JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. — Legend says that if you’re in the forests of Appalachia late at night, watch out for the Wampus Cat.
“It sounds like every boogeyman story we've ever heard," East Tennessee State University Appalachian Studies graduate student Jeremy Dubhros said.
The Wampus Cat is described as a living shadow.
"They would talk about the green eyes of the cat that shined at night. Some people talk about Wampus Cat having six legs, and having a retractable claw that could catch birds out of the sky,” Dubrhos said.
These creatures would swiftly and quietly demolish everything in their path. “It becomes even more dramatic if you go out and your livestock is torn apart. There are newspaper accounts of Wampus Cat tearing apart livestock,” Dubrhos said.
The legend of the Wampus Cat has been around for centuries, but did it ever exist?
“It's perfectly the description of a puma or a panther. I'm very much convinced that what they're describing is the Eastern Cougar, which just went extinct in 2011, 2010,” Dubhros said.
Although there were similar stories told by the Native Americans of Appalachia, it was those who immigrated here that began the legend.
“Wampus Cat, as we know it, couldn't have existed without some of the settlers coming into the area,” Dubrhos said. "Appalachia is rife with stories, but it's because you have so many different cultures coming in and stories being shared between people, and those stories got brought together and that's really the fabric of Appalachia when you look at it.”