As I lay in bed early this morning about half awake before my bedside alarm sounded, I began to reflect back on several first-person encounters I have had over my lifetime with large cats. Florida panthers once prowled and flourished in woodlands and swamps throughout the Southeast. A panther research program was initiated by state and federal wildlife agencies in 1981. A full-grown cat would measure around 7 feet from nose to tip of tail and stand about 2 … Mississippi Population History. Take on a buddy, or just go solo. He has lived and hunted out west and taken numerous big game species, but hunting big old mature southern whitetail bucks is his favorite pursuit by a country mile. One time, as I walked quietly along a woods road in the early morning gloom, a cougar stepped out of the roadside brush into the trail right in front of me. Let’s look at a blend of anecdotal evidence in contrast to what wildlife officials say. Best Places to Live in Panther Burn (zip 38765), Mississippi October, April and May are the most pleasant months in the 38765 zip code, while July and August are the least comfortable months. As I yanked off the lens cover and fiddled with the on-off button, the cat got up and started slowly walking toward the wood line. The Florida panther is the only puma (also known as cougar and mountain lion) population east of the Mississippi. The year was about 1956 or ’57, and we had a bonfire and trot lines out. As the old adage goes, where there is enough smoke, there has to be a fire somewhere. 2:56 - September 15, 2018. Value for Mississippi (Number): 2,976,149 Data item: Population, 2019 estimate Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program (PEP), updated annually. There's Christmas, Florida; Sweet Lips, Tennessee and Nothing, Arizona, but can they top these 15 weird Mississippi town names and their stories? In 1800, numbers were recorded at 7,600 but just ten years later, those figures had increased by over 300% to 31,306. It wasn’t long before I heard a loud crack-boom in the direction of my friend, who was also situated on a high bank of the creek watching several deer crossings. I don’t know about you, but I am a believer. After a short while, the cat walked back out into direct view in a freshly mowed area about 60 yards away and sat down on his haunches. Now, regarding my qualifications when it comes to knowledge about identification of large cats at close range, I have had my full share of encounters over the years. 2013, van de Kerk et al. 2,967,297. Become the most informed Sportsman you know, with a membership to the Mississippi Sportsman Magazine and MS-Sportsman.com. My second encounter occurred back in the mid- to late 1970s when I was invited to accompany a friend on a deer hunt in Southwest Mississippi. On Sunday mornings this is a two-pronged endeavor, as the weekly Outdoors page is added to my everyday quest for knowledge regarding all things SEC. My friend took careful aim and fired. The cat crouched, with ears pinned back, and let out a long, low growl before clearing the road in one leap and disappearing into the wood line, growling the whole way. This particular mystery has baffled research professionals and officials for decades. The Florida panther is a habitat generalist that occupies both wetlands and uplands. After rising and retrieving my morning newspaper, I grabbed a steaming mug of coffee and began to dig into the thick Sunday edition for the sports section. Cities with the Highest Percentage of Hispanics in Mississippi: Mississippi Report: Percentage of Hispanics […], Play this bucket casting game in your backyard to have a great time and really sharpen your skills. The panther population size within the occupied breeding range south of Caloosahatchee River has increased from approximately 20 in the early 1970s to an upper bound of approximately 230 adult and subadult panthers in 2015. The median age was 34 years. Panthers are a federally protected endangered species. Welcome to the New and Used Classifieds from our Dealers, Rectifire offers choke tubes for turkey hunters’ shotguns. Population Census 1990-04-01 Population Census 2000-04-01 Population Census 2010-04-01 ; Panther Burn: Sharkey: 111: 57: 159 → Florida biologists report the Florida panther strain was reinforced with stockings of Texas cougars a few years back, which appears to have brought new vigor to the animals, and the population … However, a study in 2006 estimated that about 3,800 square miles (9,800 km 2 ) were free for the panthers. Estimates put past panther numbers at as low as six animals, perhaps around 1970, when the cats were believed to be extinct and before field surveys revealed a population of 20 to 30 animals. Since then, biologists have tracked Florida panthers using very high frequency (VHF) and geographic positioning system (GPS) radio collars. In the mid-1990s, Florida panthers were facing desperate times. Of course, they claim it has to be a released or escaped pet because there are supposedly none in Mississippi. Rectifire has shotgun choke tubes for any turkey hunter’s needs. [1] It has a post office with the ZIP code of 38765. It is also Florida™s state animal. The median age in Panther Burn (zip 38765) is 5.9, the US median age is 37.4.The number of people per household in Panther Burn (zip 38765) is 4.4, the US average of people per household is 2.6.. Family in Panther Burn (zip 38765) population in 1995 in an attempt to restore the genetic viability of the panther population. For decades now, there has been a steady drum beat of sightings and reports scattered across the Gulf States that range all the way from being highly credible to being verifiable misidentifications and rank fabrication. Population. My experience falls into two main categories: experience in Mississippi and experience while living for a time in Montana. Suddenly, realizing that I had a digital camera sitting next to me, I dropped my Swarovski binoculars and grabbed the camera, which was not turned on. Like most states in the US, Mississippi enjoyed a population explosion through the 19th century. If enough of the sightings can ever be undeniably verified as being from actual wild cougars, the resulting revelation would point to the existence of a breeding population. "Panther" is just the eastern American term for mountain lion ("catamount" is another) and that population in the western U. S. is healthy and expanding its range eastward, with verified sightings in states where it had been extirpated more than a century ago. Florida panthers are the only documented population of pumas (Puma concolor) found east of the Mississippi River. Today, the panther is managed by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the US Fish and Wildlife Service. Since 2010, it has had a population … It shines brightest in April when the dogwoods bloom and crappie spawn. It has a post office with the ZIP code of 38765. This Sharkey County, Mississippi state location article is a stub. We still believe in the accuracy of data -- especially from the census. Since then, the population has slowly increased and is now … I sat in shocked disbelief, realizing that I had just watched a panther. My moment for fame was over as the cat vanished from sight. No, I held my fire and did not shoot the cat because it was not cougar season, but I stayed stock still while looking down my rifle barrel with finger poised over the trigger. A true cougar specimen in the wild would be hard to mistake for a domestic cat or a bobcat, providing it is clearly seen and has surrounding objects of known or verifiable size for scale. Fearing it was an attack, he grabbed his slug gun and half-aiming sent a slug toward the cat that was now only yards away. The project has been deemed a success as evidenced by restored genetic vigor and the increasing size of the panther population (Johnson et al. Indeed, officials estimate that only 120-230 adult panthers are left in the wild. only population of North American puma that occurs east of Mississippi River. Panther Burn, Mississippi's Demographic, Population and Census Data Follow this link for detailed population, demographic and census data. Residence of electric blues harmonicist and singer Johnny Dyer, mother Ethel Lee Washington and family. Population estimates base, April 1, 2010, (V2019) 2,968,130. Del Loy said he took these pictures of what he believes to be large cat prints in the sand near his house in Washington not long after he moved there seven years ago. As the countryside was settled and developed, the large predators were shot. Panthers are a federally protected endangered species. Thankfully, they both missed, and these are boys who didn’t often misfire. I pressed the button too hard and the camera came on and the lens extended and then just as quickly turned off and the lens retracted. There have been many sightings in and around natchez over the last several years along with some articles in the paper. The cat was a tawny tan colored, and was roughly the size of a deer and had a long, swishing tail. [39] There are also occasional trail cam photos that show up on websites and message boards of what appear to be cougars as they cross deer food plots and woods roads. I was sitting in a box blind late one afternoon in a big field surrounded by woods, armed only with a digital camera. This statistic shows the resident population distribution of Mississippi in 2019, by race and ethnicity. The current range of Florida panthers is less than five percent of their original range across Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and parts of Tennessee and South Carolina. "Panther Burn, MS - Panther Burn, Mississippi Map & Directions - MapQuest", U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Panther Burn, Mississippi, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Panther_Burn,_Mississippi&oldid=984207515, Unincorporated communities in Sharkey County, Mississippi, Unincorporated communities in Mississippi, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Setting of Jimmy Phillips' song "Panther Burn". Mississippi man spots panther on property, second sighting in area in week. […]. My Montana experience includes personally having cougars at the eight- to 10-step range on at least two occasions. They are generally described as being tan in color with a long, black-tipped tail, with adults weighing between 70 and 120 pounds. Check with the Natchez Democrat newspaper. So that's where we went to get the breakdown of race across Mississippi. One of the biggest debatable aspects of this whole controversy revolves around the term “black panther.” Wildlife officials flatly deny the existence of any sort of native melanistic big cats, in spite of the fact that a surprising proportion of all big cat sightings reported in states east of the Mississippi River are of black cats with estimated weights that exceed 65 pounds. By . Relating this story to nearby neighbors elicited several stories of encounters they had also had but had been reluctant to tell anyone about. Population estimates, July 1, 2019, (V2019) 2,976,149. This page was last edited on 18 October 2020, at 20:43. I always enjoy a good, spirited discussion about an interesting topic, and how much more interesting and controversial could a discussion be than one centered around the existence of large cats — panthers, mountain lions or maybe you prefer to call them cougars — in Mississippi and its neighboring states? The population in Panther Burn (zip 38765) is 77. The cougar eventually eased backward into the tall grass and disappeared as stealthily as it had arrived. They may be able to give you a good place to start. 2010, Hostetler et al. […], Okuma turns carbon fiber into strong, light spinning reels […], Crappie is the king of gamefish in Mississippi. Copyright 1998 - 2021 Mississippi Sportsman, Inc. All rights reserved. Mississippi has broad restrictions on absentee voting, ... Then there are the felony voting restrictions, which in Mississippi have disenfranchised almost 16% of the Black population, researchers say — compared to just 5% in nearby Missouri, another deeply Republican state. About a quarter hour or so later, our friend said he saw the cat cautiously emerge from the brush along the steep bank at a deer crossing that was, as I recall, about 50 or 60 yards away from him. I took my younger brother with me ,and the three of us hiked in and took up positions about 200 yards apart along the deep-cut, sandy-bottomed Coles Creek, which bisected the hunting property. Although mountain lions, sometimes called cougars, pumas, panthers or catamounts, were common in Missouri and elsewhere in the Midwest prior to European settlement, they were eradicated during the 19th century. The Florida panther, a subspecies of mountain lion, is one of the most endangered large mammals in the world. To my absolute surprise, the half-page main Outdoors section article was titled “Panther tracks in Miss?”. On another occasion, while predator calling, I called up a huge cat that crept through tall grass to a distance of about eight steps from my position, before its head and shoulders suddenly materialized in a crouch, looking intently for the source of the distressed fawn call that I had been making. They are generally described as being tan in color with a long, black-tipped tail, with adults weighing between 70 and 120 pounds. Population and Housing Unit Estimates. Let’s now look at my personal list of encounters of the cougar kind during my decades spent living, hunting and traveling around Mississippi. One of the most-comical explanations from certain officials — at least for me — involves them throwing out the “it’s an escaped pet” line. How We Determined The Cities In Mississippi With The Largest Hispanic Population For 2021. They serpentined in and out of the cover once or twice more, and then everything went quiet. Population, percent change - April 1, 2010 (estimates base) to July 1, 2019, (V2019) 0.3%. There are 5 people per square mile aka population density. My buddy was looking at it through a rifle scope, so he had a clear view. MDWFP biologists currently estimate the Mississippi bear population at 40 to 50 bears in the entire state and that's being generous. 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