The cat of many colours or Tennessee multicoloured cat was a cryptid big cat reported from Tennessee's Jackson County, in the United States, once in about 1996. It was supposedly shot by a group of hunters, who did not report it out of fear of being imprisoned, instead skinning the carcass and hiding the pelt in a basement.[1]
Details of the incident eventually reached the public, and a Bryan Long claimed to have seen a photograph of the cat, which he described as cheetah-shaped, with "a golden-brown body patterned with black striped and spots," "a blood-red head and paws," and "a red line running from the back of its head to its tail (which was also red)". The photograph was later sold to a biology student, and its current whereabouts are unknown.[1]
It has been suggested that the cat may have been a jaguar (Panthera onca) or a jaguarundi (Felis yagouaroundi), but Karl Shuker notes that neither cat makes a very good identity: the jaguar has no red colouration, and the jaguarundi is red all over. Shuker suggests that perhaps the red colouration of the cat of many colours was simply dried blood.[1]
Similar cryptids[]
Another rainbow-striped cat with a speckled body, the tshenkutshen, is reported from the montane forests of Ecuador.
Notes and references[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Shuker, Karl P. N. (2010) Karl Shuker's Alien Zoo: From the Pages of Fortean Times, CFZ Press, ISBN 978-1-905723-62-1