Oklahomans Share Hundreds Of Black Panther Sightings

When I put my black panther story on Facebook, I knew people would have opinions, but what I wasn't expecting was a comment section that turned into a statewide roll call of people arguing about what others swear they saw.

Facebook really shows our real-time decline of humanity.

When it comes to these long-rumoured black panthers, there have been sightings all over Oklahoma. Some are just stories passed down from parents and grandparents, encounters that go back decades. And there are people who swear they've seen one themselves.

Straight from the comment sections, here are some real Oklahoma stories...

Where Oklahomans Say They've Seen Black Panthers

One woman remembered hearing what she believed were panthers screaming around Calvin, OK when she was a child in the 1950s. She said the dogs would run and hide under the house. Another person swore they saw one near Boswell about 25 years ago, crossing the road in the early morning. Even as recently as 2011, one was seen near Cement. He said his grandfather took a shot at it, but missed.

Those are three different stories, from different times and places. And those are only a few of the accounts people shared.

Out of the nearly 500 stories in the comment section, there were tons of stories about black cats near Cache and Indiahoma, up by Carnegie and Fort Cobb, near Lake Thunderbird, and even a few tales from southeastern Oklahoma.

I hail from Northcentral OK, and I can tell you there is a huge black panther reputation in Osage County, but the stories were always "I know a guy who knew a guy..."

My own black panther encounter is still iffy at best. Grandpa used to love tormenting us with the stories on the "hinya-cats" over in Harmon County. I think it was mostly to encourage us to come inside after dark, but he also swears up and down that he saw a black panther once while he was ploughing some field somewhere.

Naturally, in the hours after hearing his story, us kids thought we saw one too. Looking back with big boy logic, it was probably just overactive imaginations and fear. We all thought we saw one at the same time, but couldn't necessarily agree on where it was in that moment. I thought it was chilling on the back of a junk LTD in the scrapyard shinnery behind the big barn, but what kid can focus his attention in a split second while avoiding trees running all-out on a dirt bike?

One thing every story has in common though, is that while the details vary, the confidence doesn't. People insist they knew what they saw.

Of course, the sceptics showed out too. Some pointed out that there has never been a scientifically documented black mountain lion. That's a fair point, but others noted that jaguars are pretty well documented in the border states of America. Is it really too far-fetched to think a black panther couldn't follow a regular panther up through Mexico?

What Wildlife Officials Say About Black Panthers

The ODWC (Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation) is crystal clear about these huge black cats... They're not in Oklahoma. Never have been, never will be... But there's a rub there too.

The ODWC spent decades denying mountain lions came through the Sooner State. Straight up said it was impossible and that people didn't know the difference between cougars and bobcats for decades. Well, until the rise of game cameras made them roll back that opinion. And when they finally concluded that Oklahoma was officially part of the natural, normal mountain lion territory, eyes rolled all across the state.

In other news, water gets things wet.

I get it. As a child who heard the tales of big black cats every time he spent a night on the farm, as an adult it's hard to take seriously. I'm a fun uncle. I love telling my nephews scary stories. It's a universal generational thing, right?

I'm not even sure if I believe the stories, I just know what I've been told. I do believe this, that people fully believe they've seen black panthers in Oklahoma. I was convinced I saw one too for a very long time, but the evidence didn't survive my own independent thinking process.

Does that mean I didn't see a black panther? I'm not sure about that either. It's just such a wild thing to process based entirely on a fleeting glance.

There were a few comments that offered explanations for how there are so many black panther claims in Oklahoma, but how do you stack one claim against another? Escaped exotic pets? That one story about big cats being released during a wildfire in the Arbuckle area. An even taller tail about a circus train derailment in the 90s? It's wild.

But still, wild is weird enough to be true sometimes. Surely you remember the great Oklahoma Tiger-Nado, right?

The official stance of your Oklahoma government and all agencies is, black panthers do not exist in Oklahoma. Never have, never will... But if you come across one, call them first.