Reports from the Void: 'We Saw the Strangest Thing'

The Singular Fortean Society received an email on March 19th, 2020, from a man who claimed to have seen a large, black animal that “moved like a cat” in La Crosse, Wisconsin.

According to the email:

My friend and I were in the La Crosse river bottoms below Valley View Mall in La Crosse, [Wisconsin] yesterday. We saw the strangest thing. It was black and moved like a cat but [was] far too big to be a cat. The only thing I could even imagine it was is an otter. But I've seen many, many otters and it was too tall. But it was far too large to be a feral cat and totally black, so not a bobcat. My friend, who is not as into animals, had no doubt it was a cat by the way it moved. Very strange.

Investigator Tobias Wayland was able to schedule a phone interview with the witness, but his call went unanswered, and he received no response to his attempts to reschedule.

Bobcats and mountain lions are the two largest species of cats most commonly found in Wisconsin, although according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR), only bobcats are known to breed in the state. Adult mountain lions can be up to eight feet long with a 23 to 26 inch tail and weigh up to 160 pounds, standing 27 to 31 inches at the shoulder, while bobcats are around two-and-a-half feet long with five to nine inch tails and weigh up to 40 pounds, standing 12 to 24 inches at the shoulder.

Melanism—the unusual development of dark color in the skin and fur—is not known to occur in mountain lions, but it has been observed in bobcats, regardless of the assertion made by the witness in his email. The condition is far from common in bobcats, however, and the only known specimens have been found in Florida and New Brunswick, Canada.

Sightings of anomalous big cats, often reported as being black, have been reported extensively around La Crosse and the area west of Baraboo, Wisconsin, as noted in Return to Wildcat Mountain: Wisconsin’s Black Panther Nexus, a documentary—available on Amazon Prime—by noted researcher, investigator, and author Linda Godfrey.

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Reports from the Void is a repository to share those stories for which we do not have enough information to make a full report. This is usually because of little or no communication from the witness following their initial submission. The Singular Fortean Society will always provide as much information as possible regarding any correspondence during our attempts to speak with those involved.

This series is meant only to present you with the full breadth of the information sent to us, and makes no judgments towards the veracity of any stories shared within it.

To report your own encounter with the impossible, reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

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