I spotted a huge tan cat in orlando yesterday (Palm Bay: live, backyard)

[acejka]

Am i crazy? What was that thing? It was huge, like the size of a lab. It was light tan and just sitting over by the woods, and I know it wasn't a lab. It was definitely some kind of cat.

It was near a very woodsy area, I'm not sure exactly where I was because I still don't know my way around very well, but we weren't near downtown or anything.

Any ideas, or is lack of sleep really making me loose my mind?

[Crane's Rooster]

You may have been lucky enough to see a young Florida Panther. They have not generally been known to be this far north, but description is very close to our state's Golden Cat. This is great. You should report it immediately to wild life officials so they can consider protecting the area where you saw the cat.

http://www.flheritage.com/facts/symbols/images/symbols/panther.jpg (broken link)

[acejka]

Originally Posted by Crane's Rooster

You may have been lucky enough to see a young Florida Panther. They have not generally been known to be this far north, but description is very close to our state's Golden Cat. This is great. You should report it immediately to wild life officials so they can consider protecting the area where you saw the cat.

That is it! That's awesome! I know I'm not loosing my mind afterall!

I'm going to talk to my husband since he works outside of the home, he will know exactly where we were at so I can report it. Everything that I looked up online said that they can travel north but its rare so I definitely want to let someone know

[idr591]

More likely that it was a Florida bobcat. Here is a good article from UF comparing the two.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/UW/UW14400.pdf

[Pete C]

Originally Posted by idr591

More likely that it was a Florida bobcat. Here is a good article from UF comparing the two.

http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/UW/UW14400.pdf

I don't think anyone would call a Florida Bobcat "huge". They are nowhere near lab size, but I guess by housecat standards you could call it huge.

[keithwand]

We were on the 528 this AM returning from a cruise and there was a dead one laying on the shoulder a few miles E. of Narcoosee

[Rabflmom]

Originally Posted by keithwand

We were on the 528 this AM returning from a cruise and there was a dead one laying on the shoulder a few miles E. of Narcoosee

a panther or a bob cat?

As for the original sighting.....I would guess it to be a panther since they do roam this far North. There used to be one here in Palm Bay that liked to sun on peoples roofs back in the 80s.
When we lived by what we used to call "the jungle" when we lived over by the river our dogs used to chase bob cats that wandered into the yard.
I have never seen a bobcat that is tan. The ones I have seen were about knee high with a gray and black coloring with the distinguishing bob tail. Even the ones at the zoo were darker colors than the panther. Are there tan ones?

[Learflyer]

We had a bobcat in our backyard one day just sitting and staring towards our sliding glass doors just waiting for one of our cats to go out side. that was about a year ago and haven't seen him since!

[Crane's Rooster]

Originally Posted by keithwand

We were on the 528 this AM returning from a cruise and there was a dead one laying on the shoulder a few miles E. of Narcoosee

That's a shame.

[lr5497]

Originally Posted by keithwand

We were on the 528 this AM returning from a cruise and there was a dead one laying on the shoulder a few miles E. of Narcoosee

So sad! That's a terrible thing