That animal in Connecticut makes for a pretty fantastic story but it takes more than one dispersing male. I wished it were a camera with a long lens to document the sighting. 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. We were talking about those animals, like coyotes and turkeys, that have re-established themselves in Vermont and, unlike the rattlers, are thriving. In Vermont, in the late 19th century, this meant, especially, sheep. 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 told him what we saw, and he confirmed other sightings on the property. 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. near Greenfield with an experienced guide that hed worked with several times. That was plain, right away. 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). We really must establish first that these beautiful animals SHOULD be in every state that was once THEIR habitat. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. Length of body. You need breeding pairs and theyd probably settle down long before they got here.. 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. Finally, in the third camp, there are the true believersthe cougar truthers, if you willthe men and women for whom the only logical conclusion (often reached after a significant investment of time, thought, and sometimes money) is that right here, right now, cougars live among us, feeding and breeding and rearing their young, and that suggesting otherwise is sheer ignorance, willful denial, or part of a mosaic of conspiracy. This is part of the cougar business. 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. But it was also a male. Actually, Blodgett says, something of the opposite was true. It had traveled, certainly, though Minnesota and Wisconsin and, who knows, perhaps even Vermont and might, then, have accounted for some of those sightings. 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. If its not, you just thank the person and say good-bye.. Distinguished by a boxy head, big paws and a VERY long tail. The combined scoring differential in those matchups was 158-77. Its not a bear, not a dog, not a deer, not a bobcat. It has, in fact, more names than any animal in the world. 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. They may get here, Doug Blodgett said to me one afternoon. 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 isnt to say she believes none of these animals has stepped foot on New England soil over the past century. Wildlife management programs succeeded in reintroducing species to areas where they had not been seen for years. 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? 104 Williston, VT 05495. 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. 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. And why not? 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. If LTS can take care of business in that one, it would host the winner of the Bennington County matchup between No. Neither resemble a cougar! What color was it? (The cat I saw when I was a young boy was on the Gulf Coast.). I met with Morse at her home in Jericho. 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. It had moved a little and was standing unconcealed, now, in the middle of the logging road. I have heard several accounts from sober, sane, intelligent people who have seen them (especially a latre, good friend who was a very competent spokesman and hunter.). She IS, perhaps, the most knowledgeable and experienced person in this arena and I listened intently to her presentation (Richmond, VT 2018). 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. I came across a dead adult deer carcass high up in an oak tree. 104 Williston, VT 05495. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This setting should only be used on your home or work computer. Until 2011, that question rested upon a hypothetical. They set the stage for the exotics to move in, and this has a huge impact on our ecology, he said. There are no breeding cougars in New England and we do not need any. He didn't want to dispute what people are saying they saw, he simply says they need proof to substantiate it. As I looked at my daughter and then turned to follow the direction she was looking, I saw the animal in my side mirror. 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. 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. In the 37 years Ive been working, things have changed in ways Id never have predicted. 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. Around 7:10 pm this evening August 02, 2022 my wife entered our Oakwood Farm business off 6 Weed Road in Essex Center with headlights on. But right now youre dealing with top-notch guys. I had been the first vehicle in a line held up by one lane traffic on a bridge reconstruction. I got the glasses to my eyes and focused on the animal. Tried to see "mountain lion" and agree that what appears to be a long tail is most likely the . And the clincher, What would you say was the most distinguishing feature? 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. If these people say they saw something, Im going to listen., If theres one thing people on all sides of the debate can agree on, its that a breeding population of cougars is essential to the overall health of New Englands ecosystems, which currently lack an apex predator. But examination of the carcass raised suspicions. Theyre here. But this requires a breeding pair. Ordinary, the lone males do not range much more than 100 miles. 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. Or, if it does, when that will be. Defenders of Wildlife developed funding to support wolf predation on cattle which I believe worked. 5-7 yards from me. However, many of their claimsespecially Mr. Bettys contention of roughly a dozen personal sightings in New Englandare hard to take seriously. 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. This animal was too long in the body and blunt in the head. Wildlife is unpredictable (and several people go missing in wild areas, parks especially, every year -Probably not because of alien abduction). 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. Blodgett and I were returning from a day spent looking forand finding timber rattlesnakes, a species that is endangered in Vermont. 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. 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). Females ranges are much smaller so it will take reintroduction or a few savvy wildlife biologist in the dead of night. First about the animal, itself, and then about the lore and the possibility that the catamount was not, in fact, extinct in Vermont. Things seem to move at twilight and you never know. The Great Divide | Are There Mountain Lions in New England. At Green Mountain Lion Corp, we specialize in placing professionals in a variety of industries. The last time a mountain lion was captured in New York was in the . 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. Put bluntly, Morse does not believe that New England is home to cougars. The old logging road was easy enough to navigate and I let my feet follow it while I kept my eyes up and scanning. The truth is, I was by this point dubious. 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. Some with cameras. I was curious enough at the time to do a little research. If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! He/she was UNMISTAKEABLY a mountain lion: stretched out straight, long tail straight out behind him, golden/beigey color, and smallish head, little ears. Its not my call. Mountain lions are large, tan cats. It can run 50 miles an hour and clear a twelve-foot fence. I live in Hopkinton, NH and saw one coming up from the Contoocook River one misty morning. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. Videos. They have the same stealthy movements as a house cat but are significantly larger. After 20 minutes or so, we turned and stumbled our way back to the parking lot. Humans and wildlife MUST learn to live along side each other and we MUST learn to respect nature. vital part of this countries ecosystem. 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. 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 Christian school also dropped out of the state . The first time was in the yard which was surrounded by woods. No way to proveor disproveit. There are also many unconfirmed sightings. Because he lives among them, Harrigan understands that no one knows the woods better. I think I may have pissed her off since I was up in that area X2 this week. 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. But other hard evidence of the big cats presence is elusive. Yet I also remembered something Sue Morse had told me months before, as we sat in her living room drinking beer and chatting cats. The Mountain Lions won both regular season margins by 30-plus points. Cougars, Lynx, Bobcats, Wolves, Bears etc were and are a My daughter and I were driving north in West Granby, near the Simsbury, Ct. line just after lunch one summer day a few years ago. Periods of snow. Face to face, maybe, with a sure enough catamount. 9 Grace Christian (9-11). It is hard for me to believe that the big cats havent found plenty of space to roam without regular detection. They were also seen at other times by members of my family and other people in the neighborhood. A mountain lion was responsible for that too. He set down his cigarette and looked me in the eye. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. When I came out, the cat appeared in front of me coming up a rise (incredibly close to some ski condos). The mountain lionalso known as the cougar, puma, panther, or catamountis a large cat species native to the Americas. Indeed! If he was not determined to prove that someone had actually seen a mountain lion in Vermonthe is a scientist, after allhe was still excited by the possibility. I was outdoor with my two pugs and quickly scooped them up and brought them in the house. 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 !! Morse introduced me to her cat, Allister, whom she referred to as her portable puma. Then she fetched me a beer. I started this blog for people to discuss mountain lion sightings and reports in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. 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. So long as the tails there, that is. 3 talking about this. Now, ocelots are critically endangered and jaguarundis might be completely gone. Respect predators, protect them but dont worship or try to hug them! 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! Harrigan nodded. At least once a year thered be a story from somewhere, but I only ran the absolute best, he told me. Anticipating, perhaps, a moment like this. 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. And DNA analysis shows us that felis concolor is genetically the same across the USI think it is irrelevant, but interesting. One cat will leave more than 10,000 tracks per day. I also had a coworker report a similar experience around the same time. 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. Id splurged on them. 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. We hadnt seen a cougar, nor any evidence to suggest a cougar had traveled these woods recently. There was no denying that the carcass, which was examined by experts, was that of a mountain lion. Then saw him a few more times from further away across the road and along the edge sometimes of the woods. 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. This, said Vermont Fish and Wildlife fur-bearer project leader Chris Bernier, is why he takes reports of mountain lion sightings seriously. This assessment is echoed by the aforementioned Christopher Spatz, who has been studying cougars for better than 20 years. But I dont think it will happen any time soon.. The animal was shot in the town of Barnard on Thanksgiving Day 1881 by a man named Alexander Crowell. Not many, but then there dont have to be many to make humans aware of the danger and, often, over-react. [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. 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. 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. 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? They were also reluctant to certify that turkey and moose had returned the Quabin reservoir lands for many years after locals reported seeing them. But never a catamount. The mountain lion can weigh upwards of 200 pounds and it can move like well, like a cat. Still, sightings are common. Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. I also know of someone who said they showed F&G a photo of one from a game camera in NH. Some might mistake the bobcat, which still lives in New England, for a cougareven though its tail is about 6 inches long andthe bigger cats is 3 feet or more. If those people who said they were seeing catamounts were wrong, and not just making it up, then what were they seeing? Theymay not be looking, specifically, for a catamount. The solitary animal seeks out new territory and eventually a new population will be established. 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. But no. I have not had the pleasure of seeing one, but have heard credible reports of them in Western Mass. It may not surprise you to learn that I was quite intrigued by this third group. A far less likelyenvironment for finding a mountain lion than just about anywhere in Vermont. Our wildlife biologists and enforcement agents are mostly political bureaucrats who dont often venture more than 100yards from the truck. Mr. Betty and Mr.Ottomans passion and efforts are impressive. 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. We need cougars and we need wolves back in the Northeast, because a landscape of fear is a well-balanced landscape.. It kills to eat but does not necessarily practice any sort of conservation ethic. When a cats around, its not hard to find evidence. The cat is dead. Video - Trade Show Recaps; Videos - Can We Find a Time to Talk? If theres a middle ground in the cougar debate, it belongs to John Harrigan, a veteran outdoorsman, newspaper reporter, and widely read syndicated columnist. People clearly arent lying when they say they saw a cougar; [the sighting] has a profound effect on them.. I saw one yesterday in Windsor Cty Vermont. It was definitely a cougar. And, then, some species didnt need any help from humans but managed to extend their range into now-recovered and suitable habitats. 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.. Bennington, VT (05201) Today. The name " Camel's Rump " was assigned on a historical map made by Ira Allen in 1798. Our county. As I turned a corner going north toward Waterbury, I saw the cat come up from the cornfield, saunter across the highway, turn and look in my direction and then amble off into the brush. My own inclination, for the little it matters, is to side with the professionals like Blodgett. Predator removal was steady and unforgiving from the early 1800s . Part of this belief is rooted in his journalistic experience, which across the decades has cultivated his nose for sincerity. There was one photographed on a porch in Greenwich, CT, looking in the patio window that made national news a decade ago. Green Mountain Lion Corporation, Inc. Business Consulting and Services Williston, Vermont 5,563 followers Boutique management recruiting firm focusing on heavy equipment manufacturing & distribution. 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. How did I know? And some people might decide to release them into the wild rather than keeping them in their possession. County matchup between no reported mountain lion sightings seriously, Allister, whom she referred to as her portable.! - Trade Show Recaps ; Videos - can we find a time to Talk and you know. Completely gone, but then there dont have to be many to make aware! 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