Native, wild “black panthers” are not suppose to exist on the Iberian Peninsula, Europe. Mijas is a town and municipality in the province of Málaga, in Andalusia, in southern Spain. La Cala de Mijas is a separate village and tiny resort by the sea to the west. Word comes from that location of a new melanistic mystery cat search.

The hunt is on for a large black panther spotted by a member of the public in a park near the Los Claveles residential estate in La Cala de Mijas at around 7pm last night.

Since then, three other people have corroborated the sighting.

Suggestions that the animal was a large dog were ruled out after the man, who managed to photograph it on his mobile phone, told how he saw it climb a tree.

Several Guardia Civil environmental officers armed with tranquiliser guns were deployed to hunt down the animal, but the search was called off for safety reasons at nightfall.

A Guardia Civil spokesman said that the animal probably escaped from a private property. The search operation resumed today at first light. “Mijas police hunt large black panther,” think Spain, Wednesday, September 26, 2007.

I’ve not seen any published version of the reported cell-phone photo.

This probably is an escaped exotic pet, but thought you’d want to hear about this new search. Melanistic cats do have a certain appeal to those that keep big cats. But they also populate the cryptozoological literature, as well, before there were big pet feline owners.