No game cam pics, no verified sightings (taking the AON reward of $1,000), none killed on the hwy, none shot and never, ever, in the existence of the world, has there been a verified black (melanistic) mountain lion or panther (NOT jaguar as in above movies). They exist in the wild somewhere, just probably not AL. However, I know so many folks have seen them, I think they ought to have a season on them

Holy cow! Mark Bailey, a respected biologist and author of the story 49er posted, included this in his article:

"It is interesting to speculate about how the legendary "black" panther of the South came into our collective folklore but the fact remains that never in recorded history has a truly black cougar been photographed, captured, killed or otherwise factually documented."

You can't prove that an animal "doesn't" exist in such a vast area as the whole state. The burden of proof is with those that say they have witnessed a large cat. This an article saying there's probably not a large cat population in Alabama since the above 1948 picture: http://www.outdooralabama.com/oaonline/panthers08.cfm

I think they make a good point that even though there aren't but a few bears in the state, we get road kills occasionally.

More than 300 new species were discovered in the Philippines last Spring. Was there any evidence that they existed before. No. So all of you that say panthers don't exist, prove it.

New Species

dozens of new insects and spiders, deep-sea armored corals, ornate sea pens, bizarre new sea urchins and sea stars, a shrimp-eating swell shark, and over 50 colorful new sea slugs.

Many of the new species avoided previous detection because of their diminutive size, such as goblin spiders, sea slugs, and barnacles that all measure just a few millimeters in length. Others simply exist in places that are rarely, if ever, visited by humans, such as a snake eel from the bottom of the ocean and a primitive plant called a spikemoss from the dangerously steep upper slopes of Mt. Isarog.

we could have elephants or zebras in AL.

Why then, is the eastern cougar listed as an endangered species?

By the 1960s and early 1970s, a few cougars had been killed in the wild east of the Mississippi River, and many people claimed to have seen them. Based on these circumstances, and a now outdated cougar classification, the United States Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) listed the subspecies as endangered in 1973 under the newly created Endangered Species Act. However, recent genetic evidence from eastern Canada has revealed apparently wild cougars with Latin American ancestry. We now believe most of the cats appearing in the eastern United States since the 1960s have either escaped or have been deliberately released from the exotic pet trade. It appears likely they are not the scattered remnants of a native population.

Until the USFWS announces their pending review of the status of the eastern cougar, any cougar found in the East is protected both by federal and state regulations.

Are cougars now recovering in the East?

Not yet. Despite more sophisticated technology for finding cougars, and with more people looking than ever before, less evidence has appeared in the last decade than in the 1990s (perhaps because of recent strict legislation prohibiting interstate trade in exotic cats and new state laws prohibiting private ownership of such cats).

Sanctioned studies since the late 1990s by the CRF, research universities, and state and federal wildlife agencies in NY, NJ, PA, MD, VA, WV, and KY have failed to find evidence of cougars. Incidental evidence such as roadkills, accidental shootings or trappings, and photographs captured by privately owned remote wildlife cameras is nearly absent.

Even in Midwestern states with low or emerging cougar populations, incidental evidence appears with reliable frequency.