Do Black panthers still exist above Mexico?

 

I remember a couple of stories my wife told me when we were first married over 17 years ago. The time period of the story, is around the late 30's - early 40's time frame.  Basically, her grandparents would on occasions, see them at a distance from their house, located on the Texas plains. Of course, i was a bit skeptical about it, after considering several variables, which left too many unanswered questions in my mind, too believe it. Seeing that the scientific consensus of that time was that any chance of a black panther population in the surrounding region, would be practically nil', i did feel a certain amount of justification at dismissing what she was telling me at first, based on the lack of that knowledge not being widely reported at that time. And yet... i didn't tell her about any of my doubts, you know... seeing that she and i were just married and all, which certainly would have had private reprecussions on me that i wasn't yet in the position too deal with, if you are catching my meaning here?

 

 However, the other story that really raised my skepticism into the realms of curiosity and it went something like this, and this is the short version reduced to a single sentence: They would on the much more rare occasions, here the roars in the distance! And only a very few big cats can actually roar. Bare in mind, this is also a very small farming community on the Texas plains, located over sixty miles from the nearest city to it's northeast!

 

So again it is quite possible!

 

I agree, it's not really a big deal.

 

Yeh Cougars have a huge range still, stretching from Southern Canada all the way down to Patagonia (including Florida). And yes, the Florida Panther is highly endangered, I think classified as "endangered" or even "critically endangered" (as a subspecies) by the IUCN Red List. The Cougar as a species is classified as "Lower Risk", being one of the most abundant Felines. In case you didn't already know, Snow Leopards are Knights's favourite animal - Knights -

 

I was wrong about their range. I wasn't even aware the range extended up towards Canada. I have an old book on Big Cats dating back to the late eighties that i had based that thought on. My bad!

 

Snow leopards are beautiful animals and quite mysterious; I can certainly see why they are your favorite!

 

I don't know if it is that? But i suspect that the knowledge on their habitat and range has grown quite a bit since then!

 

And yes, the Florida Panther is highly endangered, I think classified as "endangered" or even "critically endangered". 

 

True, but don't believe the official count of less than 300.  The good news is that there are as many as 1000 still in the wild.  Also, they have expanded their range into southwestern

Georgia as well as Alabama. 

This comes from local wildlife groups as well as police and Hunting clubs.