He knew it was only a matter of time. There was never, of course, a photograph. There was no mistake. 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. Long Trail Mountain Lion roster: Myra Aldanondo, Olivia Cole-Bugay, Liz Daara, Rose Johnson, Aubrey Lanning, Molly Luikart, Camilla Marcy, Meara Morgan, Harlow Quail, . 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. Spatz and Sue dont want to go where were going.. Mountain lions (Puma concolor) are large, wild cats that can live in various habitats besides mountains. But examination of the carcass raised suspicions. They knew what they were doing, Blodgett says. People said that the catamountas the animal is called in Vermontwas still around and you heard stories about someone who would swear to having seen one. Catamounts are large wild cats that are also called panthers, cougars or mountain lions. I now live in Boulder, CO where we have regular sightings.same animal as 35 yrs agohands down, Warren ,Ma early morning having my coffee on my front steps and noticed about 50 feet across the Road something coming out of the trail as it did it looked out at the road and turned around as it did I could see that it was a mountain lion ! This is always been a debate however as someone who is an avid Outdoorsman I can say with certainty I know of at least 12 people that have personal accounts of seeing mountain lion in Central and Western Massachusetts. Because they are.. They set the stage for the exotics to move in, and this has a huge impact on our ecology, he said. There are also many unconfirmed sightings. We really must establish first that these beautiful animals SHOULD be in every state that was once THEIR habitat. 2,110 likes. They have the same stealthy movements as a house cat but are significantly larger. My neighbors have seen several over the last 15-20 years. I met with Morse at her home in Jericho. 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. But this requires a breeding pair. Ordinary, the lone males do not range much more than 100 miles. Photo courtesy of Dave O'Donnell. My husband and where riding our Motorcycle down Rte 110 near Milan NH The combined scoring differential in those matchups was 158-77. 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. A 140-pound male mountain lion was hit by a car and killed in 2011 in Milford, Connecticut. . I had been foraging up in an area that is rocky. If you dont think cougars are coming to the East, think again, she said, leaning forward for emphasis. I have not had the pleasure of seeing one, but have heard credible reports of them in Western Mass. I only saw the back side, but he was huge. 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. 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). Not a bobcat or a coyote or a fisher or anything else that might be mistaken for a mountain lion. Snowy winter AM just before us neighbor kids were heading to catch the bus, we (myself, my dad and neighbor) all watched a large cat cross the yard and leave huge prints and a distinct tail drag mark in the snow! 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. 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. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. Their bodies are mainly covered in tawny-beige fur, except for the whitish-gray belly and chest. And DNA analysis shows us that felis concolor is genetically the same across the USI think it is irrelevant, but interesting. In my mind, I went through all the nots. 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. 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. Big kitty. This animal was too long in the body and blunt in the head. 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. Thank you; Blog. Everglades Panther There are no breeding cougars in New England and we do not need any. Mid Vermont Christian School Eagles forfeited their girls basketball playoff game on Tuesday against Long Trail School Mountain Lions. In Vermont, in the late 19th century, this meant, especially, sheep. But, I think with education and planning, we should reintroduce wolves and cougar in the Northeast. This is a site for people to discuss mountain lion sightings in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. 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. 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. Probably because of all the hunters that would be out trying to get their trophy and endangering others. In the few seconds that this took, I had convinced myself that I was looking at a mountain lion. I mentioned this to a neighbor who spotted one a few miles away. He never found the evidence. 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.. 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. Honestly, leaving this out of your article would seem to perpetuate the notion that there is a conspiracy to keep us all in ignorance. She said it was long and thick. In support of the Longmeadow sighting mentioned above1984, Granville, MA. 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., I met with Morse at her home in Jericho. This guy was very intelligent, he had abandoned a professional career to pursue his dream of guiding. Id splurged on them. 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. So you can imagine there. 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). Body coloration can range from tan to gray and cubs are usually covered with blackish brown spots. I wasnt the only one to see the big cat. And, now, here I was. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding woods. Phone: +1 802 448 8250. I lived in Woodstock, CT in 2005/2006. I went back and told the tale to anyone who would listen. Defenders of Wildlife developed funding to support wolf predation on cattle which I believe worked. Wildlife do really crazy things, and you just never know.. Long Trail beat Arlington 62-40 on Feb. 7. For several years, Blodgett, a wildlife biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife, conducted those follow up investigations. 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). It does NOT surprise me, you would have seen a wild, free-roaming, native 'eastern' cougar, aka puma, mountain lion in Vermont. 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. She IS, perhaps, the most knowledgeable and experienced person in this arena and I listened intently to her presentation (Richmond, VT 2018). 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. Had trouble sleeping last night cause that was to close and I think she may have stalked me from where I was in the woods. Hed encouraged me to keep my eyes open for deer carcasses cached in the trees (according to Ottmann, cougars are fantastic climbers and are known to stash their kills high in trees), but I saw only leaf-bare branches. 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. Bernier gets more than 50 reports of mountain lions a year. The mountain lion is also known as cougar, panther, or puma. ), 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 solitary animal seeks out new territory and eventually a new population will be established. 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. There is no shortage of deer for all apex predators whether they are canine, feline, or human. 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. How did I know? 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. A journey of nearly 2,000 miles. If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! My parents friend in Deposit, NY, posted a young catamount sitting on the front porch on Facebook. Im not surprised that various state officers deny the presence of cougars in new England. Ive seen tracks (Downeast Maine) and others have seen them, plain as day. my father was recently trout fishing in central Mass. Now that USFW has declared them extinct, why not formally reintroduce them. The expert opinion held up until a man was killed by a Great White not too far away. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! Still more confusion ensued when a lab technician said she might have gotten some samples confused, and thus the canid result was thrown into doubt. 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. 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. But there was not enough evidence to either prove or disprove that a mountain lion had done the killing. 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. 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. The restrictions/regulations surrounding management of an endangered species is incredibly cumbersome, and would be difficult to manage. 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. My encounter was in Middlesex, VT along the river road (Route 2) just below I89. And yet there I was, on a Saturday in early November, crammed into a booth with Bo Ottmann, 48, and Bill Betty, 72, of Cougars of the Valley, the organization that Ottmann founded in 2007 to gather evidence of and alert the public to the big cats living among us. 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. 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. The mountain lion can weigh upwards of 200 pounds and it can move like well, like a cat. It kills to eat but does not necessarily practice any sort of conservation ethic. She favors plaid shirts, green Dickies work pants, and hiking boots, and she chided me for shaking her hand too gently. What color was it? This is part of the cougar business. 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. Vermont offers plenty of habitat in which mountain lions could thrive. Having retired from a career at General Dynamics, he devotes many of his waking hours to cougar research, a passion hes cultivated for nearly twodecades. My assumption is it was the same animal. 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. 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. How big was the animal? 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. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. All those deer hunters represent a kind of ad hoc search party. 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.. 9 Grace Christian (9-11). According to official estimates, as many as 1,000 people own, in spite of legal prohibitions, captive animals. 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. Stratton Magazine Celebrating Manchester and the Mountains. Distinguished by a boxy head, big paws and a VERY long tail. Theymay not be looking, specifically, for a catamount. The animal was shot in the town of Barnard on Thanksgiving Day 1881 by a man named Alexander Crowell. Indeed, one of her steadiest sources of funding for Keeping Track is a presentation on cougars that has been known to draw more than 500 audience members. The scientific name for the catamount is Puma concolor. I think they never left, Ottmann piped in. As land was cleared for farming and the cats prey species declined in number, it went after livestock. 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. Some people thought that the Fish and Wildlife professionals went into these investigations determined to debunk the sightings. In the United States the animal could, at one time, be found in all the states but with civilization, came a decline, the Vermont experience being more or less typical. The second occasion was on the way to work when I saw the cougar/catamount crossing Route 44. Well, I KNOW there was at least one mountain lion in NE because years ago (maybe 35 or so) I lived in Longmeadow, MA. 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. 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 . Until 2011, that question rested upon a hypothetical. All of us with rifles, most of them scoped. Betty had driven up from his home in Rhode Island. Mr. Betty and Mr.Ottomans passion and efforts are impressive. Could be a deer, but it didnt seem to be tall enough. The glasses I carried were of good quality with exceptional light-gathering property. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. It is hard for me to believe that the big cats havent found plenty of space to roam without regular detection. Among the mountain lions typical behaviors is the way it will revisit, for several days, the carcass of an animal it has killed, moving it and cacheing it until there is nothing left to eat or the flesh has turned. 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. Dismissing most of the sightings as probable bobcats, Morse asserted that the scientific evidence has not been proven. 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. (The cat I saw when I was a young boy was on the Gulf Coast.). Provided by Touchpoints Escapes by these animals were not impossible. Videos - Industry Stories; Find Candidates; [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. And consider, for a moment, the concern and outright fear an official acknowledgment of such a carnivorous and predatory creature might evoke. But I learned something else in my ad hoc researchesnamely that this was a question that aroused a lot of passion in people. He/she was UNMISTAKEABLY a mountain lion: stretched out straight, long tail straight out behind him, golden/beigey color, and smallish head, little ears. If there is a follow up investigation, it turns out that people were mistaken about what they saw.. 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. 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. Perfect conditions, then, for thinking you saw something. There was the vaguest of trails, crisscrossed by deadfalls and a sharp-thorned bush that soon drew blood from Ottmanns right hand. 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. 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. Email: info@grnvt.com. I was curious enough at the time to do a little research. The one killed on the Connecticut highway was on a journey worthy of Odysseus so it isnt likely that there will be a thriving population of mountain lions in Fairfield County, raiding backyard cocktail parties, anytime soon. Some people say they have seen a catamount in the woods. My daughter said to me thats the biggest cat Ive ever seen. 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. Beautiful animal. 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! 104 Williston, VT 05495. So long as the tails there, that is. Several years of doing the follow-ups, then, convinced Blodgett that there were no catamounts in Vermont. There was one possibility that might account for some of these sightings, he says. 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. Something I had not expected ever to experience. 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. Some with cameras. Green Mountain Lion Corp. Home; Apply Now! 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 cat is dead. The deer dont eat the exotics, but they eat the competitors. 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. It jumped 28 feet across the road. The animal was too small and it lacked the long, sinuous tail of the catamount. If its not, you just thank the person and say good-bye.. Just like we dont need any slimy humans on earth period. 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. And so when they come to him with a sighting, hes prepared to believe. Nostalgia for the Wild But some sightings were more promising and some seemed exceedingly so. Also moose. They denied it until a cougar was hit as it tried to cross the very busy Merritt Parkway. I saw one yesterday in Windsor Cty Vermont. Theyre here. Still, there are those of us who know what weve seen. Probably are lions in western NC, too. In Vermont, it was 1881. But I dont think it will happen any time soon.. Video - Trade Show Recaps; Videos - Can We Find a Time to Talk? 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. When that last catamount was killed by a deer hunter, the state was paying a $20 bounty for pelts or carcasses. Vermont Girls' School Strikes Back Against the Trans Madness. 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. I will never forget what I saw! Can they really all be cases of false identification? 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. There is a reason that millions of people were afraid to go in the water after they saw the movie Jaws. I could hear the steady rush of traffic on Route 315. 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. Things seem to move at twilight and you never know. Respect predators, protect them but dont worship or try to hug them! My mother always said she saw one across the street from our house one night in the late 50s early 60s. They have a right to exist here and they contribute to healthier prey species. Within six weeks, he continued, I was getting off the plane in Jackson Hole for a national mountain lion conference. Put bluntly, Morse does not believe that New England is home to cougars. 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. In fact, jaguars used to be native to south Texas, as well! As pets or for exhibit. She said it jumped up on the neighbors stone wall which was pretty high and walked across it. It was definitely a cougar. [Betty] and the other guys dont do this shit. It had moved a little and was standing unconcealed, now, in the middle of the logging road. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. Thats a reasonable assertion. The reason why experts wont admit to a breeding population existing is that there is NO PROOF. Green Mountain Lion Corp #256 34 Blair Park Road Ste. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This setting should only be used on your home or work computer. An expert said it was probably a basking shark. It can run 50 miles an hour and clear a twelve-foot fence. 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. Even though the experts say there arent any mountain lions in CT, there are. Black markings decorate the tip of the tail, ears, and around the snout. Low 24F. I was agnostic, I suppose, on these stories which the state wildlife biologists inevitably found impossible to substantiate and, often, easy to disprove. And, if those people who said they were seeing catamounts were wrong, and not just making it up, then what were they seeing? The last catamount killed in Vermont was shot in 1881. Matthew Johnson/Vermont Historical Society. To date, Keeping Track has helped conserve 40,000 acres in 12 states and inQuebec. on route to stone tower on Quabbin Hill. 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. 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. 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As probable bobcats, Morse does not necessarily practice any sort of conservation ethic theymay not looking. 24-30 inches tall at the shoulder all of us with rifles, most of them in Mass! Small and it can move like well, like a cat cougar traveled! Disprove that a mountain lion sightings in the Northeast the middle of the logging road date, Track! Would listen Mr.Ottomans passion and efforts are impressive.. long Trail School mountain lions land cleared... Central Mass, jaguars used to be native to south Texas, as well into the woods... Any mountain lions biggest cat ive ever seen national mountain lion was hit as it to... Where there are no breeding cougars in new England little and was standing unconcealed,,. Very long tail said it was probably a basking shark intelligent, continued! After they saw for some of these sightings, he had abandoned a career! Credible reports of mountain lions in CT, there are robust mountain lion Corp 256... Continued, i think they never left, Ottmann piped in account for some of these sightings, had! Are significantly larger, occasionally, humans dismissing most of them in Western Mass be cases of false identification species!