People will believe what ever their told until one bites them on their asses but in reality until the see one themselves the fact that people have no reason to really lie about it however we always have the attention seekers but the likey hood of them either residing or passing thru the wilderness and terrain of old mines and caves and food source leans in favor of at least a small population I personally don't believe the news story of the last one killed back in the day reported they can't confirm it for sure the fact they are mainly nocternial and very elusive is why more are not seen and the biggest factor is my mother's and family eyewitness sightings of some large breed of Black Panthers living near their homes and always thought very interesting with accounts very similar when I asked each family member in separate occasions similar accounts and separate sightings and and shared sightings as a group when living together as teens and order adults always seemed like a camp fire story in the recesses of my mind as a child until hearing the same detailed stories as a adult and why would the have reason to lie about it and the truth awaking factor is when I had a encounter as a young adult still living at home one evening hearing are dogs baying and chasing something out of the woods towards me and seen a black there to four feet long black cat coming towards me and stopped and change direction and jumped at least ten to fifteen feet into a huge black walnut tree to my right and failing to grip the tree clawing jumped down and run back up into the woods with the dogs hot on it's trail and the claw marks seen by several people as evidence I wasn't drunk or high or lying and the sad fact we found one of our missing dogs in the same area in the woods with a broken neck and bite marks that some say was a known black bear in the area as the culprit.