Harrigan nodded. I just heard from a fellow college student of a siting in Greenfield last fall and two in Colrain this spring. It continues in Connecticut, where that South Dakota cat was killed in 2011, and in Massachusetts, despite two credible reports in the past quarter century (in one case, DNA-confirmed scat; in the other, verified tracks). A mountain lion was responsible for that too. In the first, there are those such as myself, whove maybe heard a few second- or third- or fourth-hand stories as well as official denials from state agencies or professional biologists, and therefore find themselves betwixt and between, neither believing nor disbelieving. The police and everyone else just shook their heads but she to her dying breath said she saw a mountain lion in Lexington MA. It is healthy to have respect and caution, but fear shouldnt drive ecological decision making. There was one photographed on a porch in Greenwich, CT, looking in the patio window that made national news a decade ago. But other hard evidence of the big cats presence is elusive. Using DNA and physical evidence, state environmental officials said they determined that the animal likely trekked more than 1,500 miles from South Dakota, a journey that was captured by trail camera (above). I was driving to work in Greenfield heading south on 10 and had just taken a right hand turn at the junction when the big cat crossed the road in front of me. 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. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. Thats a reasonable assertion. One wonders just how tolerant Vermonters would be of a healthy population of mountain lions after one attacked a child waiting for the school bus. They have a right to exist here and they contribute to healthier prey species. 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. We need cougars and we need wolves back in the Northeast, because a landscape of fear is a well-balanced landscape.. Several years ago, I was bicycling with a buddy up Quabbin Reservoirs Administration Rd. It was huge! 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. When I shared their story with the staff at the center where my sister lived, I expected surprise and interested. Vermont Mountain Lion Sightings. So if coyotes could return and establish robust populations, why not a few catamounts? The guide told him earlier in the summer he and a couple clients had watched a moutain lion come down to the bank of the Deerfield River just upstream and take a small deer, fawn, drag it into the woods and it kill it, they could hear the screams of the deer as the cougar finished the job. Mountain lions are around 4 feet long with a two-and-a-half foot tail and can stand 24-30 inches tall at the shoulder. 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. I went back and told the tale to anyone who would listen. Honestly, leaving this out of your article would seem to perpetuate the notion that there is a conspiracy to keep us all in ignorance. Then, follow-up DNA researchmatching samples from the carcass with those from scat and hair collected in other locationsestablished that the animal had come to Connecticut from the Black Hills of North Dakota. I think I may have pissed her off since I was up in that area X2 this week. Bill and I are full-throttle. My own inclination, for the little it matters, is to side with the professionals like Blodgett. This is a site for people to discuss mountain lion sightings in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. Height. But my eyes picked up something and I knew, right away, that it was alive. He didn't want to dispute what people are saying they saw, he simply says they need proof to substantiate it. Geoffrey Norman is a Dorset author and a frequent contributor to Stratton Magazine. Im gonna get hammered for it, he sighed. Jason. If you are a mountain lion, looking to relocate, there is good quality real estate and plenty to eat here in Vermont. This isnt to say she believes none of these animals has stepped foot on New England soil over the past century. What time of day was it? 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. Lacked, almost any tail at all, for that matter. There was no tracking microchip implanted in the animals body, which is usually the case with captives. If these animals are not in the habitat, what we see is an overabundance of herbivores., The ecologist John Laundre, who has spent 35 years studying cougars, concurs. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. Within six weeks, he continued, I was getting off the plane in Jackson Hole for a national mountain lion conference. But, I think with education and planning, we should reintroduce wolves and cougar in the Northeast. There is a reason that millions of people were afraid to go in the water after they saw the movie Jaws. 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). So yes they are here and not to sure why they dont admit to them being around ! Videos. Chance of snow 90%. By now, I knew the answer to that one. What color was it? Several years ago, I saw what was definitely a cougar walking along a street. 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. We have a lot of them here in N CA. The first time was in the yard which was surrounded by woods. A wildlife camera snapped the image in late 2019 and the refuge shared it on Facebook this month, challenging followers to find the hidden mountain lion. Adult males can be around 8 feet in length and weigh between 130 and 150 pounds, while adult females can be 7 feet long and weigh between 65 and 90 pounds. Ive seen tracks (Downeast Maine) and others have seen them, plain as day. It has, in fact, more names than any animal in the world. I saw one about 10 years ago, on our road. In 2011, the U.S. If you dont think cougars are coming to the East, think again, she said, leaning forward for emphasis. The key to Morses assertion can be found in the term breeding population. Although the fact that cougars have traveled through New England is irrefutable (a DNA-confirmed roadkill is hard to deny), Morse believes its unlikely that they have settled here and created a self-sustaining population. We think theyre coming in from Canada, Betty told me. We strolled across the tavern parking lot and ducked into the forest, where Ottmann maintains a portion of his $15,000 worth of wildlife recording equipment (hes had no luck capturing a cougar on camera, though, despite more than a decade of trying). In the few seconds that this took, I had convinced myself that I was looking at a mountain lion. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. 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. My neighbors have seen several over the last 15-20 years. I wasnt planning to shoot her unless she moved in my direction. 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. Escapes by these animals were not impossible. Still, I wanted to believe those sightings were real. Morse introduced me to her cat, Allister, whom she referred to as her portable puma. Then she fetched me a beer. Our county. The Vermont woods would be a lot more interesting with mountain lions in them. In recent years, it has been expanding its range elsewhere; moving into mid-western states like Illinois and Missouri from its established range in the Rocky Mountain states and the Dakotas. When a cats around, its not hard to find evidence. Morse founded Keeping Track in the belief that getting citizens interested and engaged in wildlife will have the knock-on effect of getting them interested and engaged in how land-use decisions affect wild populationsand might provide the impetus for conservation efforts. There was the vaguest of trails, crisscrossed by deadfalls and a sharp-thorned bush that soon drew blood from Ottmanns right hand. And, now, here I was. 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. So the initial assumption was that the animal was one of those captives that had either escaped or been released by its owner. 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. Length of body. Phone: +1 802 448 8250. It can run 50 miles an hour and clear a twelve-foot fence. Wildlife do really crazy things, and you just never know.. The real reason that they wont admit that a breeding population exists, is that listing a population of endangered species would wreak ECONOMIC havoc in a number of arenas, mostly logging/forestry. 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. Threat of Being Attacked There is no shortage of deer for all apex predators whether they are canine, feline, or human. Around 1830, the . At Green Mountain Lion Corp, we specialize in placing professionals in a variety of industries. I was deer hunting with my father, it was in the fall about 7 years ago, in Barre Ma towards the Templeton Ma lines. He says that if mountain lions do . 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. 9 Grace Christian (9-11). 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. You wouldnt shake hands with a man like that, she said, and though she was smiling I could tell she was serious. Its mounted carcass is on display in Montpelier where Id seen it when I was the adult supervision for my daughters sixth-grade class trip to the capital. According to official estimates, as many as 1,000 people own, in spite of legal prohibitions, captive animals. 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? A 2,000 Mile Journey Running into a mountain lion can be a scary experience. Because they are.. Bennington, VT (05201) Today. I also had a coworker report a similar experience around the same time. Yet I also remembered something Sue Morse had told me months before, as we sat in her living room drinking beer and chatting cats. I wished it were a camera with a long lens to document the sighting. Perhaps, then, the ultimate question isnt whether cougars are among us, but rather how we can encourage them to settle here. COLCHESTER, Vt. Catamounts are. A 140-pound male mountain lion was hit by a car and killed in 2011 in Milford, Connecticut. I saw a Mountain Lion in 2007 in Northfield, MA at the junctions of Rtes 10 and 63. Maybe, I thought, but the shape seemed wrong. So it is possible that, on occasion, someone would catch a glimpse of one of these animals. It is what wildlife biologists call an apex carnivore, which means it can overpower pretty much any other creature in its environmentwith the exception of an armed human. And why not? This was after the department sent him out west to study the behavior of mountain lions. 2,110 likes. A few years later, though, the scat was retested with DNA analysis and found to be canid, rather than feline, in origin. Whatever it was, it was standing motionless and, I thought, looking back at me as intently as I was staring at it. Unlike male cougars, the femaleslike this Montana cat with her cubdont tend to strike out for new territory, which makes it unlikely that a breeding population would establish itself far from the cougars current habitatsbut not impossible. Besides, Ottmann had revealed that hed been charged by a bear in this same piece of woods, and I felt conflicted about diverting my gaze from the underbrush. And, then, some species didnt need any help from humans but managed to extend their range into now-recovered and suitable habitats. They denied it until a cougar was hit as it tried to cross the very busy Merritt Parkway. 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). Ive never forgotten that and told it to many folks over the years, most of whom, I must say, thought I was hallucinating I guess but, it/he/she was a fact in Longmeadow, MA that summer long ago. In fact, jaguars used to be native to south Texas, as well! Snow accumulating 3 to 5 inches.. . I lived in great Barrington mass and I took photos of tracks in a field in April of 2009 (and of course lost them). Others have seen cougar in neighboring towns . On the other side, there are those (as represented here by Bill Betty and Bo Ottmann, along with a number of others I spoke with) who say the overwhelming quantity of anecdotal evidence suggests otherwise. Public opinion surveys show many more would support reintroduction, than oppose. We hadnt seen a cougar, nor any evidence to suggest a cougar had traveled these woods recently. But it was also a male. Beautiful animal. Last documented and killed in Vermont in 1881, the catamount, also known as a mountain lion or cougar, could be making its way back to the Green Mountain State. Big kitty. It was a bright sunny summer day. In my mind, I went through all the nots. It kills to eat but does not necessarily practice any sort of conservation ethic. If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! I started this blog for people to discuss mountain lion sightings and reports in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. All those deer hunters represent a kind of ad hoc search party. In my case, I had seen just about everything else in the Vermont woods in the several years that I had been going out, and not just during deer season. 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. His mention of these encounters was so matter-of-fact that I found myself nodding along. When I accepted the assignment to write about my quest to uncover the truth regarding the existence of cougars in New England, I had little idea what I was agreeing to. I live in Vermont and have seen, in broad daylight, a mountain lion (catamount, cougar, puma). The Great Divide | Are There Mountain Lions in New England. I noticed that there were many great websites, blogs, and discussion boards devoted to mountain lion sightings in other states of New England, but not one just for Vermont. It seems humans just cant resist destroying these animals and either dont realize or dont care what damage we have done to our natural environment over the centuries. People could have been looking at a catamount that was not, in fact, a wild animal. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. He and his clients were 100% sure of what they saw, and its very difficult to imagine any other animal being mistaken for a cougar in this case. However, when I asked the room of 200 or so people how many believe they had seen a mountain lion/cougar/puma/catamount, hands shot up all around the room about 25% of those present. I thought I saw signs posted in Pawling NY about 8 years ago, that DEC released a pair to control deer population,mane several people have seen them in Wingdale, NY. They were also reluctant to certify that turkey and moose had returned the Quabin reservoir lands for many years after locals reported seeing them. Local game officials are saying that this is another one of those sightings where people claim to have seen a mountain lion. I live in Hopkinton, NH and saw one coming up from the Contoocook River one misty morning. Especially among those who did believe. Anticipating, perhaps, a moment like this. Just like we dont need any slimy humans on earth period. There are no breeding cougars in New England and we do not need any. In this case, there was the carcass of a deer, recently killed in the area where a couple had reported seeing what looked like a mountain lion on land they owned. The glasses I carried were of good quality with exceptional light-gathering property. my husband tapped my leg and asked what is that crossing the road It was a Cougar tan in color long tail which had a slight curl upward .I wish I had my camera to prove it but I know We saw it. A deer is a wild animal and it is always a pleasure to see oneunless it is in the high beams, at night. Well, theres no difference between Maine and New Brunswick, anyway, said Betty. Yes, of course they are here, transients. on route to stone tower on Quabbin Hill. He never found the evidence. New in PJ Media: The world having gone absolutely insane, the Mid Vermont Christian School (MVCS) girls' basketball team is likely to get a lot of heat for this, but in a sane world, they would be the heroes of the story. Ive heard some biologists say it is not a distinct subspecies. This much was certain: it was a wild mountain lion and it was in an area where one had not been seen for more than 100 years. Recall a few years back, a guy in a kayak off Horseneck Beach in Westport, MA, was tracked by a large fin. 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. She said it was long and thick. Because while male cougars eventually strike out on their own and occasionally wander far from home, females are, as Morse puts it, hardwired to remain close to their mothers home range. They were inevitably fleeting. 104 Williston, VT 05495. Before I departed the Old Well Tavern, Bo Ottmann offered to lead me on a walk into an adjacent stretch of woods, where, he assured me, cougars might be found. And so we come to the great divide over cougars in New England. Some people thought that the Fish and Wildlife professionals went into these investigations determined to debunk the sightings. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. The name " Camel's Rump " was assigned on a historical map made by Ira Allen in 1798. They set the stage for the exotics to move in, and this has a huge impact on our ecology, he said. At the head of the driveway is a flower sales table in front of a modest size greenhouse. We got a picture of our culprit, he says, that very first night.. The mountain lionalso known as the cougar, puma, panther, or catamountis a large cat species native to the Americas. To Betty and Ottmann, the dominant narrative of the occasional itinerant cougar from the West is not particularly relevant to the facts on the ground. These settlers established measures for predator control by any means possible. Friends that go backcountry skiing in Vermont have reported seeing tracks to me many times and I have seen pictures of the pawprints myself that look overwheming like a mountain lion. Prior to the mid-1990s, the late Wildlife Professor Harold Hitchcock of Middlebury College, became Vermont's Official Big Cat 'hunter', who sought evidence of the Big Cats across the Maple State. With the price off its head, the lion gained new stature, and in July 1965 . 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. Ottmann nodded. 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. My assumption is it was the same animal. [An overabundance of deer] means our forests are getting older and older and not being replaced. He also points to the influx of invasive plant species in New England as evidence of an out-of-control deer population. On one side, there are those (as represented here by Sue Morse, Kim Royar, and Christopher Spatz, along with a number of others I spoke with) who contend that the lack of verifiable evidence is proof that the animals are not here. There were pine cones on window sills, a well-used hatchet and a variety of animal figurines on display, and, near the television, a stack of videos including Life of a Predator and The African Lion. But it seems virtually inevitable that a time is coming when that thing you see on the trail up ahead of you might be something to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. But some sightings were more promising and some seemed exceedingly so. Theres probably 100 in Connecticut, Ottmann interrupted, rolling a cigarette as he spoke. There was no denying that the carcass, which was examined by experts, was that of a mountain lion. Watching a potential winter storm. The solitary animal seeks out new territory and eventually a new population will be established. 8 Arlington (9-10) and No. I think they never left, Ottmann piped in. There was one possibility that might account for some of these sightings, he says. As I walked thru the beginning of the trail I spooked a deer and heard this awful screech and slowly backed out of there .. But there was not enough evidence to either prove or disprove that a mountain lion had done the killing. Responding to complaints about a predator eating a local farmers sheep, Crowell and a small group of fellow hunters had tracked the big cat through the snow. Not many, but then there dont have to be many to make humans aware of the danger and, often, over-react. This is part of the cougar business. Tom Stearns, a Vermont Game Warden says they get reports all the time. 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. Americans called the mountain " Tah-wak-be-dee-ee-wads. I saw one yesterday in Windsor Cty Vermont. I had been the first vehicle in a line held up by one lane traffic on a bridge reconstruction. 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? "The catamount, which is also a mountain lion, a cougar, a panther and a ton of other words, is actually one of the most widely distributed mammals in the whole world. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding woods. And its not just Vermont. They are much larger than bobcat and lynx, young adults can still have spots too. 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. I will never forget what I saw! and with my friend Chris Christinat who lives in hartsville we saw one stalking a rabbit on her lawn about autumn of 2009. This was, after all, a long, long way from the nearest known population of mountain lions and virtually the heart of the suburban East. The restrictions/regulations surrounding management of an endangered species is incredibly cumbersome, and would be difficult to manage. After 20 minutes or so, we turned and stumbled our way back to the parking lot. If there is a follow up investigation, it turns out that people were mistaken about what they saw.. I saw a cougar in Wolfeboro NH crossing / running across 28 ; close call between myself and a car traveling in the opposite direction over 12 years ago . Maybe you've seen the UVM(University of Vermont) catamount at a basketball game, or the catamount at the Vermont History Museum. We were about 50 feet from it and it stood taller than any labrador and we watched it tail and all slink down the side of the lawn and the rabbits being surprised out of the bushes. Not a bobcat or a coyote or a fisher or anything else that might be mistaken for a mountain lion. I was outdoor with my two pugs and quickly scooped them up and brought them in the house. All of us with rifles, most of them scoped. This Everglades panther population has recently recovered after wildlife biologists brought in some animals from Texas to breed with the last few native cats and this story is typical of the conservation ethic that has taken hold in the United States. It was definitely a cougar. 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: It is possible that cougars of unknown origin may be breeding to a limited extent in Vermont. These sightings usually took place at night or in fading light, like that of my bobcat encounter. In Vermont, it was 1881. The animal was too small and it lacked the long, sinuous tail of the catamount. 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