• cecilkorik
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    6 days ago

    This still seems like a wild conspiracy theory to me, and yet, I wish them luck because I don’t see what significant harm could come out of it and maybe they’re right, and even if they’re not the search ought to be interesting. Sort of like Oak Island. Search on, you crazy sleuths, and let me know if you find something.

    • Showroom7561
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      6 days ago

      What’s “wild” about it?

      He explains many reasons why this could be true, including their source (exotic pets), their minimal food requirements, their ability to survive our winters, etc.

      I sure hope it’s not true, but it sounds like it might be.

    • eezeebeeOP
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      6 days ago

      I’m skeptical too, but I have to admit the footage of the one on the road where he visited was pretty convincing. Though in a world of AI and deepfakes I don’t know that I can trust it. Curious to see if he finds anything.

      • wise_pancake
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        6 days ago

        There was that zoo in northern Ontario (can’t remember where, past north bay) that kept losing animals

        • nyan@lemmy.cafe
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          2 days ago

          The only thing in that area that I can think of that might fall under the heading “zoo” was a small petting zoo that I vaguely remember as fronting on Hwy 11 in the general area of the Tri-Town many years ago. I doubt they had any big cats. Certainly they wouldn’t have been able to afford enough of them to get a breeding population from any escapees.

          Melanistic cougars I might believe, or escaped animals from a lot further south.

  • stray@pawb.social
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    6 days ago

    Nice job tricking me into subscribing just so I can see the trail cam footage later. This has gotta be my favorite cryptid.

  • Auli
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    6 days ago

    But according to him this could just be cougars with melanistic colouring. As he says all cats with thet trait are black Panthers. Also since black Panthers are not a species how come their are no regular jaguars running around.

    • DragonTypeWyvern@midwest.social
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      6 days ago

      The premise is the population is based on escaped exotic pets. If those pets were a breeding pair of black panthers (whatever species that implies) they could simply be breeding true…

      Or no one is surviving seeing the traditionally colored jaguars!

      There is actually a North American panther, the Florida panther (which is of course a cougar) which would actually be a black panther with the coloring.

    • stray@pawb.social
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      6 days ago

      According to bigcatrescue.org, black coloration is more commonly found in forested areas with less light, which seems to fit the area. Black panthers of any species are capable of producing non-black cubs, but it seems they’re selected against in such environments.

      He shows pictures of black cougars in the video, and they have very distinct grey markings compared to the seeming all-black of other big cats.