Was It The Ozark Howler?

It's been awhile since I had read anything referencing the legendary 'Ozark Howler' until I received the following email:

Lon - I don't have any idea what I witnessed Saturday evening (5/28) but it was the most frightening experience of my life. My wife and I were camping at an RV park near Jasper, Arkansas and planned to be there for several days. We arrived early Saturday and got situated soon after.

My wife wanted to look around the area since she had never been in the Ozarks. I was born and raised in the mountains and was familiar with the terrain and wildlife. After we tinkered around the campsite we decided to take a short hike through a nearby valley. There were a few caves and caverns along the way but nothing where I would have guessed any large predator would be living. After walking for an hour we started to head back towards the RV park.

Not long after we started walking back down the trail something caught my eye on the right in a sassafras thicket. My wife sensed it as well and stopped to look in the same direction. I could see this dark four-legged creature moving back and forth slowly through the brush. We immediately started to walk at a fast pace back towards the park. This creature was moving along as well, keeping it's distance, but tracking us. This continued for what seemed like 10 minutes until we reached the clearing.

We got back to the campsite very shaken and nervous. All my years growing up in these mountains and I had never seen anything comparable to it. From what I could gather it was very large, almost the size of a black bear but moved close to the ground like a cat. It was also very dark in color. We didn't say anything to others camping nearby.

The rest of the evening was very quiet and peaceful until around 2:15 am, we heard what sounded like a high pitched howl coming from a distance. It was loud enough to wake both of us and I noticed several campers were looking outside, milling around and talking as well. Someone said it was just a coyote - but that was not a coyote or anything else I had ever heard before.

The next morning we woke around 9 am. When I stepped out of the RV a woman walked up to me and asked if I had heard the howling. I said that I did and had no idea what it was. The woman, who was camping nearby, said that she believed it to be the 'Ozark Howler' and that there had been a few sightings recently. I knew the stories about the 'Ozark Howler' but never believed any of it.

Well, my wife wanted to leave ASAP. Now I'm not sure what to think. We came home today and I looked up the 'Ozark Howler'. There isn't much to go on. I read your blog and thought you may want to get the word out. Is it possible this creature may live?

NOTE: the witness wants to remain anonymous. Information on this cryptid is scant...as well, the history is vague. There are a few anecdotal accounts but nothing to really 'hang your hat on'. I have posted some descriptions and known information below. Follow up from the readers would be appreciated...Lon

Could it be a black bobcat...like this one captured in Florida?

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The Ozark Howler, also known as the Ozark Black Howler, is a legendary creature that is said to live in remote areas in Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Texas. It is usually described as being cat-like but the size of a fully grown black bear...thick body, stocky legs, black shaggy hair as well as sporting prominent horns from the forehead. The sound associated with this cryptid is often described as being a combination of a wolf's howl and an elk's cry. The name was derived from its troubling cries at night which echo down from the area where it is commonly said to be seen, the Ozark Mountains. Aside from the creepy howl and horns, the Ozark Howler is said to have glowing eyes which allow it to spot and perceive its prey even at a distance. This creature is said to feed on smaller animals in the woodlands, as well as livestock.

There have been a few interesting, though vague accounts of the Ozark Howler over the years. Many cryptozoologists claim the tales to be a hoax that was given renewed life through the internet and a supposed research group that has since faded away. Nonetheless, the following is an interesting account from an individual who claims to have hunted the Ozark Howler:

Frank Wall says he is an experienced hunter of stag and fowl, certified hunting guide for waterfowl with 25 years field hunting experience from the time he was "yay high"! Missouri native, born and bred.

EDUCATION

I first got interested in the Ozark Howler from listening to the guys my dad went together to process his deer with. They'd always tell stories, a lot from people they knew and a couple incidents of their own! Well, I've been a full grown huntsman for a good number of years now, and I've set my sights on this most elusive of quarries: the black cat of the Ozarks!

I've learned quite a bit of what I know about Ozark Howler from Lisa Leigh, local journalist who's taken a professional interest in the development of the Ozark Howler story. You can read a good number of her articles in local papers, and she's been successful even in getting coverage of some Ozark Howler sightings on local TV news! If you want a true authority on the Ozark Howler, talk to Lisa.

I decided I wanted to understand the Ozark Howler from another perspective: that of the hunter. Hunters are some of the best biologists there are, we know our quarry, it's habits and where it lives.

There's some sort of academic debate about what the Ozark Howler is and what it isn't. Well, all I know is that it exists. There are just to many people who have seen the thing to ignore it any more and say that it isn't an "important question".

Folks I know mostly agree that it's a pretty big cat, much bigger than the bobcat or lynx that professors who haven't even seen the thing say it probably is, explaining away the important differences, like the long, stocky body, the dark thick fur, the consistent reddish cast to the eyes, and the appearance of both horn-like and beard like appendages on the head. It's easily close to three feet tall at the shoulder, and I'd like to know what bobcat gets to be that size! I'm a hunter, so don't try to kid me!

THE OZARK HOWLER

The problem with trying to find out more about the Ozark Howler is that, like most cats, it's nocturnal. That means that it mostly moves around at night, and I can tell you from experience tracking cats that if it don't want to be found during the day, it won't be. I have a friend who kind of takes up a hobby of nature photography, and she tells me that there's just not much chance of ever getting up close to a wild predator during the daytime, at least close enough to get a detailed sort of description.

The upshot is that most sightings of the Ozark Howler have taken place at night. See, it gets confusing because almost everyone insists that the Ozark Howler has black fur. Now, it could be dark brown or even very dark red, but you just can't tell that in the dark or even dusk-like conditions.

THE QUESTION

People who spend their time researching animals like the Ozark howler are finally admitting that it almost certainly exists, but then they say that it's not as important as the beast of Bodwin Moor, which is clear complete across the Atlantic. Can someone explain this to me? Why hasn't good research on the Ozark Howler caught up with all of the sightings? - Frank Wall - ozarkhowler.20m.com

New 'Beast' Sightings at Cannock Chase

sundaymercury - There have been a raft of fresh sightings of the Cannock Chase beast in recent weeks – with readers reporting sightings of an elusive Panther-like creature.

“I definitely saw a Panther-like cat, jet black, about 15m-20m in front of me between Chase Road and Ansons Bank car park,” reported one Cannock resident Stephen Hill.

“I had a clear view of it before it disappeared into the undergrowth. I went closer to try to see it, but did not go too close because I feared for my own safety.”

Another resident said: “I saw an animal that I did not recognise. It was very compact – stocky even – with a strong, sturdy body, head, and legs.”

Eye-witness reports continue to roll in, but there are those who are far more sceptical.

Derek Crawley, chairman of Staffordshire Mammal Group, said: “For years there have been reports of Big Cats on the Chase. However, if these animals were successfully surviving in the wild, it would be practically impossible not to encounter them more frequently.”

So are people just letting their imaginations run wild? Perhaps what Cannock residents are seeing are large dogs.

This fits with one account we received: “I saw a creature roughly the size of an Alsatian, kind of like a greyhound.”

Chase Rangers believe the public are, in fact, seeing Muntjac Deer, which are dog-sized.

Mr Crawley, however, hasn’t completely discounted claims that there is a panther on the loose. He added: “If anybody is convinced that they have seen a mysterious creature, please report it, so that we can investigate, and find evidence as to what might possibly be lurking in the bushes.”

Many Big Cats, such as Panthers, were kept as pets until the Dangerous Animals Act came into force in 1976, making it an offence to actually own them.

Could it be what residents are seeing are direct descendents of Big Cats whose owners released them into the wild when the law was changed? If so, then there is another mystery to resolve.

John Plant, from Cheslyn Hay, reported seeing a large creature with a snout – and he’s not the only one. Now if these reports are true, could it be Wild Boar have descended on the Chase?

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Photo: Big Cat on the Prowl in North Scotland

ross-shirejournal - A grisly find in Ross-shire and an intriguing image captured on camera has further fuelled speculation that a big cat is on the prowl.

The sighting of a large, cat-like beast stopped Tain sisters Lisa and Alana Sydenham in their tracks as they were out driving near Embo on Wednesday night.

Meanwhile on the Black Isle, the stripped-to-the-bone remains of a deer and large paw prints in the mud left another landowner pondering the possibility that a big cat is responsible.

The latest revelations follow last week’s exclusive Ross-shire Journal story in which Easter Ross farmer George Ross, of Rheguile Farm, spoke of the savaging of 18 of his sheep since the beginning of the year.

Lisa Sydenham (29), an administration and information technology student at Dornoch College, contacted the Journal yesterday after her sighting on Wednesday night. She had been driving with sister Alana (26) near Embo outside Dornoch when she caught sight of a large beast on the prowl.

Lisa, who snapped the black creature with the point-and-shoot digital camera she was carrying around 8.30pm on Wednesday night, told the Journal, “It was definitely not just a large domestic cat or dog.

“At first I thought it was a very large dog but from the way it was walking and the shape of its body I could tell that it was a big cat. It was quite a distance away over a field. My sister Alana and I were at first very surprised and then excited. I looked into it and found there had been another sighting in the area last September.

“It looked and moved like a cat.

“It spotted me and crouched down in the grass before walking off. We must have watched it for about five minutes in all.”

She speculated that changes in animal licensing laws some time ago had prompted the owners of some exotic animals to release them into the wild.

The Journal was also contacted yesterday by Black Isle-based Alison Kennedy, who lives near Culbokie. She stumbled across the remains of a deer on land she owns at Upper Braefindon on Monday night and is hoping for some expert analysis of distinctive paw prints found in the mud near the kill.

She told the Journal, “On returning to the spot on Tuesday there were signs that the carcass had been dragged further away and carried off, nothing remained but a severed leg. All other stories only show remains of savaged animals, but I have pictures of paw prints at the site of the attack and the very fresh, almost totally eaten carcass.

“I tried to get SAC vets to visit the site and confirm what might have killed the deer, but have had no response so far.

“If it was dogs, that in itself is very worrying, given the livestock in the area, but more so if it is a big cat.”

She said there were obvious signs of a struggle and the appearance that the deer had been dragged a significant distance during the apparent attack.

Chief Inspector Paul Eddington, who has several years’ experience as a police wildlife crime coordinator specialist under his belt, said there had been several very credible sightings of big cats in Ross-shire down the years.

He said too there had been several stories of exotic animals being released in the Highlands since the 1970s following changes in legislation surrounding what people are permitted to keep as pets.

There have also been documented instances of domesticated cats turning feral and breeding with wildcats.

Ch Insp Eddington also recalled the December 2008 report — first revealed by the Journal — of the attack on a 73-year-old Easter Ross woman convinced she had been mauled after disturbing a big cat near her home.

Pat McLeod, who lived in a remote cottage outside Alness, had required hospital treatment for cuts sustained in an attack the exact details of which remain a mystery. Police were sufficiently convinced to lay traps and issue a warning to the public to be vigilant.

Ch Insp Eddington said, “Anyone who sees something unusual is encouraged to contact us. There’s an issue of public safety to consider and also the wellbeing of any such creature. We have had a number of credible reports down the years and people can be assured they will always be taken at face value.”

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Fortean / Alternative News: Vermont Bigfoot Photo, UFO Landing Site and Large Cat Prowling NC School

Is this a Bigfoot?

Supposedly the photo was captured on a trail camera in Vermont. You can read about it here.

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When you're hot, you're hot!

nydailynews - That must have been one sizzling sex scene.

Cops and firefighters are searching for clues about what caused a man to burst into flames while watching porn in a private booth at a San Francisco sex shop.

Crew members from a private ambulance parked near the sex shop in the city's South of Market neighborhood spotted the porn junkie running down the street while on fire just after 6 p.m. Wednesday, a fire department spokesman told the Daily News.

Police Lt. Kevin McNaughton told CBS San Francisco that the man had run out of the shop "engulfed in flames" and police officers and firefighters near the scene arrived quickly and helped put the man out.

The man, who wasn't identified, was taken to a hospital, where he was being treated for life-threatening burns over 90% of his body, the fire spokesman said.

An employee told police the man was watching a movie in the back of the store when he ran out screaming and on fire, KTVU television reported.

Investigators said they didn't know how the man caught fire and were searching the booth for flammable materials or other accelerants.

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Palin's Gigantic Hoax?

An interesting footnote has emerged to a theory that raged around the Internet during Sarah Palin's candidacy for Vice President:

The theory is that Sarah Palin is actually the grandmother of her purported son Trig, not the mother, and that she staged a gigantic hoax during the campaign to cover up this fact.

Professor Bradford Scharlott of Northern Kentucky University has looked into this story in detail and written a long academic article about it. He concludes two things:

First, that the "conspiracy theory" is likely true--Sarah Palin staged a huge hoax, and, second,

The American media is pathetic for not pursuing the story more aggressively

Scharlott's article walks through all the evidence supporting the theory, including the photos of Palin in what is said to have been a late-stage pregnancy, the leisurely 20-hour trip home that Palin took after she supposedly went into labor in Texas, the refusal of the hospital where Trig was supposedly born to even confirm that he was born there (let alone who was the mother), strange statements from Palin's doctor and the McCain campaign, and so on. Continue reading at Sarah Palin Probably Staged A Gigantic Hoax About Being Trig's Mother

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Argentina: UFO Landing Marks in Santa Rosa

From Scott Corrales at Inexplicata - The Journal of Hispanic Ufology

Source: www.ceufo.blogspot.com
Date: 11 April 2011

Argentina: UFO Landing Marks in Santa Rosa
By Quique Mario – CEUFO

A UFO remained stationary for nearly half an hour over a farm located 10 kilometers north of the city of Santa Rosa on Saturday, 9 April 2011 around 23:11.

Yesterday, the CEUFO field team visited the site to survey the terrain, collect vegetable matter samples and soil for analytical purposes as a result of the strange phenomenon produced on the terrain over which the UFO was suspended an estimated 1 meter over the surface. All this according to the only eyewitness to the episode.

The event occurred at the Villaverde Tourist Ranch (www.estanciavillaverde.com.ar) and Alberto, the person in charge of the site, was the sole witness, alerted by the barking and desperate howls of his dogs. He went out to investigate the source of the animals’ restlessness. He then noticed that a strange object, measuring approximately 50 meters in diameter, was hanging in mid-air some 300 meters from the main residence, issuing a powerful read beam that kept him from looking at it “without first slipping on a pair of sunglasses.”

After the survey was completed, it was possible to see that the area’s natural vegetation, consisting of pasto puna (Puna Grass) was selectively dehydrated and grayish in color, easily breakable from the rest of the vegetation. Another curious detail observed at the site was that the soil was dark in appearance, as though wet from rainfall, but its ease of removal proved it to be dry underneath. All samples were submitted for analysis.

The night was calm, windless and with starry skies. However, the witness claims having heard a sound similar to the wind among the trees while the strange object was present. The noise ended when the UFO disappeared. The animals’ nervous behavior endured up to three days after the incident.

The powerful beam of light temporarily affected the witness’s eyesight. His eyes were reddened until Tuesday, when symptoms disappeared. However, CEUFO is alert to any abnormality that the witness might display, in order to summon professionals should their services be required.

According to initial estimates, and according to the area surveyed by the researchers, it can be said that the object was considerable in size, since its dimensions were originally estimated at 50 meters in diameter.

Nor was it an isolated incident.

That same night, a group of residents from a new development located east of the city was alerted by a seven-year-old child at 2 a.m. Sunday about the presence of “a very strange star”. Witnesses defined the object as a large oval object, very bright, giving off an array of lights. After watching it for several minutes, the object “jumped upward” and lost itself in space at dizzying speed.

More interesting articles posted at Inexplicata:

Into the Woods: Hunters and High Strangeness

Change of Scenery: Other Dimensions, Other People

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Animal’s 'Bloodcurdling' Cries Keep Kids Inside

wyff4 - Children are being kept off the playground at a school west of Morganton, N.C., after police and neighbors spotted signs of a large animal prowling in a wooded area nearby.

Pastor Michael Brown, who lives nearby, talked to WSOC-TV. He said he hasn’t seen the animal, but he has heard the sound it makes.

“I've heard a bloodcurdling cry,” Brown said. “I've never heard anything like that, and it made the hair on the back of your head stand up.”

Police have set up traps behind Glen Alpine Elementary and are trying to bait the animal with deer carcasses. Parents have been notified of the concerns.

Tracks found near the school and nighttime sightings by police using infrared visual equipment indicate the animal could be a large cat weighing 80 pounds or more.

Parent Kelly Lingafelt said she was warned by police to be careful while walking with friends Thursday.

Eastern Puma Declared Extinct....But

rawstory - The US Fish and Wildlife Service declared the eastern cougar officially extinct Wednesday, even though the big cat is believe to have first disappeared in the 1930s.

The eastern cougar is often called the "ghost cat" because it has been so rarely glimpsed in northeastern states in recent decades. It was first placed on the endangered species list in 1973.

"The US Fish and Wildlife Service conducted a formal review of the available information and... concludes the eastern cougar is extinct and recommends the subspecies be removed from the endangered species list," a statement said.

"Only western cougars still live in large enough numbers to maintain breeding populations, and they live on wild lands in the western United States and Canada."

The US agency asked for input about the eastern cougar, and determined from the 573 responses it received that any sightings in the area were actually of other types of cougars.

Of the 21 states in the historical range of the cats, "no states expressed a belief in the existence of an eastern cougar population," it said.

The service's lead scientist for the eastern cougar, Mark McCollough, said the animal has likely been extinct since the 1930s.

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bangordailynews - Sorry, cougar believers. The “ghost cat” of the eastern woods is no more.

Or at least that’s the official word from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which has determined after a three-year study that the species of cougar that once prowled from Michigan to Maine to South Carolina is extinct.

As a result, the agency plans to move forward with plans to remove the eastern cougar from the federal endangered species list, officials announced Wednesday.

That conclusion is unlikely to convince the hundreds — perhaps thousands — of Americans who believe they have spotted one of the elusive “big cats” crossing a road, stalking prey in a field or even sunning itself in a backyard in the eastern United States. Maine wildlife officials receive dozens of reports every year.

But after reviewing more than 570 comments from the public on possible sightings, federal biologists determined that any cougars spotted north of Florida were likely captive cats that were released or escaped, western cats migrating eastward or — in most cases — were not mountain lions at all.

“We recognize that many people have seen cougars in the wild within the historical range of the eastern cougar,” Martin Miller, the service’s northeast region chief on endangered species, said in a statement on Wednesday. “However, we believe those cougars are not the eastern cougar subspecies. We found no information to support the existence of the eastern cougar.”

Also known as pumas, panthers or catamounts, cougars are the most widely distributed land mammal in the world besides humans. Adult cats typically range from 75 to 150 pounds — much larger than Maine’s other wildcats, the bobcat or Canada lynx — and are distinguishable by their tawny color and long, thick tail.

The eastern subspecies was once abundant but was driven to extinction by humans in much of its former range by the late-1800s or early-1900s. The last confirmed eastern mountain lion was killed by a trapper in Somerset County, Maine, in 1938.

The cat was added to the federal endangered species list in 1973, based on beliefs that small populations of the lions may survive in the southern Smoky Mountains. But despite frequent sightings and a small number of documented cougars — including at least two in Maine — biologists say wild breeding populations of mountain lions have not been found since.

Mark McCollough, a USFWS biologist in the agency’s Old Town office who led the review, said it is not a pleasant experience for biologists to acknowledge that eastern cougars are likely extinct. And as someone who investigates cougar sightings in Maine along with the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, McCollough said he understands the intense interest in the species.

But McCollough stressed that the review’s extinction finding does not mean that the Fish and Wildlife Service denies that cougars turn up from time to time. They do, he said, and the department fully acknowledges that fact. The agency simply doesn’t believe they are wild, eastern cougars, he said.

“Indeed, cougars do show up and one could be coming to Maine tomorrow,” said McCollough, who is the author of the 107-page report. “But I believe it would probably be an escaped pet.”

Maine wildlife officials still receive scores of reports from areas all over the state. But without a carcass, live animal or other concrete evidence, biologists say there is no scientific proof that a wild population of cougars exists anywhere in the state.

McCollough’s report contains a listing of more than 100 published records of eastern cougars in Canada and the U.S. going back to 1900. In addition to the cat killed in 1938, there are two more recent cases in Maine in which biologists found evidence to support the eyewitness report.

The first, in 1995, took place in Cape Elizabeth. Hair samples collected from the site identified the cat as a cougar. The second, well-documented case happened in 2000 when an experienced outdoorsman who was scouting out possible hunting spots watched for several minutes as a female with a kitten in tow walked near railroad tracks in Monmouth. Biologists determined the tracks came from a mountain lion.

The USFWS will now begin the formal process of removing the eastern cougar from the endangered species list, which will involve gathering public comment.

While delisting the cougar will eliminate federal protections for the cat, it does not force states to remove their own legal protections for mountain lions, McCollough said. DIF&W representatives could not be reached for comment Wednesday on the federal decision. It would still remain illegal to hunt or trap a cougar in Maine because there is no open season for the species.

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nytimes - Seven decades after the last reported sighting of the eastern cougar, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service declared it extinct Wednesday and recommended that it be removed from the nation’s endangered species list.

There’s one wrinkle, though: it may not be extinct, exactly.

Scientists are moving toward the conclusion that the eastern cougar was erroneously classified as a separate subspecies in the first place. As a result of a genetic study conducted in 2000, most biologists now believe there is no real difference between the western and eastern branches of the cougar family.

Either way, the “eastern” cougar as such is no longer with us. Any recent sightings in the cougar’s historic range, which stretched from eastern Ontario and Michigan eastward to Maine and southward to Georgia, Tennessee and Missouri, were actually sightings of its relatives, the Fish and Wildlife Service said.

“It’s extinct,” said Mark McCollough, a wildlife biologist with the agency’s offices in Maine, referring to the official determination by his agency.

“But it’s not?” he was asked.

“But it’s not,” he confirmed. “It may well return to part of its range.”

Cougar populations from the West are following the eastward migration of the coyote, Dr. McCollough said, and some have settled in the Dakotas. At least one breeding pair is now in Nebraska, he added.

The reclusive cougars — also called pumas, catamounts, mountain lions and, perhaps most fittingly, “ghost cats” — came under siege in the eastern United States starting in the 1700s, when they were hunted by European settlers. States put bounties on the cats with the goal of protecting livestock, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

“There was a general attitude back in the late 1700s and early 1800s that any predator was a bad predator and some were created worse than others and cougars were among the worst,” Dr. McCollough said.

The last confirmed eastern cougar was trapped in the late 1930s, the agency said.

Martin Miller, the chief of the endangered species division in the service’s Northeastern office, said that many sightings had been reported since then, but that virtually all of those cats were determined either to be from the West or to be South American pumas that were bought as pets and then released. The eastern cougar was listed as an endangered species in 1973.

Mr. Miller said in an interview that no regulations or restrictions were ever imposed in an effort to help the eastern cougar recover, although a recovery plan drafted in 1982 “held out hope, expressed the possibility that a population still existed in remote areas.”

Also as a result of genetic research, Dr. McCollough said, the Florida panther, which is under protection under the Endangered Species Act, might eventually be reclassified as a distinct segment of the larger cougar family.

A handful of other species on the endangered species list are presumed to be extinct and may eventually be recommended for delisting, including the Bachman’s warbler and the little Mariana fruit bat, the agency says.

A 2008 report to Congress by the Fish and Wildlife Service said that of more than 1,200 species protected under the Endangered Species Act, 19 were presumed extinct.

NOTE: well, I don't exactly understand the reason for this but I presume it's to clear the actual Eastern Puma strain (which, I assume is extinct) off the endangered species list in order to expand the known range of the Western Puma. I receive sighting reports weekly from various locations in the eastern US...there really is something out there. Lon


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