The phantom panther

Phantom cats (a.k.a. Alien Big Cats or ABCs) is one of the more curious paranormal phenomena I've encountered in the Fortean and cryptozoological literature. It seems that big cats, usually black in colour, are spotted all over the world: from peaceful Little England to the hills of Australia, these mystery felines which aren't supposed to exist keep insisting on showing themselves. As usual, there is very little physical evidence for the creature, except a string of cattle killings and even attacks on humans attributed to the alien black beast. In contrast to other ghost stories, this one has been taken seriously enough by at least the British authorities. The British Marines were once sent out to capture the elusive Beast of Exmoor, without much success. On the web, I've seen the inevitable conspiracy theorists blame the government for hiding the truth (in this case, the Australian one).

"Lions in the Backyard" is an episode of the never-ending U.S. TV series "MonsterQuest". The series is usually extremely boring and slow-paced, but this episode struck some kind of chord in yours truly. All over the United States, people report seeing black panthers, including in states where no big cats are supposed to thrive: Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Maryland...

A game warden charged with keeping track of cougars reveals that only one out of five calls from the public are about real cougars. All the rest are about black panthers! However, no black cougars are known to science, although the mutation is theoretically possible. Black jaguars are another possibility, since the jaguar is on the verge of re-establishing itself in the United States. However, the reports of marauding panthers are just too many to be explained by the small jaguar population in Arizona.

"MonsterQuest" interviews a rancher who is slowly descending into paranoia, claiming that the panther "knows when I'm here, when I'm not, what time I feed the animals, where I'm working at...I carry a rifle wherever I'm at". His livestock has been attacked, but the experts believe that attacks of this type are the work of coyotes, feral dogs or even large pet dogs roaming at night (sic - somebody should get his dog license revoked). However, when the rancher goes public with his concerns, both neighbours and a lot of other people send in reports about...panthers.

And yes, this episode also features a llama attacked by an unknown predator. Another panther?

Unfortunately, only one piece of film of the mystery cat shows what may be a (young) big cat. All other photos of the elusive beast show black house cats! The purported carcass of a panther turns out to be a large domestic dog. Yet, the reports keep coming in, from all over the planet...

The interesting thing about "MonsterQuest" is their desperate attempt to find a natural solution to the panther problem. However, I think it's obvious that we're dealing with some kind of ghost story. Of course, that too raises a lot of questions!

Recommended. You can find the episode free on Youtube, or on the DVD "MonsterQuest. Season 1", available from Amazon. Thus, you don't have to buy this single-episode DVD, unless you are an anomalist aficionado with too much money on your hands. I also recommend "Tigers in the suburbs", which doesn't seem to be available on DVD at the present time.