big cats

Slightly off topic, but did you know that there is a relatively new breed of domestic cat called the Savannah that is a hybrid of the wild cat serval and the domestic cats like the Bengal. They are fairly large cats and can weigh up to 20 pounds.



I live in Richmond, VA and a few years ago in the spring, there was a sighting of a mountain lion near us and my daughter's school cancelled recess for several days. It was never spotted again, caught or confirmed. It was spotted by two women walking. We do have foxes in the area, we've seen them nosing around in the dark driving home. I wonder if it was a fox that they saw and the old dears were just too nearsighted to distinguish that it wasn't a mountain lion. Or, it could have been someone's savannah that got out. Maybe it was a reject that didn't have the right markings and became a house cat rather than a show cat. Our Salem is like that. The breeder was trying to develop a "mini-puma" by crossing a abyssinnian with a tabby. Salem didn't quite make the cut, since he ended up with tabby stripes. BTW... can you imagine how big the litter box has to be?

Cougars are very rarley seen. They dont want to be seen or found, and generaly, they are successful. This is why it seems like "oh there arent cougars", dispite the fact there are signtings again and again, and there is very little evidence. They are smart cats.

Although the mountains are about an hour or so away from us, I really think that the mountain lion sighting was bogus. Our area is way too populated and there were no other reports after the first. But you never know, it could have been someone's exotic "pet" that got out.

WHat state are you in iolite??

Cougar/mountain lions/florida panthers ( all the same cat, jsut different distributation). Their natural rance , is rocky, or densly forested regions, from the rocky mountains south, skipping the praries, and starts back in my area, down to florida. Their natural range is half of canada and the US.

Most sigtings are concidered bogus, because they are dear impossible to find. They DONT want to be found, there fore you more then likely wont see them. That is why each sighting, is barley confirmed.

I live in Virginia. There are cougars here, as well as coyotes. There was an article in the local paper a few weeks ago where a homeowner has seen coyote on her property, more than once. While Richmond is hilly, it's not mountainous and is quite developed, although we still do have farmland in surrounding counties. We are about an hour or so away from the mountains (Blue Ridge). It's plausible that a cougar did come down out of the mountains to Richmond. Maybe he was sightseeing?

I totally agree that the sighting was probably a fox but out near Nevada and California, there have been cases of cougars coming into neighborhoods and in one case actually was caught and relocated.

When I was in calgary.... ( same distance give or take fromt he mountains), there were confirmed sitings in town. The city has 1.5 million people.......

[Chrysaetos]

Cougar in town... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8DK2RGUXuk&feature=related

Yep that was in California.

I think your close enough that they may stray into town once in a blue moon. There arent many big animals liek that ( at least as fast) around there, besides moose, which is pretty distinguisable from a cougar LOL.

The only other thing I can think of iolite is a bob cat, which I know are around there. But their more sketchy then cougars. and half the size.

The worse thing i hear is when the shoot them, just because they were in town ( same with bears, which im sure your a bit more aquanted with there). All they are doing is looking for food. Tranquilize it, and move it. :(

Exactly!! Actually wild life activists and forest rangers (me too!) are quite excited that there have been cougar sitings in the last 10 years or so. They hadn't been seen in so long, that they were feared extinct -- at least in Virginia.