By Laurin Penland
Wilmington, NC – It's a dog, no, a deer, no, a panther? A local journalist for the Whiteville News Reporter and Pender Post is taking stock of all the panther sightings in the area, and he says he hopes to back-up eye-witness accounts with concrete evidence.
Panthers, also known as cougars and mountain lions, were wiped out of North Carolina in the early twentieth century. But, Jeff Weaver, reporter and hunter, says he is sure he saw a tawny panther cross the road in Bladen Lake State Forest. He says the big cat had a heart shaped face and a long thick, but not bushy tail, with a black tip.
"Almost every country store you go into, if people know you're not going to make fun of them, somebody in that place is going have a big cat story."
Weaver says he thinks one of the reasons that no one has gotten a photograph is because by the time they realize what they've seen, the cats move on out of sight.
Folks searching for big cat evidence should look for round foot prints about the size of an adult palm, buried mounds of skat, and leftover prey.
So far, Weaver has collected 25 reports at the paper.
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