Black panthers, melanistic mountain lions, and black cougars, whatever you want to call them, are not suppose to exist in the United States and Canada, but people keep on seeing them. Throughout the upper Midwest, it is well-known for its long history of cryptozoological Black Panthers.

There just are not suppose to be any “black panthers” – i.e. melanistic large felids – in North America. Yes, mountain lions exist probably throughout NA (they are still “cryptids” in the East), but black mountain lions are not verified zoologically. Black leopards and black jaguars are known, however, they do not naturally live in North America.

America’s Black Panthers are, therefore, a cryptid population with a well-established legacy, for example, that inhabits several pages of reports in my book, Mysterious America, via an entire chapter and an appendix.