be a good pet. He re-acclimates them to being independent and then lets the DNR handle them for a release program. Their hunting range can be from 10 square miles or less to as great as 600 square miles depending on the density of prey available for them to feed on.


----------



## karen936 (Feb 25, 2017)

thanks


----------



## karen936 (Feb 25, 2017)

hubby heard this the other night


----------



## Nicodemus (Feb 25, 2017)

Possibly a transient male passing through. You mentioned you heard noise. What type noise? Cats are notoriously quiet in their movements, other than their vocal sounds, for the most part. In the video, I`ve heard foxes make similar sounds, just a little deeper in volume than the sounds the panther was making.


----------



## karen936 (Feb 25, 2017)

leaves crushing sounds the scream is in the video above. I got a good long look nick


----------



## karen936 (Feb 25, 2017)

looked like the video I posted as far as color


----------



## Fuzzy D Fellers (Feb 25, 2017)

Bear move through here early summer but never stick around.


----------



## blood on the ground (Feb 25, 2017)

karen936 said:


> looked like the video I posted as far as color



Thats a really cool encounter!


----------



## karen936 (Feb 25, 2017)

yes he or she was nice enough to stand and let me
stare for several minutes before it got tired of me and moved on. He stared right back at me.


----------



## karen936 (Feb 25, 2017)

turns out it's mating season, I walked over to the gully could
not get down there to steep for me but I saw scratchings on a 
tree and verified online that it's a puma, not a bear. My email not
giving me pic's from phone or I would post


----------



## Miguel Cervantes (Feb 25, 2017)

Nicodemus said:


> Possibly a transient male passing through. You mentioned you heard noise. What type noise? Cats are notoriously quiet in their movements, other than their vocal sounds, for the most part. In the video, I`ve heard foxes make similar sounds, just a little deeper in volume than the sounds the panther was making.



Yep, seen em and heard em and mostly their daily sound when not hunting is a bigger version of a house cats meow.


----------



## Nicodemus (Feb 25, 2017)

Folks, this is the On Topic Sub Forum. If you had a post deleted, that`s why.


----------



## NE GA Pappy (Feb 25, 2017)

karen936 said:


> turns out it's mating season, I walked over to the gully could
> not get down there to steep for me but I saw scratchings on a
> tree and verified online that it's a puma, not a bear. My email not
> giving me pic's from phone or I would post



i would love to see a picture of the tree.  I have never heard about them marking trees like that.


----------



## Killdee (Feb 25, 2017)

Well I didn't know they could make a racket like that, Sounds like a big kitty!!!


----------



## lagrangedave (Feb 25, 2017)

Why so much anti panther banter? They are here in Georgia and Red Wolves are here also. They said they weren't in Lagrange until they killed one there.


----------



## swamp hunter (Feb 25, 2017)

It look like this..?

Bear on these...


----------



## Lindseys Grandpa (Feb 25, 2017)

I read the other day there have been several confirmed cougars seen in Tennessee lately.


----------



## crokseti (Feb 25, 2017)

My wife has seen 2 while we were living in Fannin county. One south of blueridge and the other just north of the river. She had to stop for the one while it crossed the road. She said it took its time just walked across and went up a steep hill.


----------



## GoldDot40 (Feb 25, 2017)

Panthers are migrating further and further north out of Florida. They're like the armadillos which..15 years ago...you'd never see North of I-20. Now they're in the mountains, too. Extreme N GA already has resident panthers roaming freely...and have for years. My dad is 74 and has seen them in Rabun Co when he was a kid.


----------



## 3ringer (Feb 26, 2017)

I saw one about 15 years ago in Marble Hill. I was pulling a load of lime up the hill close to Marble Hill Elementary School. It was about 2 in the afternoon. It trotted across the road right in front of me. I couldn't believe what I just saw. I called DNR and reported it. They said they had sightings in the area around Jasper but no proof. They are there but nearly invisible.


----------



## Milkman (Feb 26, 2017)

A friend swears there is a large cat in the southern Oconee County vicinity. He says he saw it a few times. This is across the river from the Redlands WMA, Skull Shoals vicinity.

He and others have multiple trail cameras in the vicinity and none have come forward with images of the cat(s). Wouldn't the cats use the same trails, etc. that deer use? I don't doubt they are here, just wonder why people in Georgia aren't routinely getting clear images of the cats like we do deer, dogs, pigs, bears, etc. ??


----------



## Nicodemus (Feb 26, 2017)

Milkman said:


> A friend swears there is a large cat in the southern Oconee County vicinity. He says he saw it a few times. This is across the river from the Redlands WMA, Skull Shoals vicinity.
> 
> He and others have multiple trail cameras in the vicinity and none have come forward with images of the cat(s). Wouldn't the cats use the same trails, etc. that deer use? I don't doubt they are here, just wonder why people in Georgia aren't routinely getting clear images of the cats like we do deer, dogs, pigs, bears, etc. ??




The home range of a panther is huge, even more so when compared to the average home range of a deer. As for any panther up here in Georgia, it will be a transient, and probably will only be in a particular area for a few days at the most. Any panther up here from Florida will mostly likely be a young male that has been displaced from it`s mother`s home territory by an older male. It will be on the move constantly, looking for females and suitable territory for itself. 

There`s only so much room and game south of the Caloosahatchee.


----------



## karen936 (Feb 26, 2017)

swamp hunter said:


> It look like this..?
> 
> Bear on these...



I can't get that close but the bark is still in
tact bears usually tear the bark off.


----------



## doublebarrel (Feb 27, 2017)

I believe you and I have seen a couple in Greene County.BB


----------



## BowArrow (Mar 3, 2017)

No Eastern Cougars, black panthers, wolves etc. in Georgia except for a Florida Cougar that migrates from the Everglades. I believe they estimate no more than 100 of these Cougars are in the wild. Think about the fact that GON offered $1000 for a good photo of a cat but no photo was submitted. If there are cats in all 156 counties in Georgia, where do they go to die. Do they live forever.


----------



## NE GA Pappy (Mar 3, 2017)

BowArrow;10633094 If there are cats in all 156 counties in Georgia said:
			
		

> We have 159 counties in Georgia


----------



## GoldDot40 (Mar 3, 2017)

BowArrow said:


> No Eastern Cougars, black panthers, wolves etc. in Georgia except for a Florida Cougar that migrates from the Everglades. I believe they estimate no more than 100 of these Cougars are in the wild. Think about the fact that GON offered $1000 for a good photo of a cat but no photo was submitted. If there are cats in all 156 counties in Georgia, where do they go to die. Do they live forever.



Don't think anybody is insinuating that they're present in every county. Pretty sure there's some members here with come cougars on game cameras though.

There was a confirmed kill in Murray county (border's Tennessee) about 15-20 years ago that the DNR tried to keep under their hat. They thought it had escaped from the wildlife rehabilitation center in Elijay...except for the one that was killed didn't have a GPS tag like all the ones in captivity.


----------



## blood on the ground (Mar 3, 2017)

GoldDot40 said:


> Don't think anybody is insinuating that they're present in every county. Pretty sure there's some members here with come cougars on game cameras though.
> 
> There was a confirmed kill in Murray county (border's Tennessee) about 15-20 years ago that the DNR tried to keep under their hat. They thought it had escaped from the wildlife rehabilitation center in Elijay...except for the one that was killed didn't have a GPS tag like all the ones in captivity.



One in Troup co also ... DNR nailed that guy to the wall


----------



## ngadeerhunter1969 (Mar 3, 2017)

blood on the ground said:


> DNR nailed that guy to the wall



For shooting something they swore did not exist


----------



## blood on the ground (Mar 4, 2017)

ngadeerhunter1969 said:


> For shooting something they swore did not exist



After he made the cover of the GON mag


----------



## bulldawgborn (Mar 7, 2017)

The winner of the photo contest put on by GON had very telling results.  Readers voted on the entries.  If memory serves correctly, the winning photo was either a bobcat or housecat, I can't recall which.  But I do remember seeing one of the photos in the contest that could have been a panther.  I don't think it placed though.

I think the truth to the "panthers in Georgia" discussion is somewhere in the middle of both sides.  They can absolutely be seen in Georgia, but that doesn't mean they live and breed here full time.  I have personally seen one...once.  But I do think there are many, many sightings which are cases of mistaken identity.  As indicated by the results of the contest GON did some years ago.


----------



## gaspur1 (Aug 8, 2017)

I saw a black jaguar , I think it was male because of it's size.             It was during hunting season , he had raked a river maple about 15" in diameter all the way around the base of the tree, going upward for about 12 to 15 inches. He would start in the dirt and rake up. The dirt was disturbed about 4  to 6 inches around the the tree. It was raked so deep I thought the tree would die , but it didn't. At first I though a deer had done it, but a few days later saw him for 10 seconds as he crossed a newly cut road with 60 feet cleared . I was about 40 yards from him. He stopped for 2 seconds and looked at me than went back into his glide. He glided which is a form of trotting or fast walk, but if you saw it you would agree that he was gliding. His girth, up front, was swinging from side to side. He was extremely clean and shiny black. He was twice as large as the mountain loins I've seen at a zoo. You knew you didn't want to mess with him by the way he carried himself. He was beautiful. I had a BAR 30-06 over my shoulder with one in the chamber.Never crossed my mind to shoot him.


----------

