Charles Wooten’s 2009 photograph of a mystery cat.
Charlie Wooten [of Isle of Wight, Virginia] has been a hunter since 1976 and has seen more than his fair share of wild animals.
His four trail cameras usually catch the occasional black bear roaming around between May and September, but when one of his cameras snapped a photo of an apparent cougar on his property in the Isle of Wight Courthouse area, he wasn’t sure what he saw.
“I’m no expert,” he said, “but it doesn’t look like a bobcat to me.”
Wooten, who primarily hunts white-tailed deer and turkeys, showed the photo to 20 fellow hunters, and “19 of them said it wasn’t a bobcat,” he said.
Wooten’s big cat photo awaits confirmation, but similar sightings in South Hampton Roads aren’t without precedent.
Aaron Proctor, a district wildlife biologist for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, said the department is working to verify Wooten’s reported cougar sighting. Proctor said the department gets about six to 12 big cat sightings on the Southside a year.
The department allowed big cats to be pets 15 to 20 years ago, Proctor said, but has since no longer does.
Eric Gillard, Daily Press, May 14, 2009.
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