Panthers in North Texas? (Dallas, Frisco: neighborhoods, subdivision, living in)

[robinhood]

Actually I don't worry about snakes. Copperheads you'll find in the hay, and water mocassins you'll find near creeks, but the only snakes I see near my home is a garden or chicken snake, which are both harmless. Really, in Texas, the human population outweighs the snake population. It seems that some people think that snakes are covering the state of Texas. I see more tarantulas than I do snakes. Keep in mind that I come from Northeast Texas, and I can't speak for other regions. Each region in Texas is so different in wildlife and climate.

[Dorothy1960]

and just wondering, how many come across these snakes, water mocassins and tarantulas or other large spiders in the Dallas 'burbs? Like Garland-Richardson-Allen area?

Forgive me if I appear to be ignorant here... I live in Virginia and we only have deer, squirrels & turtles... I've seen a few foxes, and a groundhog or 2.

[robinhood]

No, I don't live in the suburbs. I live in a town with a low population. Hoever, we are not far from a city with a population of about 50,000. We see lots of tarantulas. In fact this summer I would say we killed about 8 (at different times of course) that were up on the brick wall in our carport. Though we've never had one get in the house, there was one clinging to the backdoor when I opened it one night. This one could have gotten in if my husband hadn't spotted it. Some of our neighbors have had some in the house, but we've been fortunate. It probably does sound uncommon for these to be around, but I've lived here all of my life and they have always been around. Its kind of like something you just get used to. I will say that there must be some sort of home nest on this side of town because there arent' quite as many spotted on the other side. We live near the school and football field, and as kids we would see these at school a lot. It sounds creepy, but as far as I know they are harmless. I will admit that I silently scream inside when I spot one and my husband has to take care of disposing of it. One night when he wasn't home, I went out to get the mail and there was one on the ground near the door. I slowly backed up into the house and called my next door neighbor. He took care of it and all was well.

[Tude]

Robyn, so sorry it took a while to respond. Busy packing for a 2-week hunting trip in CO.

Upon my sighting, I whole-heartedly dove into the subject of Fannin County critters, so to speak. Everything from biology to cryptozoology.

In my initial response, I had to throw out Fannin County as your sighting location as I have yet to hear of any other sighting in the last few years of such a cat in N.Texas other than here and far west Lamar County.

Of these, the cat is described the same but many claim the cat is black. Upon questioning, I find that the sightings of this "black" cat ocured in low-light conditions which is a plausible description for a dark brown cat not seen in open daylight.

Another good source of info are the Game Wardens. These conversations will be "off record" only though, as they do not like to be quoted.

Interesting subject matter though.

To further quench a thirst for things "strange" if you are so inclined or curious, investigate other unusual sightings of "strange critters" spotted in Fannin County. Many reputable folks including game wardens have told me stories of black bear near Crockett and Coffeemill Lakes.
Further investigation online will show sightings of bigfoot. Grain of salt tactics here, mind you.
I've explored this topic as well and trailed alongside some of the "professional researchers" on field trips but came to the conclusion that people should hide the footprint shoes a little better than they do.

As far as snakes go, I have encountered an abnormal amount of copperheads on my property for the past 5 years. If interested, I can offer a link to a website I moderate that includes over 40 pics of copperheads I have killed within feet of my home. Some would also be suprised that there are "hot spots" of rattlesnakes in Fannin County too, mostly northeast of Ivanhoe.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by Dorothy1960

and just wondering, how many come across these snakes, water mocassins and tarantulas or other large spiders in the Dallas 'burbs? Like Garland-Richardson-Allen area?

Forgive me if I appear to be ignorant here... I live in Virginia and we only have deer, squirrels & turtles... I've seen a few foxes, and a groundhog or 2.

Not that big of a deal at all. Growing up we never had but maybe one or two little green garden snakes. Since we moved to a house by a golf course w/ lots of trees, creek, tons of landscaping, groundcovers, pool, etc we have seen a few snakes. Two small ones were in our yard (this has been in 5 years time). Itty-bitty spiders and such but nothing much at all. I have a pest control company that comes out every 3 months to treat the house and yard.

We have lots of wildlife though. Squirrels, rabbits & opposums are the most common. We have a few skunks & coyote around. Some areas around have bobcats (Plano had some they found recently). They don't really bother anyone except our little 1 year old dog. She likes to look out the windows in the morning for the bunny rabbits.

[darkoakmom]

Last evening, while returning to Longview from a quick trip to Lake O' The Pines(in Marion county) I saw a cougar walking slowly in a pasture along side a heavily wooded area. We were headed toward a tiny town called Harleton, it was about 7pm. I had already seen an armadillo digging on the way to the lake. With this sighting, at first I thought "cat", but then dismissed it as "no way possible". I ran various animals through my mind, yellow lab or other kind of dog(no, too long and too tan), deer(no, too tan, too low to the ground, too long, and it had a long tail!). It was a cougar, no doubt about it. It was maybe 2 feet tall at the shoulder and 6 feet head to tip of the tail. It was about 2-3 feet outside the tree line in a pasture, about 50 yards from the road we were on. I was able to observe it for several seconds as it walked along the trees. The head was down below the shoulders, like it was looking for something and the tail was out straighter than any photos I've been able to come up with while googling. I didn't say anything to my husband or daughters because I was trying to decide if that's what I really saw or not. After doing some research, I've determined that it probably was. I swear I'm not crazy!LOL

I do have to say that I have a gift of seeing animals on the roadside, even as a small child I stayed glued to the car window to see if I could spot something. It drives my hubby nuts because I'll say, "did you see that coyote by those hay bales?" or, "did you see the hawk in the dead tree?", or(and this is my favorite-lol), "didn't you see that tarantula before it went under our car?", we used to live in Oklahoma and I'd see tarantulas on the roads all the time, hubby never, ever saw a single one.

Molly

[Just Lookin]

All I can say is ewww. I would die if I saw a black panther. By the way, my realtor did tell me you have them there in East Texas. I guess I really want to come to Texas bad. (

[robinhood]

Molly - From what I've heard, most sightings are around that time in the evening. It pays to be observant like you are. I'm also glad I'm not the only one that sees tarantulas.

[Zhang Fei]

Originally Posted by Bound for Texas

All I can say is ewww. I would die if I saw a black panther. By the way, my realtor did tell me you have them there in East Texas. I guess I really want to come to Texas bad. (

This is why I think people in rural areas will probably need a firearm of some kind - for those rare occasions when a hungry-looking critter is standing between your pet and your home. By the time animal control shows up, it will have been long over.

[darkoakmom]

We have coyotes in our neighborhood so I'm kind of a "watchperson" for animal control to let them know if cats are going missing, if they get in garbage, etc. My contact in their office said cougars are definitely around in east Texas but sightings are very rare.

One of my friends said a relative of someone her hubby knows was hunting with his young son a few days ago(not sure if this was on the weekend or not-my sighting was on Saturday the 21st of Oct) and shot at a cougar in a tree near his deer stand. He thought he'd hit it because it jumped out of the tree and ran away. They'd heard the leaves rustling in this tree before dawn, thought it was a raccoon or birds. When the sun came up they saw a cougar watching them from the tree. He didn't track it because he had his son with him. Makes me wonder if the cougar was there because they'd been feeding the deer for a while before coming to hunt.

Bound for, my parents moved to the mountains of western North Carolina a few years ago. Nice little farmhouse on 5 acres. My mom swore they didn't have bears near them(hahahaha). Last year their neighbor shot one with buckshot at their bird feeder. He said it rolled around for a long time and finally got up and lumbered off. Other friends of theirs live up against a federal forest and have bears all the time. They keep bees and the bears will drag the beehives up the mountain for several hundred feet. I could do without bears!!!

Molly