When deciding what wild cat species live in the US state of Louisiana, the best source of information will be the geographic range maps on the IUCN Red website, which are reproduced on PoC. The only possible wild cat species in this state are the puma, bobcat, jaguarundi and ocelot.
The bobcat is ubiquitous throughout the USA so the bobcat can be found in Louisiana. Officially, the Puma’s range extends east as far as Texas but not as far as Louisiana. Therefore, the puma (cougar or mountain lion) should not be seen in Louisiana. However, some wandering young males might enter the state looking for a home range.
As for the jaguarundi and ocelot, you can bracket these together as their geographic range extends as far north as Mexico (jaguarundi range – ocelot range). They do not exist, according to the experts, in Louisiana.
That said there may be some in the state and some might have escaped from a private zoo. That’s it really. There is nothing much more to say. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries don’t appear to tell us what wild cat species are in their state but the answer is straightforward. If a visitor to this page has seen any of these cats it would be nice if you could leave a message. All four species are discussed in detail on this website. Please use the search box or go to this page to start.
Thanks for commenting. The thing is, Jan, there are no leopards in North America. If there are leopards then they’ve escaped from a zoo either private or public. It is more likely to have been a bobcat but of course they are much smaller than leopards. The bobcats can have spots on their coat. However, you probably would have noticed the tail. I have just seen by the way that you have written “without the whole tail”. This would seem to confirm that you have spotted a bobcat. Well done. And thanks once again for sharing.
I live in allen parish in between oberlin and Elton. I saw a large cat, as long as my toyota tundra grill without the whole tail…..big cat. In the headlights it looked black but when I looked at it in full moonlight out my door window it was leap ord spotted . My dog had been missing for a few days. I looked up in encyclopedia cats indiginous to here and it said black leopard and it’s favorite meal is dog which will be taken up a tree sometimes 12 ft and will be eaten there. No sign of kill nor blood. This cat most probably ate my dog.
In my opinion, you are almost certainly referring to the fisher cat, which is not a cat at all but it looks like a cat. They have a very noticeable and pronounced scream. They’re famous for it. Click on the link to read about this animal:
https://pictures-of-cats.org/fisher-cat-sounds.html
We live in Washington parish just outside franklinton. My dad and grandpa tell stories even recently that they’ve seen large black cats smaller than a mountain lion about afoot or two tall solid black with long tails that curl at the end. Tail longer than the body of the cat and the cats make a scream like a woman in extreme pain. We call them pumas but I have no idea what it actually is. Nobody outside Washington parish seems to know.
Thank you Mary for reporting this sighting. I’m pleased that your husband just scared him away. That was a good idea. Pumas are quite retiring. They don’t voluntarily wish to attack people. They only attack when it is a necessity. There are very very few attacks on people by cougars in the USA. They are extremely rare and normally on children. Domestic dogs are far far more dangerous!
I live in Sun, LA (just south of Bogalusa) My husband went to see if our chickens were up in their house so he could lock it for the night. He saw a cougar based on his description I looked at photos I think he is right. This cougar was slowly creeping towards one of my hens. My poor little rooster didn’t even notice! (that’s his job to notice Haha) My husband grabbed the shot gun just shot it into the ground cause he didn’t want to kill it just scare it off, it worked. I just pray it doesn’t come back.