Originally Posted by
meatdragger
I said black Jaguars are fairly common in central and south America Lip. I didn't say there weren't any in Arizona, I said their range didn't extend into Texas and Oklahoma, or Arkansas for that matter. In my statement about there not being any evidence of panthers I was referring to Cougars (also known as Mountain Lions or Pumas) which are a different species than Jaguars. There has never been a case of a black Cougar in the wild or in captivity and it is unanimously accepted by breeders, biologists, and scientists that melanistic or black cougar doesn't exist. Anything is possible but you have to look at the odds. Anyone who says things like "I see Cougars all the time" or "I've seen black Cougars many times" is just crazy. There are Cougars in Oklahoma for sure. We have seen a couple of trail camera pictures show up and we've captured or killed on or two but they are extremely rare. Black ones do not exist and a Jaguar would have to travel over 1000 miles outside its documented range to get to Oklahoma. The fact is, almost every sighting of this nature is just a case of mistaken identity.