Interesting how tree stumps or boulders assume the shape of an animal in this kind of light. Id need proof if I wanted people to believe me. Maybe, I thought, but the shape seemed wrong. The restrictions/regulations surrounding management of an endangered species is incredibly cumbersome, and would be difficult to manage. Height. 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. Video - Trade Show Recaps; Videos - Can We Find a Time to Talk? All with eyes to see and spring loaded to see something. This guy was very intelligent, he had abandoned a professional career to pursue his dream of guiding. 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. Beautiful creature. Honestly, leaving this out of your article would seem to perpetuate the notion that there is a conspiracy to keep us all in ignorance. This could, of course, be projection on my part. We need [an apex] predator back on the land, Sue Morse told me. 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. near Greenfield with an experienced guide that hed worked with several times. We told him what we saw, and he confirmed other sightings on the property. 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. But, yes, thats exactly what it was. 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. This was, after all, a long, long way from the nearest known population of mountain lions and virtually the heart of the suburban East. And some people might decide to release them into the wild rather than keeping them in their possession. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. But my eyes picked up something and I knew, right away, that it was alive. 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. Watching a potential winter storm. A mountain lion was responsible for that too. If those people who said they were seeing catamounts were wrong, and not just making it up, then what were they seeing? No need since so we guess it has moved on from the northeast corner of Connecticut. Escapes by these animals were not impossible. So the initial assumption was that the animal was one of those captives that had either escaped or been released by its owner. The mountain lion can weigh upwards of 200 pounds and it can move like well, like a cat. Still, I wanted to believe those sightings were real. Nostalgia for the Wild Ive seen tracks (Downeast Maine) and others have seen them, plain as day. and with my friend Chris Christinat who lives in hartsville we saw one stalking a rabbit on her lawn about autumn of 2009. She favors plaid shirts, green Dickies work pants, and hiking boots, and she chided me for shaking her hand too gently. ), or someones coworkers mother had seen one from the back porch of a summer camp back in 07 or maybe 08, and shed tried to get a picture but this was before she got her first iPhone, and by the time shed retrieved her camera from the living room, the cat was long gone. People could have been looking at a catamount that was not, in fact, a wild animal. We clearly have migratory male cougars coming through. 5-7 yards from me. Early spring 2019 I caught a glimpse of one entering over grown brush on the side of the road very very early in the morning. For instance, a favorite food for deer is the seedlings of forest tree species. And there have been fatal attacks. And, more often than not, when I told it, the person listening would nod and tell me about someone who had definitely seen a mountain lion/catamount in the Vermont woods or crossing a highway or, even, in the back yard. 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. 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. Experts need to see the body to dismiss their prejudices. 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. They were inevitably fleeting. We hadnt seen a cougar, nor any evidence to suggest a cougar had traveled these woods recently. Regarding a breeding population that is the unknown. I went back and told the tale to anyone who would listen. But, I think with education and planning, we should reintroduce wolves and cougar in the Northeast. They may get here, Doug Blodgett said to me one afternoon. Still, sightings are common. I live in Vermont and have seen, in broad daylight, a mountain lion (catamount, cougar, puma). Also known as cougars, panthers or pumas, mountain lions range in color from tan to grey, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service. Even in areas of high cougar density, the there are far more attacks on humans by domesticated dogs or deer/car collision fatalities than those due to cougar attack. Thats a reasonable assertion. Because he lives among them, Harrigan understands that no one knows the woods better. This, said Vermont Fish and Wildlife fur-bearer project leader Chris Bernier, is why he takes reports of mountain lion sightings seriously. 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. 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. Videos. 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. 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. 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. The Christian school also dropped out of the state . We really must establish first that these beautiful animals SHOULD be in every state that was once THEIR habitat. Yet I also remembered something Sue Morse had told me months before, as we sat in her living room drinking beer and chatting cats. This is a site for people to discuss mountain lion sightings in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. Our hunter friend was hunting in central NH when they came upon an adult deer carcass way up in a tree. 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. Success stories being more fun to talk about than the other kind. He says that if mountain lions do . If we end up with a population, it will be the result of a colonizer female who gets here somehow, some way, and the rest will be history.. In the few seconds that this took, I had convinced myself that I was looking at a mountain lion. The captive narrative also helped explain why there had been so many sightings reported, including some in Greenwich, among the richest and most domesticated suburbs in America. I have pictures of tracks around my car and up to the back steps of my deck in Arkville, NY . They especially come down from the mountains when there is a big water shortgage. 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. 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. Those who believe the growth and expansion of mountain lion populations to be a good thing routinely make the old, you face a greater danger of being struck by lighting or drowned in the bathtub argument and it is no doubt accurate. People clearly arent lying when they say they saw a cougar; [the sighting] has a profound effect on them.. I had a pair of good binoculars in my coat pocket. Since then, there have been a handful of confirmed mountain lion sightings in the Northeast, although most have been thought to be escaped captive animals. And, furthermore, the animal still had its claws, though those have usually been removed from captive animals. Tom Stearns, a Vermont Game Warden says they get reports all the time. COLCHESTER, Vt. Catamounts are. 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? 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. How big was the animal? 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. I had been foraging up in an area that is rocky. They are here in the Catskill Mountains, so named for the magnificent felines. The first time was in the yard which was surrounded by woods. Earlier in the year, Id attended one of these presentations, and even in the tiny village of Woodbury, Vermont, on a stiflingly hot summer evening, nearly 100 people showed up to hear her speak and see her photographs (Morse is a magnificent wildlife photographer). We need cougars and we need wolves back in the Northeast, because a landscape of fear is a well-balanced landscape.. Catamounts are large wild cats that are also called panthers, cougars or mountain lions. Even though the experts say there arent any mountain lions in CT, there are. Betty had driven up from his home in Rhode Island. Coyotes, for instance, found their way into Vermont with no help. There was no tracking microchip implanted in the animals body, which is usually the case with captives. What time of day was it? We met for lunch on a Sunday morning in early March, and it didnt take long for me to understand why Harrigan is such a popular columnist. Especially by one that he remembers involving a kill site.. You cant mistake the long tail. Wildlife is unpredictable (and several people go missing in wild areas, parks especially, every year -Probably not because of alien abduction). I saw one about 10 years ago, on our road. If someone described seeing a black panther, for example, then you knew right away and you didnt need to do any more investigating.. Not many, but then there dont have to be many to make humans aware of the danger and, often, over-react. I moved very carefully to get my hand in my pocket and my fingers around the glasses. 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. They set the stage for the exotics to move in, and this has a huge impact on our ecology, he said. When a cats around, its not hard to find evidence. 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. 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. In my mind, I went through all the nots. The old logging road was easy enough to navigate and I let my feet follow it while I kept my eyes up and scanning. So it is possible that, on occasion, someone would catch a glimpse of one of these animals. In the second camp, there are those issuing the denials, pointing to the lack of photographic evidence, or the absence of tracks, or the simple truth that many people dont seem to know the difference between a cougar and a bobcat and a lynx and even, in some cases, a golden retriever. Blodgett and I were returning from a day spent looking forand finding timber rattlesnakes, a species that is endangered in Vermont. ), or someones coworkers mother had seen one from the back porch of a summer camp back in 07 or maybe 08, and shed tried to get a picture but this was before she got her first iPhone, and by the time shed retrieved her camera from the living room, the cat was long gone. 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. There was never, of course, a photograph. Chance of snow 90%. So long as the tails there, that is. Part of this belief is rooted in his journalistic experience, which across the decades has cultivated his nose for sincerity. my father was recently trout fishing in central Mass. And the clincher, What would you say was the most distinguishing feature? His Tail was very long almost touching the ground and as thick as velvet rope. The animal was too small and it lacked the long, sinuous tail of the catamount. In fact, jaguars used to be native to south Texas, as well! 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 heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! It can run 50 miles an hour and clear a twelve-foot fence. Green Mountain Lion Corp #256 34 Blair Park Road Ste. Or, if it does, when that will be. A 140-pound male mountain lion was hit by a car and killed in 2011 in Milford, Connecticut. Things seem to move at twilight and you never know. Several years of doing the follow-ups, then, convinced Blodgett that there were no catamounts in Vermont. When he suggested we retrace our route, past lion, to see a sow bear with cubs, we headed in the opposite direction. Especially among those who did believe. Typical species behavior is for males to disperse from an area when the population reaches the carrying capacity of the habitat. 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 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. Well, theres no difference between Maine and New Brunswick, anyway, said Betty. Ottmann grew up and still lives just minutes from the tavern; his familiarity with the establishment was obvious (after we met in the parking lot, he led me into the building through the kitchen, greeting each of the staff by name). It was definitely a cougar. The reason why experts wont admit to a breeding population existing is that there is NO PROOF. They denied it until a cougar was hit as it tried to cross the very busy Merritt Parkway. Inslerman said the DEC received about a half-dozen calls reporting sightings of mountain lions last year; two calls this week. So, traffic had been slowed from both ends for a good 3-5 minutes. 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. When I came out, the cat appeared in front of me coming up a rise (incredibly close to some ski condos). 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. You need breeding pairs and theyd probably settle down long before they got here.. 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. 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. The 1881 death of this catamount officially marked the end of cougars in Vermont; however, the very last Eastern cougar is thought to be an animal that was killed in Somerset County, Maine, in 1938. He was a dark butterscotch color, very tall and lanky (taller and thinner than a really big German Shepard) and that tail. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. Probably because of all the hunters that would be out trying to get their trophy and endangering others. Was INCREDIBLE! Distinguished by a boxy head, big paws and a VERY long tail. 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. I was just amazed as I watched this scene in my own back yard. Newspaperman John Harrigan has long covered the New England outdoors, including writing the New Hampshire Sunday News column Woods, Water & Wildlife which ran for almost 40 years. A far less likelyenvironment for finding a mountain lion than just about anywhere in Vermont. If there is a follow up investigation, it turns out that people were mistaken about what they saw.. Fish and Wildlife Service unofficially declared the Eastern cougar extinct. Big kitty. The scientific name for the catamount is Puma concolor. Im not surprised that various state officers deny the presence of cougars in new England. 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 !! Looking at the mounted animal, behind the glass, had made me feel kind of well, sad. The tavern was quiet except for some hard-rock music playing on the radio, the murmur of a handful of men at the bar, and us. And so we come to the great divide over cougars in New England. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. Length of body. Jason. They are much larger than bobcat and lynx, young adults can still have spots too. THAT is a mountain lion! About six years ago, my mother and step-father were traveling some back roads down to New Boston, NH to visit my sister where she lived in an extended care facility. For who but we humans can look across the landscape and not acknowledge our role in the diminishment of cougars and the myriad ways in which we have knocked the landscape out of balance? Black markings decorate the tip of the tail, ears, and around the snout. I saw a Mountain Lion in 2007 in Northfield, MA at the junctions of Rtes 10 and 63. That was plain, right away. 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. Perhaps, then, the ultimate question isnt whether cougars are among us, but rather how we can encourage them to settle here. Respect predators, protect them but dont worship or try to hug them! Theymay not be looking, specifically, for a catamount. I knew it was a cat track because the tracks were in a straight line and no signs of claws like you would see with a coyote track. It can run at speeds of up to 50 mph. I also had the vague notion that when it comes to cougars, people tend to sort themselves into one of three camps. Neither resemble a cougar! It had traveled, certainly, though Minnesota and Wisconsin and, who knows, perhaps even Vermont and might, then, have accounted for some of those sightings. Around 1830, the . And DNA analysis shows us that felis concolor is genetically the same across the USI think it is irrelevant, but interesting. Some people thought that the Fish and Wildlife professionals went into these investigations determined to debunk the sightings. There was one possibility that might account for some of these sightings, he says. But it was also a male. At Green Mountain Lion Corp, we specialize in placing professionals in a variety of industries. Indeed! Others have seen cougar in neighboring towns . 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. 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