Possible Panther sighting near down town Jacksonville, FL

[Disco Pickle]

http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2011-09-23/story/panther-sightings-reported-san-marco-area

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office has issued an alert of two possible panther sightings in the San Marco area.

Police have received two separate reports, one on Tuesday, the other on Friday, of what is believed to be a panther. One was at the dead end of Lasalle Street, while the other was behind 1501 Hendricks Avenue, less than half a mile apart.

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has been notified as the Sheriff's Office offers some safety tips: be alert, supervise children, don't approach the panther, and keep pets safe and secure.

I lived a few blocks from here for a large portion of my teenage years.  It's got some lightly wooded areas and lots of parks, but it's not what I would call forest area.  It's right on the river and just on the other side of the downtown area.

It's apparently eating stray cats, which there are a lot of in this neighborhood.

If I'd have walked out and looked up in a tree and seen a panther, there would have been no salvaging my pants.  I like cats, but I don't like cats THAT much.

Considering how endangered they are though, this could have been a large bobcat.  Still wouldn't catch me calling "here kitty kitty kitty."

[Elder Iptuous]

i've seen two panthers near my house. one was dead on the side of the road, and the other i saw at the treeline near the lake.  I live on the outskirts of Dallas, not in downtown, but it's still Dallas proper, and not the exurbs...
They are BIG fucking cats.  i would blow out my pance if i was in close proximity to one, too. (and not in my car)

hell, i got snapped a pic of a bobcat on my neighbor's front porch when i was leaving for work one day, and texted it to him to warn him for when he left the house.  i wouldn't want to scrap with one of those, let alone a mountain lion!

[Disco Pickle]

I would be less surprised if it was being reported even 10 miles south of there because Jax has been really good over the last decades at keeping trees from being cut down, even in suburban areas and many parts of it look like a forest.  But that close to downtown, in one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city.  Highly improbable.  Awesome none the less.  Unless you're a stray cat, that is.

[Elder Iptuous]

I fully support having top predators living in fully urban areas.

[Triple Zero]

Did you eat the dead one?

[Elder Iptuous]

it was already spoken for by turkey vultures.
i wouldn't want to fuck with them, either.

[Disco Pickle]

I fully support having top predators living in fully urban areas.

The place it was sighted is less than 3 miles from where I work, and there IS a pretty heavily wooded area behind our warehouse where a creek runs.  Every time I go out for a smoke, I've got my eyes on that tree line.

Gives new meaning to "Hazardous Work Environment."

[Luna]

I fully support having top predators living in fully urban areas.

Agreed.  Import a few to Providence, please.  I will cheerfully risk my pance and my hide.  I figure I'm bright enough to not get eaten, and think the average intelligence level would be improved by having free-roaming critters eating the careless and stupid.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yeah, it's so cool when people's kids are eaten out of their backyards and children are afraid to go to the park!

It's like, badass.

[Jenne]

We had a mountain lion, a female teenager, that was circulating the neighborhood.  I saw her bound in front of me on my way to my kid's school to drop something off to him round about 10 in the morning.  Went from one side of the street to the other in front of my car and a minivan coming the opposite direction.  I didn't immediately realize what it was that had darted out and it took a second to sink in.

I called fish and game and then they told me to call the sheriff's dept.  Sheriff's dept refused to believe I knew wtf I'd seen.    "Are you sure you didn't see a BOBCAT, ma'am?"  "Yessir, it was a mountain lion--I'm looking at a picture online of what I saw, 100% sure."

And then a year later she died while crossing the street about a mile away from here. 

[Elder Iptuous]

...
And then a year later she died while crossing the street about a mile away from here. 

It's pretty sad seeing one dead, isn't it?

[Jenne]

Yeah, she'd been using our neighborhood and environs as her playground...and she just got caught larking early one morning.  Caught the tailend of a fender, and she was a goner.

She probably would've been picked up by the wildlife folks eventually and re-released somewhere as it was.  It's just too bad that she had to die, knowing how rare she is up here.  I'm just wondering where the fuck her parents are.  I go hiking in those mountains by myself with my two yap dogs...makes me nervous to think of how many fucking wild animals I've seen out and about during the daytime while DRIVING but not while HIKING.

It's like they're ok if I'm in a car but NOT if I'm on foot???

[Doktor Howl]

I fully support having top predators living in fully urban areas.

Agreed.  Import a few to Providence, please.  I will cheerfully risk my pance and my hide.  I figure I'm bright enough to not get eaten, and think the average intelligence level would be improved by having free-roaming critters eating the careless and stupid.

We have cougars here.

When they attack people, it typically tends to be children or the elderly.

[Doktor Howl]

Yeah, it's so cool when people's kids are eaten out of their backyards and children are afraid to go to the park!

It's like, badass.

THAT'LL TEACH THAT 3 YEAR OLD TO BE STUPID AND CARELESS.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

We have coyotes in my neighborhood, but they're not really dangerous even to kids. They mostly eat cats, rats, garbage, and yappy dogs, and god knows we have enough rats here to keep them fat and happy.

I'd shit fucking bricks if cougars came into the city. They're beautiful, but dangerous to kids and even to larger dogs and adults. It's already bad enough with the bears if you live on the Westside, and bears are far less predatory.