Panther Sightings Continue
“The first reported sighting was by Jane Bernick, a retired travel agent. She said she got up at 7 a.m. on March 6, and came downstairs for coffee. Looking outside she saw two large black animals she thought were bears. (“Panthers weren’t on the radar at that point,” she said.) She got out binoculars and saw what seemed to be two black panthers, which she watched for 15 minutes but didn’t report to the police. A week later, her next-door neighbor Grace Knowlton, a sculptor, was entertaining two guests when she saw at least one panther, maybe two, She called the police, who were not impressed.
The trouble is, no one really knows what, if anything, is out there. A camera set up for months found nothing. There’s been no photograph, definitive footprint or scat that’s correlated with a panther. An eviscerated deer, taken by some as more panther evidence, could have been injured and then done in by coyotes or other predators, experts said. There have been hundreds of reports of wild cats in the Northeast, usually tawny, not black, over the years, so it will take something definitive to excite the state Department of Environmental Conservation.” – www.nytimes.com
There have been multiple sightings of the panther that its hard to not believe it exists in rockland county. If you have any stories of encounters or sightings please let us know!! Leave any comments or concerns as well!
April 30, 2011
Well, yesterday in the woods in my backyard at around 4 pm I was taking a hike with my friends. Suddenly, I saw this massive black animal with glowing green eyes just staring at us. It had a long black tail with like a “pom pom” thing at the end of it. I could not figure out what it was. So we all ran indoors petrified. I googled animals and realized it looked exactly like a panther!! I guess it WAS a panther!
Later on the police came and couldnt find it. We all saw it so its not just me…
I just cant believe that a Panther is roaming around Rockland County.
I wish I had taken a picture of it for proof..oh well.
I just hope it stays away.
My wife and i were hiking in Harriman State Park (today Sept. 20)on a trail we often use. It is marked by a red dot and intersects the Victory trail.
Near the top viewpoint, as we were heading back down to our car, I saw what looked like a very dark charcoal animal moving through the bluberry bushes. It was tall enough that it’s back was above the bushes and was the length of a large dog. But completely silent and quick. At first I could not place it, it was very sleek. I called my wife to see but it was gone very quickly. Later I began to wonder if it was a large cat.
I to saw what i believe to be a Black Panther in Harriman State Park around August 2008. Just north of the booksore on the PIP southbound side . It was crossing the ramp from Anthony Wayne Park to the PIP. It was sleek,and had a long gallop. It jumped across the ramp and into the woods of Harriman . It took 1 leap to get across. I love and admire wildlife and have seen many bears. there is no doubt in my mind that it was a panther.
I don’t know what it was but the sound of it almost knocked me off my feet last night. I opened the side door of my parents’ house to allow one of the cats out and heard a growling/purring/roaring sound that was not a dog, was not a house cat, and was not a bear. It was so loud that it sounded like it was in the yard but after a few seconds of listening from an open window (I slammed the door shut out of fear) I realized that it was in fact coming from Blauvelt State Park across the street from where they live. I told my folks about it and they informed me that there have been these unconfirmed sightings of a large black cat. I don’t know if what I heard was coming from this unidentified creature, or from another wild animal but it concerns me.
Here are more photos of the Vineland, NJ, black panther sightings from 2007:
http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/vineland-panther/
There’s no question!
About 3 years ago I saw one in Chestnut Ridge stalking through my next door neighbor’s yard. I was freaking out! By the time I ran to get my binoculars to see it better, it had gone. When I later told my husband, he told me it must have been just a regular black cat. I said, a black cat the size of a german shepherd???? So he asked me, “Think about it – do black panthers even live in America?” I said, “No, but I know I just saw one!” Finally he convinced me by this logic that I had just been seeing things, and had somehow distorted the image (men!).
For 3 years, until these reports came out, I would stand and look into my neighbor’s yard and wonder how my eyes has played such an enormous trick on me, when such a thing has never happened before – how could I have seen a little black cat and perceived it to be the size of a panther? Now I know it WAS a panther, and I was right all along!
I told this story to a friend in the neighborhood who told me the kids on her block had seen it – it was hiding in a bush and swiped at one of the kids. The kid said the shocking thing about this black “cat” was that it was so big that it’s paw reached as high as a kids face without it having to jump, it was so big. So I filled her in about the panther sightings. So yes, I think they’re out there!
By the way, there is PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE of a black panther sighting in northern New Jersey (which is a stone’s throw from my house). Here’s the link from fox news:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,269831,00.html
So Rocklanders need not be skeptical about their existence in our parts.