San Antonio Express-News
BOERNE, Texas — Wendy Hughes never paid much attention to the black cat she had seen frolicking in a nearby field until a close encounter made her appreciate its frightening dimensions.
"He’s about the size of a large dog," said Hughes, 30, whose account is supported by a blurry six-minute video she shot of the cat rolling on its back, preening itself and then walking into the woods.
The tape made believers out of the local authorities, who have set traps baited with chicken and venison in the field near this southern Texas town.
The black feline does not fit the description of any native cat, such as a mountain lion, leading some to surmise it is a panther that escaped or was let go by an exotic animal breeder.
"We get periodic reports of black panthers from around the state," said John Young of the Texas Department of Parks and Wildlife. "Some of these can be readily discounted. Others can’t. It sounds like this one can’t be."
Mountain lions live in the Hill Country of south-central Texas and elsewhere in the state, Young said, but a black one has never been killed or captured.
"It could have been brought in as an exotic," Young said. "We don’t have a real good handle on what animals people bring into the state."
Panthers, which are black leopards, are native to Africa, Southeast Asia and Indonesia. Jaguars, from South America, can be that size and are sometimes black, he said.
"It looks really big," said officer Pam Morin-Melchor of the Boerne police, guessing the animal weighs 80 pounds. "It doesn’t look like a house cat."
The cat will be turned over to a shelter or preserve when it is captured, the authorities said.
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