The second occasion was on the way to work when I saw the cougar/catamount crossing Route 44. In my mind, I went through all the nots. The reasons for this conspiracy vary depending upon whom you talk to, but they coalesce around the idea that wildlife agencies would be inconvenienced by the cougars presence, as theyd be forced to respond in ways that would tax their resources. For instance, a favorite food for deer is the seedlings of forest tree species. Was INCREDIBLE! Lacked, almost any tail at all, for that matter. Mid Vermont Christian School (MVCS) was set to play the Long Tail Mountain Lions last Tuesday before the former decided not to compete based on concerns for player safety and fairness. When that last catamount was killed by a deer hunter, the state was paying a $20 bounty for pelts or carcasses. The Mountain Lions won both regular season margins by 30-plus points. That was plain, right away. But there was certainty, or near-certainty, on the part of the witnesses who, it seemed, would swear to having seen a catamount. Most of those sightings were misidentifications, Doug Blodgett says. Please. Raised them carefully to my eyes. There is a reason that millions of people were afraid to go in the water after they saw the movie Jaws. I had been foraging up in an area that is rocky. Morse is a Vermont-based naturalist and the founder of Keeping Track, a nonprofit that trains people in the scientific protocols needed to detect, interpret, record, and monitor wildlife tracks and signs. my father was recently trout fishing in central Mass. Distinguished by a boxy head, big paws and a VERY long tail. Forty years of reporting on New Hampshire cougar sightings has convinced Harrigan that the state is home to at least a handful of breeding animals. Large swaths of Vermont and nearby states along the Appalachian spine have gone from cleared land back to the kind of second-growth forest that is excellent habitat for deer and, thus, their predators, the most efficiently lethal of which is the mountain lion. It was fast as hell but there was no mistaking its not only long,but THICK tail as it disappeared into the woods. The animal was too small and it lacked the long, sinuous tail of the catamount. Defenders of Wildlife developed funding to support wolf predation on cattle which I believe worked. Mountain Lions have been more prevalent to the west in the last 100 years, but many of the pockets of breeding populations east of the Mississippi River have been wiped out over the decades due to habitat loss and hunting. The last time a mountain lion was captured in New York was in the . Long Trail beat Arlington 62-40 on Feb. 7. An expert said it was probably a basking shark. 104 Williston, VT 05495. Where I live bears, wolves cougars etc roamed freely and now sadly if one of those apex predators is spotted our DNR will usually destroy it. The Christian school also dropped out of the state . We need [an apex] predator back on the land, Sue Morse told me. His Tail was very long almost touching the ground and as thick as velvet rope. My encounter was in Middlesex, VT along the river road (Route 2) just below I89. Typical species behavior is for males to disperse from an area when the population reaches the carrying capacity of the habitat. Lizzie Post Would Like Your Attention. In their estimation, the presence of a breeding cougar population in New England would likely stem from our proximity to Canada, where, as they rightly point out, DNA analysis has resulted in 19 positive identifications across Quebec and New Brunswick since 2001 (although some of these were shown to be of South American lineage, suggesting escaped pets). Refuge volunteer Dale Erz originally. I was curious enough at the time to do a little research. Until 2011, that question rested upon a hypothetical. When a cats around, its not hard to find evidence. Tried to see "mountain lion" and agree that what appears to be a long tail is most likely the . When I came out, the cat appeared in front of me coming up a rise (incredibly close to some ski condos). Not a bobcat 100% mountain lion and anybody that tries to think a bobcat as any resemblance to a mountain lion clearly has no idea about wildlife there are a lot of false reports because of this however they are without a doubt in part of New England and fish and game has as usual covered up despite coming out and following mountain lion tracks in the snow through the woods in Central Mass and finding a deer carcass 20 feet up in a tree and said to the landowner yep you probably have a mountain lion passing through and asked for the homeowner not to speak much about it furthermore DNA confirmation of a horse that was attacked in Petersham Massachusetts in the last several years and also the Quabbin Reservoir DNA were mountain lion without a doubt they are here. Around 7:10 pm this evening August 02, 2022 my wife entered our Oakwood Farm business off 6 Weed Road in Essex Center with headlights on. Still, there is no saying that it will not happen. This, said Vermont Fish and Wildlife fur-bearer project leader Chris Bernier, is why he takes reports of mountain lion sightings seriously. The habitat is certainly right, with so many farms having gone by and so much formerly cleared land returning to second growth forest and with the populations of prey species suchas deer and porcupines having reached abundant proportions. Mountain lions are large, tan cats. Growing up in northern Vermont, Id heard stories of sightings, though always a few steps removed from the tellersomebodys cousin had seen a cougar cross the road on their way home from deer camp up in Canaan (or was it Coventry? It can run 50 miles an hour and clear a twelve-foot fence. Vermont Mountain Lion Sightings. And, he says, if they were here, wouldnt one have been killed on one of the states highways where cars and trucks travel some 9 million miles every year? In Vermont, in the late 19th century, this meant, especially, sheep. Of course. I was outdoor with my two pugs and quickly scooped them up and brought them in the house. So I asked him about the catamount and if the animal in Connecticut was some sort of advance scout for a coming wave of resident lions. Photos of the cat did nothing to convince DEEP the cat was here. But perhaps an even larger portion is the product of his enduring faith in the men and womanloggers, hunters, trapperswhose vocations and avocations have instilled in them a deep familiarity with wild places and the creatures who inhabit them. These things happen suddenly and they are over quickly. Vermont offers plenty of habitat in which mountain lions could thrive. The mountain lion is also known as cougar, panther, or puma. These were old growth woods and the canopy had kept the ground cover down, so I could see three or four hundred yards ahead of me but not clearly, because of the gloom. Its not a bear, not a dog, not a deer, not a bobcat. With the price off its head, the lion gained new stature, and in July 1965 . All with eyes to see and spring loaded to see something. The scientific name for the catamount is Puma concolor. Experts need to see the body to dismiss their prejudices. I go out into the woods on the opening day of deer season every year and a lot of other Vermonters are out there with me. Morse has been tracking cougars for 45 years, mostly in the mountains of the West, where their existence is not in doubt. Blodgett and I were returning from a day spent looking forand finding timber rattlesnakes, a species that is endangered in Vermont. Or, if it does, when that will be. The tail, I said. Recall a few years back, a guy in a kayak off Horseneck Beach in Westport, MA, was tracked by a large fin. Yet dozens of. 8 Arlington (9-10) and No. All those deer hunters represent a kind of ad hoc search party. o" which translates to " the mountain like a seat." Samuel de Champlain's exploration party in the 1630's called the mountain " lion couchant " or resting lion. It had moved a little and was standing unconcealed, now, in the middle of the logging road. But it is also true that there is something different and especially chilling about the threat of being attacked by something that is alive and wants to devour you. But I dont think it will happen any time soon.. As livestock farming came to dominate the landscape, pressure on the big cats slowly mounted on two fronts: The number of farmers wanting them dead was increasing, while the rapid transition from forest to farmland meant their habitat was shrinking. Threat of Being Attacked (The cat I saw when I was a young boy was on the Gulf Coast.). Im gonna get hammered for it, he sighed. They knew what they were doing, Blodgett says. There was one photographed on a porch in Greenwich, CT, looking in the patio window that made national news a decade ago. But never a catamount. I could hear the steady rush of traffic on Route 315. Blodgett did on-site investigations of these, in what became a predictably futile search for the sign he had learned, out west, to look for. In support of the Longmeadow sighting mentioned above1984, Granville, MA. I think of Aldo Leopolds Thinking Like a Mountain essay about how deer decimated the forests and died of starvation because of humans incessant desire to kill. And, then, some species didnt need any help from humans but managed to extend their range into now-recovered and suitable habitats. This animal was too long in the body and blunt in the head. And the clincher, What would you say was the most distinguishing feature? Actually, Blodgett says, something of the opposite was true. You could have 50. The debate rages in Maine, where the last confirmed cougar kill occurred in 1938, and in New Hampshire, where the last confirmed kill was in 1885. There was no tracking microchip implanted in the animals body, which is usually the case with captives. The catamount is a creature of stealth and concealment; it stalks its prey, which on the EasternSeaboard would likely be deer, moose, porcupines, beavers, and domestic livestock. Provided by Touchpoints The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. When he suggested we retrace our route, past lion, to see a sow bear with cubs, we headed in the opposite direction. And so when they come to him with a sighting, hes prepared to believe. I was aware, too, of how a certain mythology surrounding the animal had taken root in Vermonts culture and even its identity: The University of Vermonts athletic teams, for instance, are known as the Vermont Catamounts, and their logo features a snarling cat lunging through the cleft of a V.. Now that USFW has declared them extinct, why not formally reintroduce them. Probably are lions in western NC, too. In fact, jaguars used to be native to south Texas, as well! Respect predators, protect them but dont worship or try to hug them! Anyway I got to see that set of eyes way closer than I ever wanted, by the time my hand got on my pistol she was gone. Face to face, maybe, with a sure enough catamount. It had traveled, certainly, though Minnesota and Wisconsin and, who knows, perhaps even Vermont and might, then, have accounted for some of those sightings. There was, in California last year, a case of a mountain lion seriously injuring a six-year old who was walking a trail in Silicon Valley country. I must have looked doubtfulwe were within spitting distance of a heavily trafficked road and only 12 miles from downtown Hartfordbut both Ottmann and Betty told me that cougars actually prefer more populated areas, since thats where deer tend to congregate. Feb 28, 2023 4:00 am By Robert Spencer 1 Comment. Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. Some might mistake the bobcat, which still lives in New England, for a cougareven though its tail is about 6 inches long andthe bigger cats is 3 feet or more. Its range was once similarly vast; from the high north regions of the Yukon to the Straits of Magellan. Although the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared the . I started asking a lot of questions, and realized theres only one explanation for the answers I was getting: They are here., You could have 30 in Connecticut alone. I was tracking some deer tracks and I came to a promising deer run with a lot of deer scat on the ground when I noticed a cat track amongst the sign. Several years ago, I was bicycling with a buddy up Quabbin Reservoirs Administration Rd. My own inclination, for the little it matters, is to side with the professionals like Blodgett. Two mountain lion encounters in his driveway. There are many officials in denial up here, but we know what we saw and there are too many sightings by the local folks to be ignored. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. They set the stage for the exotics to move in, and this has a huge impact on our ecology, he said. The animal was shot in the town of Barnard on Thanksgiving Day 1881 by a man named Alexander Crowell. The police and everyone else just shook their heads but she to her dying breath said she saw a mountain lion in Lexington MA. Interesting article, but it is really incomplete without a discussion of the legal implications of having a confirmed endangered species such as the Eastern Cougar in New England. My daughter said to me thats the biggest cat Ive ever seen. In 1994, scat collected after a sighting in Craftsbury, Vermont, was found to contain cougar hair (the animals are prone to ingesting their hair while grooming), and the commissioner of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department circulated a memo with the following line: Harrigans interest in cougars was sparked in the late 70s, after he took ownership of, Perhaps, then, the ultimate question isnt whether cougars are among us, but rather how we can encourage them to settle here, After 20 minutes or so, we turned and stumbled our way back to the parking lot. Mr. Betty and Mr.Ottomans passion and efforts are impressive. We really must establish first that these beautiful animals SHOULD be in every state that was once THEIR habitat. He set down his cigarette and looked me in the eye. One summer I saw what I assumed was the same cougar several different times in my neighborhood which was near a long strip of woods along I 91 and used to be a large open field across the road from our home. By mid-19th century, forests made up only about 30 percent of New England (its notable that today that number stands at approximately 80 percent, nearer to what it was when cougars thrived here). Adult males may be more than 8 feet long (from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail), and can weigh between 130 and 150 pounds. Saw one on old mountain rd Peterborough N.H. a few years ago on my property followed it and ran to get my camera have a photo but in distance by time got it was amazing animal t Metcalf. This was as clear as day had a long tail and long body I was thinking someones pet was on the loose or escaped form a zoo !! Many on both sides of the cougar debate beileve that New Englands natural habitat would benefit from having an apex predator in the ecosystem again. Anticipating, perhaps, a moment like this. And it was this curiosity that led me to the Old Well Tavern in Simsbury, Connecticut, at a time of day (11:30 a.m.) that does not normally find me ensconced in the dim confines of a drinking establishment. Long Trail Mountain Lion roster: Myra Aldanondo, Olivia Cole-Bugay, Liz Daara, Rose Johnson, Aubrey Lanning, Molly Luikart, Camilla Marcy, Meara Morgan, Harlow Quail, . As I turned a corner going north toward Waterbury, I saw the cat come up from the cornfield, saunter across the highway, turn and look in my direction and then amble off into the brush. But that was OK. Bo Ottmann knew they were out there. I lived in Woodstock, CT in 2005/2006. There was no mistake. A hard-to-spot mountain lion patiently waits for the right moment to attack an elk feeding in a gully at the Rio Mora National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico in a photo posted by the refuge . You need to understand that every biologist that works for the state has a duty to deny mountain lions. Fear is actually one of the most powerful ecological forces we know, and its a really important management tool., According to Laundre, the problems caused by a relatively fear-free ecosystem are not always obvious, in part because they can take decades to fully manifest. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! COLCHESTER, Vt. Catamounts are. We were talking about those animals, like coyotes and turkeys, that have re-established themselves in Vermont and, unlike the rattlers, are thriving. It was his great coolness and daring (either that, or fear) that enabled Crowell to shoot the animal at a distance of one rod only (roughly 16 feet), first hitting it in the leg with his shotgun, then dispatching it with a bullet to the head from a borrowed rifle. Its distinctive featurethe one that sets it apart from other North American wild catsis its tail, which is thick and often as long as its body. Clearly, Puma concolor once inhabited the forests of the Northeast, although its difficult to say in what numbers. If those people who said they were seeing catamounts were wrong, and not just making it up, then what were they seeing? There were caribou antlers mounted above the front doors, and the interior walls were covered in row upon row of books; a long table was piled high with still more books in seemingly random arrangements. I kept trying to make it be something else because I was shocked that I was, indeed, watching a mountain lion pass in front of me. They have a right to exist here and they contribute to healthier prey species. Well, I KNOW there was at least one mountain lion in NE because years ago (maybe 35 or so) I lived in Longmeadow, MA. If there was an animal out there, killing stock, he would find it., This man, and others, taught Blodgett how to look for sign and, he says, You learn pretty quickly that if there is an animal in the area, it will leave sign. For several years, Blodgett, a wildlife biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife, conducted those follow up investigations. Probably because of all the hunters that would be out trying to get their trophy and endangering others. A far less likelyenvironment for finding a mountain lion than just about anywhere in Vermont. My parents friend in Deposit, NY, posted a young catamount sitting on the front porch on Facebook. He says that if mountain lions do . My stepfather had been a hunter and was no stranger to seeing animals in the woods and countryside, so when they came up over a knoll in the road and saw a large cat looking at them, he saw the face and thought, bobcatuntil they then saw the rest of the animals body: huge, beautifully tawny colored, and in possession of what my mother described as a very long tail, that was as thick as my wrist. Betty, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the process. With all the thousands of trail cameras in the woods of New England, one would think that there would be at least one picture taken of a catamount. But that was OK. Bo Ottmann, A Lobster Trap Menorah Shines in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Chips Off the Old Block | Knowledge & Wisdom, Yankee Candle | New England by the Numbers, First Christmas | Krissy OSheas Scandinavian-Inspired Holiday Cottage, The Sweet Life | Holiday Baking with Dorie Greenspan, 2019 Yankee Magazine Editors Choice Food Awards, In the Kitchen at Mayfair Farm | Weekends with Yankee. But there was not enough evidence to either prove or disprove that a mountain lion had done the killing. In Vermont, the last known mountain lion was shot near Barnard in 1881, ending an era when the predators were such a nuisance that the state offered a $20 bounty per pelt. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding woods. Some of them, he says, we could close the books on pretty quickly. I reported it to Connecticut DEEP, only to be told there are no cougars in Connecticut. Perfect conditions, then, for thinking you saw something. And consider, for a moment, the concern and outright fear an official acknowledgment of such a carnivorous and predatory creature might evoke. 9 Grace Christian (9-11). Our county. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. Interesting how tree stumps or boulders assume the shape of an animal in this kind of light. THAT is a mountain lion! If he was not determined to prove that someone had actually seen a mountain lion in Vermonthe is a scientist, after allhe was still excited by the possibility. I will never forget what I saw! My neighbors have seen several over the last 15-20 years. They were inevitably fleeting. People clearly arent lying when they say they saw a cougar; [the sighting] has a profound effect on them.. Much as I liked Ottmann and Betty, and much as I found some of their evidence compelling, I was struggling to reconcile their more provocative claims with the restraint expressed by the many other experts Id spoken with. The truth is, I was by this point dubious. Betty folded his arms across his chest, where they rose and fell and rose again with his breathing. I did call in a report to CT DEP and they basically dismissed my narrative questioning whether I made a mistake confusing the animal I saw with a bobcat or fisher cat. Americans called the mountain " Tah-wak-be-dee-ee-wads. We also had bobcats that we saw quite often but I am positive that these were mountain lions! I saw one about 10 years ago, on our road. The cat is dead. They are most definitely here. Still, I wanted to believe those sightings were real. I saw a Mountain Lion in 2007 in Northfield, MA at the junctions of Rtes 10 and 63. It was his great coolness and daring (either that, or fear) that enabled Crowell to shoot the animal at a distance of one rod only (roughly 16 feet), first hitting it in the leg with his shotgun, then dispatching it with a bullet to the head from a borrowed rifle. Its OK, he told me. And some people might decide to release them into the wild rather than keeping them in their possession. This isnt to say she believes none of these animals has stepped foot on New England soil over the past century. Black markings decorate the tip of the tail, ears, and around the snout. He worked, in Wyoming and Arizona, with other professionals, some with government agencies, like the one he works for, and others who were hunters and trappers, often employed by ranchers who had lost stock to mountain lions. Nostalgia for the Wild My assumption is it was the same animal. Not a bobcat or a coyote or a fisher or anything else that might be mistaken for a mountain lion. Phone: . The animal that was killed in Connecticut proved that. And so we come to the great divide over cougars in New England. If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. I do this shit.. I moved very carefully to get my hand in my pocket and my fingers around the glasses. I live in New Milford and I saw one crossing the road in front of me when I stopped to get my mail from my mailbox. Obviously, this is the reason why the experts are loathe to admit that the species is here. In the few seconds that this took, I had convinced myself that I was looking at a mountain lion. But the landowners were excited enough by the possibility that, persuaded by Blodgett, they bought a trail camera and set it up on the site. Green Mountain Lion Corp #256 34 Blair Park Road Ste. 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