It's possible. I'd still say a little better chance it is not. I've never seen one where you could not see the long tail pretty easily.

Even if not, I think we will get a couple of legit ones again this fall/winter. Just too many thousands of trail cameras out there, and there are too many to our west to not get more and more wondering through.

Interesting.........

Looks like one to me, but I am certainly a novice when it comes to identifying one.

In the same line, my neighbor just west called me yesterday morning to ask if I could find sounds for a cougar online. It seems they had brought in a load of hay and so it was after dark when she went to the barn to do calf chores. While there she heard a noise that sounded like a house cat, but louder and higher pitched...made her nervous. The sound was coming from the north where another neighbor swears he has seen one.

Late in the same evening her husband went to the barn to feed hay to the horses....he heard the same sound and described it to her exactly as she had said....loud, high pitched cat. This time coming from their property where a small creek runs between some woods. It scared the horses and they came bounding up the hill.

I found the sounds and began playing the different sounds they make....when I got to the "chirping" one, she stopped me and said that's it, that's it exactly. This is the sound they make when calling their young.

I hope it was a good website and not artificially made sound effects.

Scott what do you think the cat was in the picture?

Here is a link that might be useful: Cougar sounds

Scott, I have the same reservations you have about the tail and wish it were visible, but I can't figure out what else it would be. The length and shape of the body look all too familiar.....I am sure there will be many more such photos now that game cameras have become more common.
Some folks who live near me have had a big cat around their deer feeder within the last month or so, they say, but they don't have a game camera there.

Glenda, Those sounds send a chill up my spine. I clicked on the cougar ones and the three dogs that are here in the house with me started growling and ran and stood beside me and tried to get between me and the computer, while the housecats jumped up and ran from the room. lol

Dawn

Oh darn! I thought you were talking about a different kind of cougar. ;)

-Matt

Our 25 year old son had a 140 lb cougar jump on him, last week, near Chandler. Fortunately, it only wanted to say "hello."

Okay... he's a veterinary student, in his last year, and went with a preceptor, to worm a pet cougar, kept in a yard sized cage. When they stepped into the cage the cougar immediately ran at my son, ignoring the elder veterinarian. My son told me that he had to make a quick judgement call, whether to try to defend himself, or hope that its intentions were friendly. He opted for the later, and only compromized by greeting it in a way that he could deflect its head and paws, at the last moment, if necessary. That was definitely an adrenaline rush.

Afterwards, the cat's owner and the vet both commented that they had never seen this cat behave like that. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that he had been handling deer in the morning!

George

George,

I bet the deer scent had something to do with it. I'm just glad he wasn't hurt.

You know, vets (and vet students) have to be careful. Our local vet was attacked a few years ago in his office by a wolf-dog hybrid. The vet had to go to the hospital and get stitches for wounds he received from that animal. After that, he was a lot more cautious when treating large dogs, even dogs he'd been seeing for years. I can't say that I blame him either.

Dawn

George, what a scary thing for him! My belief is that you should never trust a wild animal completely. We had a wolf hybrid dog.....he eventually began growling at me....Someone shot him and he died, may have been a good thing.

that is a photo of a cougar. bobcats have spots and they also have a small tail. this cat's tail is down, that is all. even my dh looked at it and immmediately said, "that thar is a cougar."

Do you think the cougars could be hunting the feral hogs as well as the deer and smaller stuff? Have the feral hogs been seen in Oklahoma?

There are large populations of feral hogs in different area of Oklahoma. The deer populations are now so large here that cougars would have no trouble getting meals without even messing with smaller prey.

There are probably 100 images of bobcats that show up in Oklahoma on a daily basis this time of year on trail cameras or other pictures. Some of them are bound to be taken in manner that make them resemble a mountain lion. I have seen a lot of them. On the other hand, you can probably count on one hand the images of mountain lions taken annually in Oklahoma, and these are usually pretty obvious.

Since a lot of our bobcats lack the spotted common pattern, and since trail cameras are usually not of the best quality, you get images like the linked one. It is still possible that it is a cougar, but I would have to bet against it.

George mentioned the pet one that jumped on his son. The caged ones in our state outnumber the wild ones many times over, even taking into account the resident panhandle population, so the chances of these getting into the wild is always significant.

My family lives in southern Pittsburg County, about 5 miles west of Kiowa.

About 15 years ago (I was still in high school at the time) I saw what appeared to be a black panther walking along the edge of the forest, next to a farm pond. No one ever believed me. They said it was a dog, etc. But I knew what I saw was no dog. It was a large cat. Skip to 15 years later.

Just this morning my mom called me. As she opened the front door to go to work, she saw a black panther standing in her front yard, clear as day. She gets my dad, and he comes and looks at it too. They both watch it for awhile walking slowly through their yard, right in front of them. So my mom grabs her camera to take a picture, but unfortunately, she had taken the memory stick out of her camera to develop some pictures last week, and didn't get the shot. But, I believe them because I've seen it too.

I was just thinking that it was surprising we had not yet seen a confirmation this year.

I don't know what they saw, but there is no such thing as a black cougar/mountain lion. Unless someone near them has imported some exotic pets from other parts of the world, they were mistaken.

It was definitely a large, solid black, sleek cat, much larger than a bobcat. Had a very long tail.

Got to talk to my dad tonight to hear a little bit more of the story. He was pretty excited. Last night, around dark, he saw what he thought was a large black cat walking along the creek bank down by the old church house (about 1/2 mile away from the house) but he couldn't be sure because it was so dark. He wrote it off as one of the neighbor's large dogs.
But then this morning he saw it again, coming down from the mountain right outside their front door, he and my mom watched it walk right up to the front yard. (About 20 yards away from where they were standing at the front door.) He said it was enormous. Way bigger than even the biggest bobcats he's ever seen. He said it was a dark, solid black color with a tail as long as its body. He said it had definite cat head like a panther's. They watched it for awhile, then mom ran to get her camera and he ran to get the gun (was going to look at it through the scope) and when they got back to the front door, the cat was gone.
They were talking about it with some neighbors who live down the creek and on the other side of the mountain, and they said they've seen it too.
I just wish they could have got a picture. But, I know they're not lying or mistaken.
My parents live right on the border of Pittsburg/Atoka county, just west of Kiowa and north of Wardville.

Please understand that throughout our recorded history of there has NEVER existed a black mountain lion/cougar. The ONLY chance that they really saw what they think they saw is if someone near them has imported a black jaguar/panther from some distant country and then had this "pet" escape or get loose. The chance of that is VERY slim, but it happens occasionally and is possible. What is NOT possible is that they saw a black mountain lion, and if someone insists that they did despite being presented the facts then that pretty much proves they are not rational and cannot be taken seriously.

So call your game warden and ask them to check with the local people registered as owning these large imported cats as pets. Maybe one has escaped.

I haven't spoken to the original Cougar-cam guy--a great builder here in Ada, who definitely knows wildlife--since this whole thing blew up, but I do like the Cat mystique of SE OK. (Apologies to Dawn--I know you've had bad experiences with them.) Perhaps this is the great Atoka Wampuscat? On a side note, my neighbor had a visit to her garage a few nights ago from a coyote. I'm not unconvinced that black bears have made it back into Pontotoc County.

Hi Snowbishop,

Haven't seen you here in a while, and I hope you're well.

I haven't heard wampuscat stories lately, but either last year or the year before, KXII-TV did some stories on the Monster of Boggy Creek, which is supposed to be similar to a Bigfoot or Yeti. Apparently, SE OK has some really interesting legends. : )

Our only visitors lately have been from bobcats and skunks. I'd rather see a bobcat---because they'll turn and run from you, than a skunk out in broad daylight. Well, I'd rather see neither, if you know what I mean.

A neighbor of ours has seen big cat in recent weeks, but I haven't and I hope I don't!

Dawn