By KathyV (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #3) on Sunday, November 7, 2010 - 11:17 pm: |
Hi, my husband and I returned yesterday from our 6th trip to Bonaire (we stayed at Den Laman and had a lovely time!) but I have a question about an unusual wildlife encounter. About 10 days ago we did a driving tour of Washington Park and were quite surprised when a very large, black "jungle cat" walked across the road directly in front of us!
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By Bob Smits (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #930) on Monday, November 8, 2010 - 4:32 am: |
Wow, I never heard of it.
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By KathyV (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #4) on Monday, November 8, 2010 - 9:09 am: |
No we didn't report it. We thought that it was an exciting and unusual encounter for us and we were surprised because it was so very unexpected. It didn't occur to us that this was a very rare sighting until I tried to research Jaguars on Bonaire and didn't find anything.
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By michael gaynor (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #4187) on Monday, November 8, 2010 - 10:27 am: |
Please e mail Junny,the park manager at washingtonpark.org I just spoke with him and he is very interested in your sighting. I must say it would be another great reason to visit the park!..
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By Bob Smits (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #931) on Monday, November 8, 2010 - 10:31 am: |
I already mailed this thread to the washington park.
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By KathyV (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #5) on Monday, November 8, 2010 - 11:45 am: |
I also sent a message to biologist Jerry Ligon, the naturalist, to see if he was aware of any large wild cats in the park.
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By Carole B. (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #7216) on Monday, November 8, 2010 - 2:59 pm: |
I could have sworn my husband and I encountered (actually it ran across the dirt road we were on) some sort of big cat (huge...jungle type but not black) over by Boca Onima and the hyroglyphics (sp?) in the cave. It flew in front of us (ground level) and was about the size of a tiger or something along those lines. Not really, really large but "medium". We thought we were seeing things but maybe we were not. This was about three years ago or so. anyone else see this critter around the island?? It was not a feral cat. If it was a mountain lion it had distinct leopard/lion type markings on it...not plain coat. Wow. Now I know we really did see something over there. There was high grass/weeds and rocks around there so we don't know where it went after it "flew" by in front of our car. Hmmmm.
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By KathyV (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #6) on Monday, November 8, 2010 - 4:29 pm: |
About the size of a tiger sounds right. I didn't see any spots and it looked black to us but it wasn't in bright sunlight. I understand that the melanistic Jaquars have spots that may be difficult to see. It was definitely a big wild cat, not a ferral cat. Interesting that we are not the only people to have had a "close encounter" with a large feline on Bonaire!
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By Eric M. "CamMan" (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1426) on Monday, November 8, 2010 - 4:58 pm: |
Tigers are the largest and heaviest species of cat on the earth. So a medium cat would not be tiger size. If there is a black cat the size of a tiger on Bonaire, this is going to be a really really big deal.
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By Glen Reem (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3264) on Monday, November 8, 2010 - 5:31 pm: |
Question also of the animal's maturity, hence size relative to an adult of the same species.
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By KathyV (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #7) on Monday, November 8, 2010 - 6:19 pm: |
I'm afraid that I'm no expert about the relative sizes of wild cats so perhaps "tiger" was a poor choice for comparison. It just looked really big to me. I'm guessing that it was 4 to 5 feet long, without the tail. And it had a really long tail!
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By Glen Reem (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #3265) on Monday, November 8, 2010 - 7:52 pm: |
KathyV,
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By Carole B. (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #7217) on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - 12:52 am: |
Kathy, that was about the same sixz of whatever crossed our path that afternoon, as well. Yes, indeed....velly intelesting (Artie Johnson, I believe). Never thought of this critter chowing down on the goats, etals, but that would be an easy source of chow. Hmmmm. It sounds as tho there is a very, very large "cat" cruising the island. The yacht theory makes a lot of sense, as well.
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By Just little ole me with a (*) (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #6136) on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - 10:21 am: |
Seems like they come pretty close to Bonaire..
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By Eric M. "CamMan" (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1431) on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - 1:35 pm: |
Correct me if I'm wrong but I think Jags are one of the cats that are not afraid to get in the water and go for a swim?
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By Carole B. (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #7219) on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - 2:04 pm: |
Very interesting. OK, KathyV...we aren't nuts! lol. We DID see a big cat (or two different ones) on island. Very intersting, indeed.
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By KathyV (New BonaireTalk Poster - Post #8) on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - 2:41 pm: |
Yes, I have been reading about jaguars and they like the water and are very willing to go for a swim!
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By michael gaynor (Supreme BonaireTalker - Post #4188) on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - 2:42 pm: |
The park manager has been alerted and is aware of the reports. To date, none of the staff has seen said cat but will keep a watch.
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By Eric M. "CamMan" (Extraordinary BonaireTalker - Post #1433) on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - 3:50 pm: |
I think this needs to be an episode of MonsterQuest on the History Channel!
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By Jerry (BonaireTalk Deity - Post #29561) on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - 4:07 pm: |
They could have been brought over on the fruit boats as pets / young cubs?
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By Freddie {Moderator} (Moderator - Post #1049) on Tuesday, November 9, 2010 - 7:44 pm: |
the three above posts are so off topic they will be removed from this thread and moved to CC Off topic posts
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By Morto Pa E Leon Piska (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #199) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 8:11 pm: |
Don't worry. While on Bonaire for my lionfish hunt I trapped the cat and returned it to it's native habitat.
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By R.A.... (BonaireTalk Deity - Post #17226) on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 - 10:05 pm: |
He's baaaaaaaack.
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By Lloyd H (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #644) on Friday, February 4, 2011 - 10:22 pm: |
The Blizz to the rescue
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By KathyV (BonaireTalker - Post #13) on Saturday, February 5, 2011 - 1:15 pm: |
Hi, my husband and I are the people that originally reported the presence of a large black wild cat in Washington Park.
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By KOB (LBR32) (Experienced BonaireTalker - Post #443) on Saturday, February 5, 2011 - 7:42 pm: |
It's a sarcastic joke, Kathy.
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By KathyV (BonaireTalker - Post #14) on Saturday, February 5, 2011 - 11:11 pm: |
I see, thanks! So I guess that there is no news about our wild cat?
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By BEM (BonaireTalker - Post #76) on Tuesday, March 1, 2011 - 4:17 pm: |
We'll be heading into the park while we're here and we'll look for something like you described. I'll wrestle him into the pickup bed and keep him down with weight belts.
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