It is at the edge of the marsh, stays fairly damp so no real crust
forms. The cat walked down a little swampy area in the woods then along
the edge of the marsh, the attached pic is from that area. The tracks I
photographed were actually going the other direction from where I saw it
walking, might have been later prints or it made a round trip. I sent
this photo and another one to the wildlife guy, who was half-heartedly
denying it was a BIG cat, but after seeing this pic he allowed it was a
cat, and got off the bobcat angle. Note those prints are at least 3in
across, that is not your little house kitty, or a bobcat. Bigger than my
dogs, but there are no nails showing so not a dog. And yes, even
thought the mud is soft, those prints are easily a half inch deep, that
takes some weight.
I was in the gun/tackle shop yesterday evening, some guys were in there
looking at some rifles, I mentioned I had seen a panther a few days ago,
they all started telling stories about them. The guy working there said
one attacked a newborn foal he had a coupla years ago, the mama horse
had big claw marks on both sides of her flanks where the cat grabbed at
her while she was kicking at it. He said the marks were as big as his
hands, and deep. Hurt the horse pretty bad. One of his neighbors shot
one in his chicken coop, DNR came and got it and took it away, never
heard more about it (AFDB time). This was on Edisto Island, a bit south
of us (Johns Island), all the sea islands and pretty rural and wooded
except where they have been developed like on Kiawah, although even
there there is a lot of open land in woods and marsh.
I am getting obsessed with this now!
--R
Archer wrote:
Looks like the paw might have punched through the thin crust if I'm
looking at it correctly. Would that indicate a fairly heavy animal on
that type of ground?
Do you live on one of the islands out toward the ocean from
Charleston? Visited a friend out there last year. Interesting area.
Gerry
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