Wild Cats

Wild Cats in Louisiana: Bobcat, Cougar and What You Saw

One cat lives here, one keeps being photographed, and one keeps being reported at dusk. Louisiana's wild cats, sorted out by the state agency that tracks them.

By Cat Cafe Central Editorial DeskUpdated 2026-10-218 min read
A bobcat resting on sandy ground beside a track, its short bobbed tail visible

Photo: Craig ONeal / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Quick Answer

Louisiana has one resident wild cat: the bobcat (Lynx rufus). The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries lists the bobcat as one of the state's 12 furbearers and describes it as widespread across Louisiana, from heavily forested uplands to swamps and bottomland hardwoods. The cougar (Puma concolor) is the second cat in the conversation, but LDWF has concluded that Louisiana does not have an established, breeding population of cougars: the animals photographed here are dispersing individuals, most likely young males walking in from an expanding Texas population.

  • Cat on a logging road or in a cane field, 15–20 lb, short tail: a bobcat, the cat you almost certainly saw.
  • Long-tailed, tawny, 80–150 lb, seen once and never again: a dispersing cougar — rare, protected, and illegal to kill.
  • Reporting one: LDWF wants photographs, tracks and scat for cougar reports, and it manages bobcats through the furbearer season that runs November 20 to March 31.

Which Wild Cats Live in Louisiana?

Search “wild cats in Louisiana” and you get three different questions mixed together: what actually lives here, what people keep reporting, and what the law allows. The short version is that Louisiana is bobcat country, with a long-tailed ghost passing through.

SpeciesScientific nameStatus in LouisianaSizeWhere
BobcatLynx rufusResident, widespread, classified as a furbearer15–20 lb; 25–30 in long, with a tail of about 6 inHeavily forested areas, swamps and bottomland hardwoods statewide
Cougar (mountain lion, panther, puma)Puma concolorNo breeding population; dispersing animals only; protectedRoughly 80–150 lb, with a long tail more than a third of total lengthAnywhere a young male wanders, most often big timber and deer country
Domestic catFelis catusOwned, stray and feral8–12 lbTowns, farms, camps and yards everywhere

The naming is the first thing to fix. “Panther”, “cougar”, “puma” and “mountain lion” are four names for one animal, and a black one has never been documented anywhere in North America — LDWF says so directly, and notes that the only big cats that occur as black are the jaguar and the leopard, neither of which lives wild in Louisiana. A black “panther” report is almost always a dark-phase bobcat, a large house cat, or a dog.

The Bobcat: Louisiana's Resident Wild Cat

The bobcat is a little larger than a big domestic cat, and it is built for exactly the habitat Louisiana has plenty of: LDWF describes it as living in heavily forested areas, swamps and bottomland hardwoods, with dens in thick vegetation. It climbs well, it is curious, and it is far more common than the number of people who have seen one suggests.

Bobcat detailWhat LDWF's bobcat fact sheet documents
SizeAverage adult length 25–30 inches, tail about 6 inches; weight 15–20 pounds — a bit larger than a large domestic cat
CoatReddish or yellowish brown, streaked and spotted with black
DietRabbits, mice, rats, squirrels, small birds and young livestock; able to take down animals several times its size, and a natural check on rabbit populations
DenThick vegetation — the brushy, tangled cover that Louisiana bottomlands produce in quantity
BreedingMid to late winter; litter of two to three young after a 62-day gestation
VocalBobcats wail and scream during the breeding season — the night sound people most often attribute to a cougar
PressuresJuveniles may fall to male bobcats, coyotes, eagles and fishers; the species is vulnerable to rabies, feline distemper, mange, tapeworms, lice and plague

Two details matter for anyone keeping poultry or small stock. LDWF's fact sheet lists young livestock in the diet — a bobcat will take a chicken, and it can take an animal several times its own size. The same sheet lists rabies and feline distemper among the diseases bobcats are vulnerable to, which is why an oddly behaving bobcat is a public-health question rather than a wildlife-watching one.

The Cougar Question

Louisiana gets cougar reports every year, and LDWF has investigated them seriously enough to publish a running record. In December 2016 the department verified a trail-camera photograph taken in northeast Louisiana on November 23 of that year. That animal was never confirmed as wild or as an escaped captive — and LDWF's large-carnivore programme manager noted that a dispersing cougar is unlikely to stay in one place longer than it takes to eat a kill.

The documented record before that sighting is thin and specific:

  • 2002: a sighting by a Lake Fausse Point State Park employee, later confirmed by DNA from scat found at the site.
  • 2008: three confirmed trail-camera photographs in Allen, Vernon and Winn parishes.
  • 30 November 2008: a cougar shot by Bossier City police in a neighbourhood; DNA showed it came from a New Mexico population.
  • August 2011: another confirmed trail-camera photograph in Vernon Parish.
A tawny cougar standing in dense green forest understory, head turned toward the camera
Photo: Miguelrangeljr / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)

LDWF's conclusion is the part worth quoting, because it settles most arguments: with no tracks, cached deer kills, scat or road-kill to examine, the department has concluded that Louisiana does not have an established, breeding population of cougars, and that recent sightings are most likely animals dispersing from Texas. Young males are the ones that travel — they leave their birth area and can cover hundreds of miles looking for a territory of their own. A cougar in Louisiana is therefore a visitor, not a resident, which is exactly why every photograph matters.

The legal side is unusually blunt. It is illegal to own a cougar in Louisiana, cougars are protected under state and federal law, and it is illegal to kill one. Penalties can reach up to a year in jail and a $100,000 fine. If you have photographs, tracks or scat, that is the evidence LDWF asks for — dog tracks are the single most common item submitted by people reporting a cougar, followed by bobcat and house-cat sightings at a distance or in tricky light.

Telling a Bobcat, a Cougar and a House Cat Apart

Most “cougar” reports resolve at the tail. A cougar's tail is long, thick and roughly a third of the animal's total length; a bobcat's tail is a stubby 6 inches with a black top and a white underside. Everything else is scale and coat.

FeatureBobcatCougarDomestic cat
TailAbout 6 in, “bobbed”, black on top and whitish belowLong, thick, more than a third of total length, dark tipLong and thin, varies with breed
Build and weight15–20 lb; 25–30 in80–150 lb; tall at the shoulder8–12 lb
CoatReddish or yellowish brown, streaked and spotted with black; ear tufts and cheek ruffsPlain tawny, no spots at any ageAny colour or pattern; kittens are spotted
HeadSmall, tufted ears, prominent cheek ruffsBroad head, small rounded ears, no tuftsProportionally larger head, no tufts
TrackRound, clawless, roughly 2 in acrossRound, clawless, 3–5 in acrossSmall, clawless, under 1.5 in

Distance ruins all of this: a bobcat crossing a field at 80 yards at dusk has the silhouette people expect from a cougar, which is why LDWF asks for physical evidence rather than descriptions.

Seasons, Licences and the Furbearer Rules

Bobcats are managed as a furbearer, which means the calendar is set and the paperwork is real. LDWF classifies 12 animals as furbearers — beaver, bobcat, coyote, gray fox, mink, muskrat, nutria, opossum, river otter, red fox, raccoon and skunk — and the trapping season runs November 20 through March 31 each year.

RuleWhat LDWF publishes
Furbearer list12 species: beaver, bobcat, coyote, gray fox, mink, muskrat, nutria, opossum, river otter, red fox, raccoon, skunk
Trapping seasonNovember 20 – March 31 each year
Hunting outside the trapping seasonLegal for properly licensed hunters to take some furbearers, including bobcat, raccoon, opossum and nutria
CougarProtected under state and federal law; illegal to kill or to keep as a pet; penalties up to a year in jail and/or a $100,000 fine
LicencesTrapping and hunting licences, permits and tags are issued by LDWF and must be carried while trapping or selling pelts or carcasses

House cats are the exception that catches people out. A large, dark tabby with a thick tail, seen at dusk from a moving truck, is the single most common source of “panther” reports in the state — and it is also the animal most at risk from the real bobcat in the area. Our guide to cat-proofing a home covers the outdoor-access question, and the territory entry explains why a bobcat that lives behind a subdivision keeps using the same trails.

Living With Them

Bobcats rarely cause trouble, and the fixes are ordinary: secure coop roofs rather than open runs, feed pets indoors, and leave no carcasses or pet food out overnight. A bobcat that has learned where the chickens are will come back, and the answer is a roofed enclosure in heavy-gauge wire.

With cougars the advice is simpler because the animals are so rare: report, photograph, and leave it alone. Do not follow or corner one. LDWF's position is that these are dispersing animals passing through, and a cougar that is left alone keeps moving.

For the domestic side — keeping a house cat safe outdoors and out of the small-predator role — the indoor enrichment planner and the enrichment basics guide are the practical route. The Florida, Georgia and South Carolina guides answer the same question with their own agencies' numbers.

Trusted Sources

Every figure above comes from the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries' own published material, fetched live for this guide:

The wild cats hub collects every state guide, and the Arizona page is the closest match if you want to compare how a western state manages mountain lions with a real harvest system rather than a sighting log.