A black panther!

Lab? No Yote, No Panther, and not a duck billed platypus either.

its that black panther every one talks about

You did not leave enough of a choice IMO.. It simply is a black fox..the black color phase of a red fox..

Black German Shepard. Is he yours?

I'm going to have to guess a dog.

A few years ago i had a hound dog that got jumped by a pack of yotes.I heard him yelping like crazy so i grabbed my quad runner and rifle and headed toward the sounds,as i got to him their were 4 regular colored yotes and a jet black one circling my hound,i shot at them and scared them off,but i still couldnt believe one was black,looked like the one on pic,very rare as that was the only one in my life ive seen.

Based on it's size in comparison to the branches, leaves, etc & the size of it's tail and so on, I would say that;s it just a large black cat....

Not sure about all the other guesses but I have been up close and personal with a very young and thin black bear that vaguely resembles that shape. The tan around the nose area looks very similar to the young bear I saw, and the one I saw was only slightly larger than this animal.

Its hard to tell from the camera shot, but small black bears are this thin, depending on whats around to eat, but my opinion is a very young, not a cub, black bear. The only thing Im basing it on is the tan around the snout.

Could be just about anything due to the array of critters, and species of animals in the wild, but panther, yote, and others could very well be true, but from my VERY vivid memory of my run in with a black bear last year, its not far off, but this is my opinion only!

Im gonna go with dog.