Sounds like an amazing experience, Natalia. You wouldn`t be the first to say you had seen a black panther-like cat in New York State!

Tammy

When I was about 12 or so, a friend and I saw a big black cat back behind his house. There had been talk of a panther, and some, including my Dad claimed to have heard it's screams back in the hollow. I can't say I remember hearing it but... I did see it that time.

As many many years passed, I started to doubt. With the advent of the Internet, I searched, but found nothing to add credence. I "almost" started to doubt my own memory when after moving back to the area, I mentioned the experience and was was quickly told... "Oh yeah, so and so shot that thing after it got in their chickens" etc.

Another person said it was actually an escaped zoo animal, or pet, I forget which, but yes it really was real. Not a Black "American" Cougar though, but an African(?) panther.

I'd love to find something in print, old newspaper, whatever. This was back in the mid to late 60's though so I doubt I could find anything.

This was in Ross County, Ohio BTW.

So... don't start doubting your memory... relish it. :)

.Ok, I Thought I was crazy. back in 2010 I was in Chichester NY in the Catskills , i was out walking in the woods when i heard something behind me. I turned around several time to what it was and saw nothing. I came to a field that over looked another field and decided to stop and watch the field a bit. I turned around when i heard a noise and from under a bush 20 feet behind me and a large black animal jumped out and hissed and ran away from me. It was black and had a long tail. At first i thought it was a bear but they don't have tail that long. When I got back to the house I walked in and everybody there told me I was white as a ghost. I told them the story and most of them said i was nuts. But a few of them told me that years ago the state released a few black cougers in the area to help with the coyote problem. I don't know if any of that is true but I know what I saw. I called the game wardens they also basicly I was nuts.

The problem with "large" black cat sightings is:

1. they are reported all over the country (and in other countries as well)

2. the person seeing the animal has no accurate scale reference

Estimating the size of distant objects or animals in the absence of accurate scale is very difficult. With black objects, it is even more difficult. It is effectively an optical illusion where distant black objects look larger than they are when inadequate scale references are available. Birdwatchers know this phenomenon very well from trying to estimate the size of distant dark birds. They always look huge!.....until you get close and see that it is just a starling or crow.

On instances where such black cat sightings could be analyzed (because there was video or photo documentation), careful analysis shows that although the person was sure they had seen/photographed a large animal, objective analysis showed it to be just a normal sized cat without a proper reference available to estimate size.

So the way to consider your sighting might be to consider parsimony. What is more probable? That you saw a hitherto unknown large black felid in one of the more densely populated parts of North America where people have been living/trapping/traversing for more than 200 years or that an easily explained optical illusion involving your sighted animal led you to overestimate the size of a black domesticated cat whose presence in the area would be easily explained.

I know people take offense at having the veracity of their sightings questioned. This isn't a personal questioning of your credibility, just an alternate and more parsimonious explanation of your observation.

I would normally agree with everything you said , But in my case I first seen the Cat when it was 20 feet from me and it also happened to be in a field that I own . I know the size of every tree and bush in that field and when I went out the next morning I seen tracks that I have never seen before.I see bears and deer in the field all the time so I have a very good judgement of the size of animals.

My brother and father and myself saw a similar black cat in our back yard in sw NY state in 1950. They do exist inspite of what some say. We were as close as 15 yards and it was lying in a spring run bank and got up and ran away clearing a ten foot stump fence.

I just wish one person would be able to take a decent picture or verifiable video! That would quiet the naysayers pretty quickly.

That's the beauty of these creatures like giant black cats (and Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster). There is no way to prove they don't exist. You can't prove they don't exist, therefore they must.

People want to believe and so the total absence of verifiable data isn't seen as evidence against their existence. Its exactly the same with ghosts.

I also saw something similar when a child (in Arkansas). However, we do have a business very nearby that is a sanctuary for big cats (exotic and native), so I have an easy answer to what I saw. There have been escapes in the last decade reported.

I saw a black panther in the Catskills back in 1996,being a country boy from Florida and growing up with Florida panthers around I new what I saw but was told by a local that there were no panthers/mountain lion in the Catskills.your description is spot on.

after 11 years, not likely you are still reading.......BUT......if you are, i saw your cat on sept 23, 2018 in sidney, ny. not far from Walton. On a golf course of all places. It was pawing around a small drainage ditch on the hole next to the one i was on. then climbed on some rocks that were hiding a culvert pipe under a cart path. Now, it might sound like smoke up the but but i normally leave my phone in the truck when i golf so no pic. I was able to shoot it with my range finder at 70 yards (about 200ft or so) and with the magnification zoom, which isn't much but definitely came into focus very clearly, it was without question a big black cat with a long tail and green eyes. I saw it before it saw me but once eye contact was made, it trotted off the course and into the weeds, heading north, toward the susquehanna river. Looked like some sort of freak giant house cat. roughly 18" tall, 24" long, and maybe 24" tail. just guessing. Much larger than my boston terrier. I plan on asking around the next time im there.

Kirk, I am thrilled to bits at this new addition to this discussion. Nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see this magnificent creature. It makes me feel so pleased that no one has gone and done something stupid like shoot it. Thanks so much for posting about your encounter!

I believe these things are really out there. While many people may misjudge size, species, etc. there are a lot of sightings. I actually was on a hunting trip in the swamps of south carolina, and the hunting guide who had 40 plus years of experience tracking and identifying native wildlife confided in me that he had see two of them. He claimed he saw them multiple times as a pair and that he had contacted the state wildlife agency, and was told there were no big black cats (leopards or jaguars). He asked if he could shoot them (just to see what they would say of course), and they said it was illegal and that he would be fined. Which led him to believe that they knew these things were around but didnt want to admit it to the public, as why else would he need to pay a fine for killing an animal that doesn't exist. Anyway he asked me to keep an eye out and snap a photo if I saw them, but of course no such luck. However, I do believe he saw them and it was not a case of mistaken identitiy.

There were also quite a few sighthings of black panthers a few years ago very close to nyc in the palisades, NJ.