Given the long, shared border between these provinces and New England, along with plentiful evidence that other species cross this border regularly, it seems entirely possible that cougars would also engage in international travel. We witnessed a mountain lion stalking a herd of deer. But they would certainly pay attention if they did see one. If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! 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). 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. Running into a mountain lion can be a scary experience. People in Colorado communities might need to warn their children and to look over their own shoulders when they were out jogging, but not here. If this habitat can support them, it should. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. You cant mistake the long tail. I could hear the steady rush of traffic on Route 315. We got a picture of our culprit, he says, that very first night.. They are most definitely here. The combined scoring differential in those matchups was 158-77. The big cat on the ground before him, motionless, yet somehow still embodying that particular feline litheness, as if, with the flick of its tail, it might bound to its feet and disappear into the woods. He says that if mountain lions do . Instead, the responsne I heard were nonchalant, Oh, yes, lots of people have seen that mountain lion around here; pretty isnt it?. Body coloration can range from tan to gray and cubs are usually covered with blackish brown spots. There is no shortage of deer for all apex predators whether they are canine, feline, or human. We hadnt seen a cougar, nor any evidence to suggest a cougar had traveled these woods recently. A mountain lion was responsible for that too. I had been foraging up in an area that is rocky. Inslerman said the DEC received about a half-dozen calls reporting sightings of mountain lions last year; two calls this week. Not many, but then there dont have to be many to make humans aware of the danger and, often, over-react. 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. Indeed! Ive seen more field evidence in a couple of hours tracking out west than Ive seen in 100 years on the East Coast, he said. 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. 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. Dismissing most of the sightings as probable bobcats, Morse asserted that the scientific evidence has not been proven. Geoffrey Norman is a Dorset author and a frequent contributor to Stratton Magazine. I was agnostic, I suppose, on these stories which the state wildlife biologists inevitably found impossible to substantiate and, often, easy to disprove. Actually, Blodgett says, something of the opposite was true. The truth is, I was by this point dubious. 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. 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 . This, said Vermont Fish and Wildlife fur-bearer project leader Chris Bernier, is why he takes reports of mountain lion sightings seriously. 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. Because he lives among them, Harrigan understands that no one knows the woods better. Can they really all be cases of false identification? And so we come to the great divide over cougars in New England. Interesting how tree stumps or boulders assume the shape of an animal in this kind of light. ), 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. The reason why experts wont admit to a breeding population existing is that there is NO PROOF. For several years, Blodgett, a wildlife biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife, conducted those follow up investigations. I reported it to Connecticut DEEP, only to be told there are no cougars in Connecticut. His Tail was very long almost touching the ground and as thick as velvet rope. They are much larger than bobcat and lynx, young adults can still have spots too. I saw a Mountain Lion in 2007 in Northfield, MA at the junctions of Rtes 10 and 63. 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. Please. If its not, you just thank the person and say good-bye.. Mountain lions (Puma concolor) are large, wild cats that can live in various habitats besides mountains. But I dont think it will happen any time soon.. Humans and wildlife MUST learn to live along side each other and we MUST learn to respect nature. 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. Part of this belief is rooted in his journalistic experience, which across the decades has cultivated his nose for sincerity. 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. There was never, of course, a photograph. But it was also a male. They were also reluctant to certify that turkey and moose had returned the Quabin reservoir lands for many years after locals reported seeing them. I also know of someone who said they showed F&G a photo of one from a game camera in NH. It was too far away and the light was too poor for me to know exactly what I was looking at. 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. Beautiful creature. He soon developed a five-question litmus test: How far away were you? In Vermont, in the late 19th century, this meant, especially, sheep. When that last catamount was killed by a deer hunter, the state was paying a $20 bounty for pelts or carcasses. Mountain lions are large, tan cats. Theymay not be looking, specifically, for a catamount. Records suggest that cash bounties for cougar kills were relatively common in the late 1700s and early 1800s; in the Adirondacks, a trapper named Thomas Meacham was credited with 77 cougar kills. Some with cameras. In Vermont, it was 1881. Ive heard some biologists say it is not a distinct subspecies. 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. Regarding a breeding population that is the unknown. Put bluntly, Morse does not believe that New England is home to cougars. With the price off its head, the lion gained new stature, and in July 1965 . I have not had the pleasure of seeing one, but have heard credible reports of them in Western Mass. This is a site for people to discuss mountain lion sightings in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. People clearly arent lying when they say they saw a cougar; [the sighting] has a profound effect on them.. The Vermont woods would be a lot more interesting with mountain lions in them. Mountain Lions - Rocky Mountain National Park (U.S. National Park Service) NPS.gov Park Home Learn About the Park Nature Animals Mammals Mountain Lion Mountain Lion Last updated: May 4, 2018 Was this page helpful? Feb 28, 2023 4:00 am By Robert Spencer 1 Comment. 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 . 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. Perfect conditions, then, for thinking you saw something. One day I most certainly watched him/her being chased up and down our chain link fence by a neighbors large dog who was barking insanely and couldnt quite catch the cougar, who finally made it away from the fence to escape the determined dog whod had him trapped up against it. Wildlife do really crazy things, and you just never know.. A journey of nearly 2,000 miles. That it had, somehow, made a return and established residence. But there was not enough evidence to either prove or disprove that a mountain lion had done the killing. When I shared their story with the staff at the center where my sister lived, I expected surprise and interested. 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. Hes also unafraid to take unpopular positions when he deems it necessary: Shortly before our meeting, hed signed a petition in favor of keeping ATVs off public roads. It can run 50 miles an hour and clear a twelve-foot fence. As I looked at my daughter and then turned to follow the direction she was looking, I saw the animal in my side mirror. Low 24F. The discussion of whether federal lands should be a place to subsidize cattle ranching is another question. Phone: . And thats a surprisingly complex question, because it hinges on numerous factors: policy and politics, culture and conditioning, habitat and, frankly, hubris. 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. 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. As pets or for exhibit. The Strafford & Area Lions conducted its Food From The Heart food drive February 11th through the 18th, collecting 981.6 pounds of food and receiving monetary donations of $1,262 which were used to purchase food and other items to be donated to the Sharon, Vershire and Thetford food shelves. 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. 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. 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. The first time was in the yard which was surrounded by woods. Mr. Betty and Mr.Ottomans passion and efforts are impressive. 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. 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. I have learned one thing in my career, and thats to never say never, she said. COLCHESTER, Vt. Catamounts are. I knew it had to have been from a mountain lion Ive seen bobcats and their tracks and from the size of the deer carcass Im convinced there are mountain lions amongst us in Massachusetts! Indeed, in 2011, a male cougar was hit and killed by a car in Milford, Connecticut; through its DNA, wildlife biologists were able to trace the cat back to South Dakotas Black Hills, some 2,000 miles distant. Some people say they have seen a catamount in the woods. 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 !! The females are where its at, she said. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. Chance of snow 90%. Things seem to move at twilight and you never know. Id been excited to read the news that wildlife officials would be releasing wolves in Yellowstone and thrilled, a few years later, when I heard, from a campsite on Slough Creek, the music of their howling. All with eyes to see and spring loaded to see something. I lived in great Barrington mass and I took photos of tracks in a field in April of 2009 (and of course lost them). You dont even have to go out and look for it.. Videos - Industry Stories; Find Candidates; They denied it until a cougar was hit as it tried to cross the very busy Merritt Parkway. But my eyes picked up something and I knew, right away, that it was alive. I had seen only one in my life and it was not in Vermont, where the mountain lion was officially extinct, the last one having been killed in 1881. Green Mountain Lion Corp #256 34 Blair Park Road Ste. The solitary animal seeks out new territory and eventually a new population will be established. Long Trail beat Arlington 62-40 on Feb. 7. 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. Dont forget, south Texas also used to home to two other species of cats ocelots and jaguarundis. This was, after all, a long, long way from the nearest known population of mountain lions and virtually the heart of the suburban East. 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. Especially by one that he remembers involving a kill site.. The mountain lionalso known as the cougar, puma, panther, or catamountis a large cat species native to the Americas. 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. Probably because of all the hunters that would be out trying to get their trophy and endangering others. My daughter said to me thats the biggest cat Ive ever seen. When a cats around, its not hard to find evidence. The cougar and the states refusal to admit it was here made the local paper. Raised them carefully to my eyes. There was a tin of American Spirit tobacco on the table (Ottmanns), a laptop (Bettys), a notebook (mine), and a tumbler of Bacardi and Coke (Ottmanns again). So Blodgett brought what he had learned in Wyoming and Arizona back to Vermont with him and began following up on catamount sightings. I have pictures of tracks around my car and up to the back steps of my deck in Arkville, NY . And why not? Wildlife is unpredictable (and several people go missing in wild areas, parks especially, every year -Probably not because of alien abduction). Were arrogant if we think were the only species that makes decisions based on fear, he told me when I called him at his home in Oregon. 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. Whenever I drive up and through my home state of Vermont, I look into the hills that surround me that have no sign of development for miles and miles. Of course. Sue Morse, a professional animal tracker, believes that means cougars will, eventually, return to Vermont. But never a catamount. and with my friend Chris Christinat who lives in hartsville we saw one stalking a rabbit on her lawn about autumn of 2009. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! But no. (The cat I saw when I was a young boy was on the Gulf Coast.). These things happen suddenly and they are over quickly. 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. So long as the tails there, that is. To date, Keeping Track has helped conserve 40,000 acres in 12 states and inQuebec. As land was cleared for farming and the cats prey species declined in number, it went after livestock. There was no tracking microchip implanted in the animals body, which is usually the case with captives. They knew what they were doing, Blodgett says. No An official form of the United States government. [The catamounts] movements were so noiseless that Mr. Crowell found himself in this dangerous proximity before he was aware of it, and it was only by great coolness and daring that he severely wounded the animal and perhaps saved his own life, reads a placard attached to the display case. Now, ocelots are critically endangered and jaguarundis might be completely gone. Theres probably 100 in Connecticut, Ottmann interrupted, rolling a cigarette as he spoke. Well, I KNOW there was at least one mountain lion in NE because years ago (maybe 35 or so) I lived in Longmeadow, MA. Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. near Greenfield with an experienced guide that hed worked with several times. It kills to eat but does not necessarily practice any sort of conservation ethic. 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 Vermont, for instance, a few dozen wild turkeys from Pennsylvania were released in 1969 and multiplied into the thousands we have here now. Morse introduced me to her cat, Allister, whom she referred to as her portable puma. Then she fetched me a beer. Nostalgia for the Wild Their bodies are mainly covered in tawny-beige fur, except for the whitish-gray belly and chest. Wildlife management programs succeeded in reintroducing species to areas where they had not been seen for years. There is a lot of good habitat between here and the places where there are established populations of mountain lions, he said. The Mountain Lions won both regular season margins by 30-plus points. Threat of Being Attacked The animal, I learned, is called many things: mountain lion, panther, catamount, puma, cougar and more. This guy was very intelligent, he had abandoned a professional career to pursue his dream of guiding. 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. Phone: +1 802 448 8250. And some people might decide to release them into the wild rather than keeping them in their possession. He knew it was only a matter of time. Recall a few years back, a guy in a kayak off Horseneck Beach in Westport, MA, was tracked by a large fin. The old logging road was easy enough to navigate and I let my feet follow it while I kept my eyes up and scanning. People like you are the problem and cause of extinctions. But, yes, thats exactly what it was. I appreciated Ottmann and Bettys confidence and commitment, but here I was, poking through thorny thickets behind a bar, trailing a bleeding man whose devotion to proving the presence of cougars was beginning to seem like a quixotic quest with no end. Scat, tracks, lays, scratch mounds youll see these things.. Until 2011, that question rested upon a hypothetical. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. She favors plaid shirts, green Dickies work pants, and hiking boots, and she chided me for shaking her hand too gently. Matthew Johnson/Vermont Historical Society. I live in Vermont and have seen, in broad daylight, a mountain lion (catamount, cougar, puma). 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. Betty had driven up from his home in Rhode Island. I will never forget what I saw! 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. 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. First about the animal, itself, and then about the lore and the possibility that the catamount was not, in fact, extinct in Vermont. Around 1830, the . 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. Maybe, I thought, but the shape seemed wrong. Video - Trade Show Recaps; Videos - Can We Find a Time to Talk? 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. Our hunter friend was hunting in central NH when they came upon an adult deer carcass way up in a tree. Even in the controlled environment of a lab, the truth about Eastern cougars seems to be almost willfully eluding its seekers. Ottmann nodded. So the initial assumption was that the animal was one of those captives that had either escaped or been released by its owner. In 2011, the U.S. At the head of the driveway is a flower sales table in front of a modest size greenhouse. There are also many unconfirmed sightings. They especially come down from the mountains when there is a big water shortgage. No way to proveor disproveit. Thank you; Blog. Harrigan is 72 and lives just outside the northern New Hampshire town of Colebrook; he has a long, craggy face that seems almost to have molded itself after the mountainous landscape of his home state. The Spatz and Sue Ottmann referred to are Christopher Spatz and Sue Morse, two of the better-known and arguably most experienced cougar skeptics in the Northeast. When he suggested we retrace our route, past lion, to see a sow bear with cubs, we headed in the opposite direction. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. ), 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. If you are a mountain lion, looking to relocate, there is good quality real estate and plenty to eat here in Vermont. Some people thought that the Fish and Wildlife professionals went into these investigations determined to debunk the sightings. But there was certainty, or near-certainty, on the part of the witnesses who, it seemed, would swear to having seen a catamount. 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. Beautiful animal. These sightings usually took place at night or in fading light, like that of my bobcat encounter. Its not a bear, not a dog, not a deer, not a bobcat. 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. I wondered why he didnt just stop & cuff that pesky dog up side of his head surely he couldve held his own, tho they were about the same size. Whatever it was, it was standing motionless and, I thought, looking back at me as intently as I was staring at it. 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.. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. It was fast as hell but there was no mistaking its not only long,but THICK tail as it disappeared into the woods. Morse has been tracking cougars for 45 years, mostly in the mountains of the West, where their existence is not in doubt. And, according to people who swear they know what they saw the catamount. By the late 20th century, the range of the catamount was confined to several western states and a small remnant population along the Gulf Coast that was eventually squeezed down into the Everglades/Big Cypress area of Florida and reduced to a couple of dozen animals of poor genetic quality due to inbreeding. And DNA analysis shows us that felis concolor is genetically the same across the USI think it is irrelevant, but interesting. Spatz and Sue dont want to go where were going.. The last time a mountain lion was captured in New York was in the . We also had bobcats that we saw quite often but I am positive that these were mountain lions! It looked real promising, Blodgett remembers. And, now, here I was. It has, in fact, more names than any animal in the world. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. Tom Stearns, a Vermont Game Warden says they get reports all the time. 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. A far less likelyenvironment for finding a mountain lion than just about anywhere in Vermont. 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. Yet dozens of. Videos. [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. Harrigan nodded. Escapes by these animals were not impossible. It is hard for me to believe that the big cats havent found plenty of space to roam without regular detection. 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