The assumed panther track was made by a large dog. All of the assumed panther (cougar, mountain lion) tracks that we have seen in the East outside of Florida are either dog tracks or small bear tracks. Kim Cabrera’s Bear Tracker website has an excellent section on how to distinguish these tracks. Learn the track characteristics of these three species, and you will be on your way to being a cougar tracking expert! Here’s the link to Cabrera’s website – http://www.bear-tracker.com/caninevsfeline.html
http://www.sunherald.com/2010/07/13/2329366/police-caution-residents-to-watch.html
SunHerald.com – Biloxi-Gulfport and South Mississippi
Police caution residents to watch for big cat
By DONNA MELTON – dmelton@sunherald.com
Animal Control officer Dorty Necaise compares a cast of the mystery cat’s print, left, with that of a Great Dane. photo(DONNA MELTON/SUN HERALD)
BAY ST. LOUIS — Police are warning residents to watch their pets and small children until a mystery creature roaming the Cedar Point area is caught.
Animal Control officer Dorty Necaise tracked the animal this weekend and found pawprints that were the size of a Great Dane’s, but obviously from a feline with big claws.
“Now that this thing is hunting, people need to watch their children,” Deputy Police Chief Mike DeNardo said.
Necaise and DeNardo believe it’s a big cat they’re looking for, possibly a Florida panther.
They’d heard of sightings, but had no proof.
Then last week something ate Chris and Julie Cowart’s schnauzer.
The Sun Herald first broke the story of Norman the schnauzer Saturday. Julie Cowart watched the creature snatch her 7-year-old dog from her Felicity Street backyard and drag him away. Her husband, Chris Cowart, later found Norman’s remains in the woods behind their home and buried him.
They called police.
“It’s big. It’s a predator,” Necaise said.
Although Florida panthers are an endangered species mostly found in the Sunshine State, it’s possible one could be prowling Bay St. Louis, Necaise said.
Historically, the species roamed the entire southeastern United States, including Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana, according to a Web site for the Friends of the Florida Panther.
The panther — also called puma, mountain lion and cougar — is tan, with a long, black-tipped tail. Males average 7 feet from nose to tail and weigh about 120 pounds; females can be a foot shorter and weigh about 70 pounds.
Law enforcement officers are employing private tracker Clark Breland to help. The goal is to catch it in a humane, rubber-coated wire trap and hold it for pick-up by the state Department of Wildife, Fisheries and Parks.
Since Hurricane Katrina left so many home sites vacant, more wildlife is moving back into the woody, swampy areas of the city, Necaise said.
In recent years he’s spotted hogs, alligators, a python and even a kangaroo.
But whatever this one is, it’s dangerous, he said.
DeNardo is asking any one who sees it to call 911. He warns against residents trying to trap it or shoot it themselves.