Cryptozoologist Fail

[William Parcher]

I forgot about the bobcats. So there ARE big cats in Ohio, just not many.

Non sequitur. Bobcats aren't big cats. Bobcat population in Ohio is growing.

Big Cats: cougar, jaguar, leopard (aka "panther"), lion and tiger.

 

[korenyx]

Non sequitur. Bobcats aren't big cats. Bobcat population in Ohio is growing.

Big Cats: cougar, jaguar, leopard (aka "panther"), lion and tiger.

Cougars are actually classed as small cats; they can purr but they can't roar. The others on your list (jaguar, leopard, lion and tiger) are classed as big cats.

 

[William Parcher]

Cougars are actually classed as small cats; they can purr but they can't roar. The others on your list (jaguar, leopard, lion and tiger) are classed as big cats.

Classed as if it's an official designation? No, it's not a biological classification. For the context of cryptozoology and big cat claimants it is necessary to consider cougars as being big cats because those "folks" are putting them in that basket. In the UK, they use "ABC" which is Alien Big Cat and it includes the cougar (they call it Puma).

Wiki

The term big cat – which is not a biological classification – is used informally to distinguish the larger felid species from smaller ones. One definition of "big cat" includes the four members of the genus Panthera: the tiger, lion, jaguar, and leopard. Members of this genus are the only cats able to roar. A more expansive definition of "big cat" also includes the cheetah, snow leopard, clouded leopard, and cougar.

To put it into context, I'm going to go out on a (I think safe) limb here and say that many of the questionable American eyewitnesses are going to class the cougar as big cat. They will make a delineation between bobcat and cougar as being the line between small and big.

"I saw a big cat while hunting last week in West Virginia."
"A bobcat?"
"No, not a bobcat. That's not a big cat. It appeared to be a cougar."

 

[kedo1981]

This does seem a little more credible in that they have a source for black panthers, an illegal zoo that was sell leopard kittens until 5 or 6 years ago.
And they are no speculating that it was released but that it gets out of it’s pen and then goes back.
Here be the linky

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/black-leopard-sightings-still-being-reported-1243913.html

 

[Sherman Bay]

"At 5:28 P.M. a lion, described as a 'huge, ferocious-appearing beast,' was seen entering the woods..."

So said the article in the Daily Blade. Imagine! Such news! Right there in the paper, so it must be true, right?

Maybe not. No one actually saw the lion. Sure, one "eye"-witness smelled it, someone saw the tuft of a tail flicker in the bushes, another heard a distant roar, but no one saw the whole lion.

A Lion in the Woods

 

[EHocking]

cryptozoology doesn't usually cover single animals unless theres a breeding population involved
a single escaped pet is unlikely to excite cryptozoologists much

I disagree.

Cryptozoologists seem to thrive on individual sightings as being evidence for bolstering whatever barrel they happen to be whacking.