Are there big cats in Georgia?

ATLANTA, Ga. (CBS46) - Big cat sightings in other states that have been caught on camera have people in Georgia talking.

Some people insist they have seen them here.

J.R. Gill and his wife live in Midway, which is south of Savannah.

Earlier this summer, Gill discovered something had killed two of his cats.

To him, the claw marks and broken screen pointed to one thing.

Gill called it in as a cougar attack and that got everyone a little excited.

The Georgia Department of Natural Resources responded and set up cameras on his property. They later told him they thought a wild dog had killed his cats and not a big cat.

Gill still insists that there are big cats in the region.

A wildlife biologist with the Georgia DNR says there are two kinds of big cats near our state -- Florida panthers and Tennessee mountain lions.

They also said that there were 65 reported big cat sightings last year in the state of Georgia but none of them were confirmed.

The DNR put a similar statement on Facebook last year and it got a lot of backlash.

One person posted an article from 2008 where the DNR confirmed a Florida panther was shot and killed in Troup County near the Alabama border.

The DNR’s website even states in the last 25 years there have only been 3 credible mountain lion sightings in Georgia. The department later edited the post.

On top of that, in 1993 Florida researchers released 19 Florida panthers along the Florida-Georgia border as part of a re-introduction study.

One of those panthers was captured later that year in Statesboro.

Lifelong Liberty County resident Clay Sikes says he’s spotted mountain lions twice.

Sikes runs the page My Georgia Coast.

But, local wildlife experts are skeptical.

Bullock County Humane Enforcement Director Joey Sanders says he’s seen almost everything in his 20-plus years on the job but he’s never seen a big cat.

He thinks people are confusing the smaller, native cats in Georgia such as bobcats for big cats.