Panther???

Rocky1

Rocky1

New member
While we do know they are here, it's not very often you see sign of them in these parts. And, you just don't see tracks running up and down the road in both directions for a hundred yards or more. Initally thought these bear tracks when I was flying down the road, but upon locking it down and checking them out, it appears to be panther to me.

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Not a bad sized cat either!

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It was an interesting day to say the least...

-- Found bear track outside a beeyard, looked like it belonged to about a 400 pounder.
-- Found these cat tracks 3 miles down the road.
-- Saw a pheasant in the highway ditch...
(There ain't no pheasants in this part of the world folks!)
-- Saw a yote standin in the middle of the road.
(Unfortunately no reach out and touchem gun along. Figured I'd probably just educate him at 130 yards, with the 40 S&W. And, I wasn't sure about the regs on shooting yotes in a National Forest, outside any hunting season, and Forestry Law Enforcement was about 1/2 mile behind me.)
-- Saw what appeared to be about 300 - 350 lb bear standing in a feedplot on my way out of the woods.
(Time I got it locked down and backed up, it was gone!!)
 
Well it was an interesting day to say the least!

Bear tracks have been a little slim this spring for whatever reason. About the time they should have started moving, we had a fire break out in Pin Hook Swamp, which is actually a tributary of the Okefenokee swamp up in south Georgia. Between what the Forestry Service burned, and what the wildfire burned, about 35,000 acres were blackened, most of it prime bear habitat. I think that pushed a few north, and the remainder were afraid to move for all the traffic in the woods.

Starting to see lots of tracks now though! Firefighters have all pulled out, the fire's over and done, things are starting to green back up after recent rains. Interesting to see 10 - 12 inch trees burned out of the ground, up there in the swamp. As in the trees are standing on the roots, 3 feet or better in the air.

Just rode 12 miles up in the woods, made another 5 mile loop up there through the swamp, and I found probably half a dozen sets of tracks in the road, without really looking. That's on top of the 3 sets I found this morning in the course of working bees.

Cat tracks are a little out of the ordinary in these parts, don't see those every day. Know they are here, because the Game and Fish Department planted a half dozen or so up here in our neck of the woods, and tracked them until the batteries went dead on their collars. Saw a young one once, about 40 years ago, so there were a few already here. But with transplants and everything there's still not a sound population.

The Pheasant, it seems there is a former NFL player that lives 5 - 10 miles away that was/is turning them loose occasionally for Pheasant shoots on his farm, so he can be explained, but that was a wee bit out of the ordinary too! Typically a pen raised pheasant doesn't wander far from home, but that one apparently decided to check out. Can't say that I've ever seen one of them running around down here!!
 


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