The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department refuted Hall’s claim, saying that “there is no such thing” as a black cougar or black mountain lion (Puma concolor), although the species in its common colouring is found in the United States. That said, black jaguars and leopards, called panthers, do exist in the wild, but they have never lived in Texas. Department spokeswoman Dana Karelus noted that there used to be black jaguarundi in Texas, but those cats have not been seen since 1948.
Karelus believes Hall’s photo includes a common house cat. She said the quality of the photo makes it difficult to determine the species of the animal, but judging by the length of the tail, it is not a cougar. “Size can be difficult to determine from photos, and unless there is a suitable object nearby to determine scale, ‘apparent size’ is often misleading,” Karelus added.
Earlier in Pakistan, an unidentified man was trapped in an enclosure with tigers and mauled. Zoo staff suspected something wrong when they found a shoe in the mouth of one of the tigers.
