Report 24997: Hiker has nighttime sighting near Carlyle

While strolling through the timber on a warm fall night, I came up the slight incline from the river bank and heard a scream coming from due east. My immediate thought with respect to the sound was that it was a bobcat. I froze in my tracks and looked toward the sound in time to see whatever it was jump from about 6 or 8 feet up in a tree to the ground. It landed on its hind legs, took 3 or 4 steps, then went to all fours and ran faster than I have ever seen anything run into the treeline. When I saw that it was completely gone, I ran as fast as I could perpendicularly to the highway.