MTA Newsletter this month: Panther on camtrakker

[Bullreds & Greenheads]

Rip'em.

It's a good question.

I'm not sure there's a good answer.

From what I understand, they consider any panther in Mississippi a de facto Eastern Panther, and those cats are protected by The Endangered Species Act, a federal law. The Florida Panther is an example (subspecies, I think) of the Eastern Panther.

You might be able to shoot one and claim self-defense, but I can almost guarantee you that they'll put alot of resources into an investigation of the incident. I mean, its not everyday someone shoots a panther in Mississippi. Heck, like I said in my earlier post, the last one that is officially recognized happened a looong time ago.

How can it be illeagle to kill,.... what dont even exist......??? (according to MWF&P)

Stay with me.... not being a smarta$$....but, IF THERE IS A LAW PROTECTING THIS ANIMAL IN MS....wouldnt it be admitting, that we actually have them!!!

Rip'em, the problem here is you have too much common sense. I'll give you an example to prove my point: It is illegal to trap, shoot, or otherwise harass a Bigfoot in California and/or Washington, and nobody has ever proved that such a thing exists at all!

Some of the Wildlife guys that post here can give a more definite answer than I can. How 'bout it? Am I right or am I going wrong somewhere?

[peewee]

The black panther debate is getting old. Everyone knows if a black panther was running around some MS redneck would be done killed it by now. Hell a bear cant even run around on the levee without a snotnose kid killing. Yall talking about the bear killed at Steele Bayou HC. I remember that too, sad thing is that was one of the last females (I believe it was a female) left in MS, and some dumb freakin redneck had to make a name for himself. Anyway back to the panther issue, it is illegal to kill a panther/mountain lion (felis concolor), but the thing is there aint no black panther. I will type it again, there aint no black panther. There is a jaguar that inhabits S.America, but that is the only big black cat there is. Now the only way it is possible to have a black panther is for the felis concolor to exhibit a melanist (black phase). If I remember correctly the chances of the melanistic phase showing up in mountain lions is around 1:200,000. So most likely you aint gonna find a black one since there aint 200000 of them left. But on the other hand, the chances of you killing a black coyote are much better, if I remember right the chances of there being a melanistic phase yote is around 1:200. Had a roomate that killed a black yote in Copiah county a few years ago.


So for the ones of you that have heard the black panthers aweful screams, you know the ones that sound like a woman screaming. Just go up to Mahanna or DNF in the spring time and sit around a while. You will hear it, just so happens that a female bobcat will let out that scream to tell all the big bad boy cats she is ready to play. If you hunt around the Steele boyoue area I know you can hear em, I will go up there just to listen for them. I heard one female call several times from near about the same area one week.

[Wingman]

So...you're sure it's a bobcat screaming and not a mink? Have you ever heard a mink scream? I'm serious. It's one of the most awful sounds I've ever heard.

So how do they know that there are no female bears left in Mississippi? Do all bears entering the state sign a form?

Check one:
Race: __Black __ Grizzly __Kodiak __Brown
Color: __Black __Chocolate __Silvertip
Sex: __Male __Female __Not sure
Next of kin: __Yogi __BooBoo __Smokey
Maiden name: __Americanus __Horibilis
Favorite foods: __Honey __Berries __Picanic basket

Wingman
Come on, there finding stuff at the bottom of oil rigs off of the coast of Louisiana that they didn't even know that existed. I'm watching it on TV now

[RIP EM]

Had a wildlife major at State, tell me of a Florida panther that had been tagged in the Hileah(sp) area (between Miami & Tampa), that was later killed on a hiway in New Mexico. PROOF... Aint got none. Just dont think the (girl) was spinning a yarn.

If this was a true story, The probable track, or trek of this cat, came right thru the good Ol Magnolia State.

I have always heard, these cats are vagabons, and have no home range after they reach maturity.

But... I've also heard that, Bill Clinton and Jimma Carter were two of the best presidents this country has ever seen!!!

Strange Country we live in!

Rip Em !

[aj]

[quote=" Hey wingman, what happened to your duck hunt on that TV show last season?

You gonna be a tv star Wingman?

[peewee]

So how do they know that there are no female bears left in Mississippi? Do all bears entering the state sign a form?

No they dont sign a form but the reason those bears are entering the state crossing the MS river is b/c they are young males dispersing from Tensas or White River NWR.

Here is a publication from cfr at MSU.

The primary goal of the research is to learn enough about black bear in Mississippi to eventually initiate efforts to restore its population numbers. We started by surveying the public, primarily to find out what they thought and knew about black bears. Remarkably, over 70% of Mississippians favored increasing black bear populations, hoping that they would eventually have an opportunity to see one. The next phase of the research centered on learning about the black bear itself which was done by capturing, radio-collaring, and tracking over 30 bears in Arkansas, just across the river from Mississippi, in habitats very similar to those found in Mississippi. We learned many important things, but probably the most important fact was that the Mississippi River served as a physical barrier for female black bears. Thus chances of Mississippi's bear population expanding through dispersal from the high population of bears in Arkansas was unlikely without help from wildlife biologists. On the other hand, young male bears did swim across the Mississippi River but would not stay long in Mississippi, perhaps because they could not find mates. It was obvious that bears seen each year by Mississippi residents were young, dispersing males. The logical conclusion drawn was that the only way to bring our bears back was to augment the population with adult females, which means that we will need to capture female bears from Arkansas, or other states, and release them into Mississippi.

That website is http://www.cfr.msstate.edu/fwrc/wildlife/bear.htm

After doing a paper on the L. black bear and why we cant get females reintroduced into MS I just got more and more ticked off about the publics ignorance about bears as well as politicians. Another factor stopping the reintroduction was they couldn't decide where to get bears from that were truly L. black bear. You see in Arkansas (White River area) they have the American Black Bear and in Tensas they have the Louisiana Black Bear, there lies the problem are Louisiana bears pure breds. Nope b/c when their #'s got low there where bears introduced from Arkansas to help them out. Only difference I believe in the two bears is the slope of the forhead.



Wingman as for the screaming being a mink, guess it could be so, but I am pretty sure I am hearing cats, especially since I see so many of them in all the wrp in the area. They love to hang around that stuff.

[RIP EM]

Good read peewee! Thanks!

BTW, A friend of mine got a perfect picture, of what seemed to be an adult black bear, last summer!

Ms. side of the river! Have a B&W 8x10 here at work!

Got it on film down at Woodville, Ms.

[Greenhead22]

the thing is there aint no black panther. I will type it again, there aint no black panther.

you sure about that???

Last time I went to Louisiana on a fishing trip the woman that cooked for us at the camp somehow got a panther as a pet, cage and everything............and guess what..............it was jet black.

As for rednecks trying to kill one to prove a point......heck i agree with that.........i know of a couple of people that unloaded on one running across a wide open field about 300-500 yds away, shot every cartridge they had. After they got finished they were glad that they didn't kill it, $10,000 and 3-4 yrs in the fed pen wouldn't have been worth it.