Is A Jaguar Running Loose In The Hamptons?

The Hamptons may be well-accustomed to spotting jaguars in the form of luxury sports cars, but swift, four-legged felines?

Patch reports investigators are looking into several reports of a "panther-like" big cat eating vegetables at a farm on 56 Spring Close Lane in East Hampton.

Bill Fonda of the State Department of Environmental Conservation said Matthew Lester reportedly saw "a grayish, cat-looking creature about five feet long and two feet high at the shoulder with a long, striped tail, eating some composted vegetables and meat scraps.” As Lester's car approached, he said the jaguar-like animal fled into the brush.

When officials arrived on the scene however, Fonda says there was no sufficient evidence of such an animal to be found. "There's not sufficient evidence of a cougar, panther, jaguar or similar exotic creature," he said.

Regardless, the DEC will install a camera at the farm in case the supposed jaguar were to be reappear.

No one in the area has a license to own a jaguar.