The Black Panthers of Marin

Most people don't know this, but there's a long history of black panther sightings in the Bay Area. Not the "Power to the People" type of black panthers, but actual black cats. No, not cats as in guys with berets and shotguns, cats as in real cats. Black--look, black mountain lions! Is that clear enough for you?

Yes, black mountain lions. No...they don't have shotguns. Forget about the shotguns! 

Back to our point. There have been many reported sightings of black panthers in the Bay Area, particularly around Mt. Tamalpais and Mt. Diablo. 

[Bet you didn't know about that, did you? Well, that's why Mysterious SF is here, and has been called a crackpot for years.]

Black panthers are not common to North America, and we probably don't have to tell you it would seem farfetched that one would be seen in the Bay Area. 

And yet...such sightings pesist.

A larger examination of the black panther phenomenon is for another post, but for now we'd like to just link to some (relatively) fresh news. Chronicle outdoors writer Tom Stienstra reports A BLACK MOUNTAIN LION has been sighted in Marin. 

"This lion was not darkish, not a brownish-tawny like some I've seen since, but jet black," said John Balawejder, a longtime reader and avid hiker and wildlife watcher whose daughter, Alani, has written an academic paper about the sighting

Interesting, no? On April 24th, as a follow-up, Stienstra reported that someone claims to have a photograph of a black panther, and he was trying to get a look at it. Two weeks after that, Stienstra relays a reader report of a sighting.

Publicly, Mysterious SF says: what we may be seeing is evidence of a small band of melanistic mountain lions. Melanism, a condition that renders jaguars completely black, is common within six percent of the jaguar species. However, it should be said that according to the Missouri Department of Conservation, "no melanistic (sic) of mountain lion has ever been documented by science." Rather than pound a square peg into a round hole, Mysterious SF asks, are these "mountain lions" actually jaguars?

Privately, Mysterious SF says: there may be more to the black panther phenomenon than meets the eye. Worldwide, black panther sightings have been sighted in the company of UFOs, Bigfoot, and large black dogs. No, none of it is simple to explain, and yes, it is all connected. Except none of them carry shotguns.