And, in the real world, a black bears fatal attack on a hiker in New Jersey last year made many people reconsider their warm feelings for that animal. 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. You dont even have to go out and look for it.. "The catamount, which is also a mountain lion, a cougar, a panther and a ton of other words, is actually one of the most widely distributed mammals in the whole world. Wildlife do really crazy things, and you just never know.. 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. 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. People clearly arent lying when they say they saw a cougar; [the sighting] has a profound effect on them.. 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 moved very carefully to get my hand in my pocket and my fingers around the glasses. Some people say they have seen a catamount in the woods. Because they are.. My parents friend in Deposit, NY, posted a young catamount sitting on the front porch on Facebook. As I looked at my daughter and then turned to follow the direction she was looking, I saw the animal in my side mirror. Stratton Magazine Celebrating Manchester and the Mountains. This could, of course, be projection on my part. Was INCREDIBLE! Beautiful animal. Lacked, almost any tail at all, for that matter. 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. 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. I started this blog for people to discuss mountain lion sightings and reports in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. 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. Long Trail Mountain Lion roster: Myra Aldanondo, Olivia Cole-Bugay, Liz Daara, Rose Johnson, Aubrey Lanning, Molly Luikart, Camilla Marcy, Meara Morgan, Harlow Quail, . And DNA analysis shows us that felis concolor is genetically the same across the USI think it is irrelevant, but interesting. Still, I wanted to believe those sightings were real. I live in Vermont and have seen, in broad daylight, a mountain lion (catamount, cougar, puma). Length of body. Nostalgia for the Wild We have a lot of them here in N CA. Tom Stearns, a Vermont Game Warden says they get reports all the time. It was fast as hell but there was no mistaking its not only long,but THICK tail as it disappeared into the woods. ), 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. And why not? But they would certainly pay attention if they did see one. 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. 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. They denied it until a cougar was hit as it tried to cross the very busy Merritt Parkway. If you dont think cougars are coming to the East, think again, she said, leaning forward for emphasis. 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. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. 104 Williston, VT 05495. 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. Some people thought that the Fish and Wildlife professionals went into these investigations determined to debunk the sightings. That was plain, right away. Spring Loaded to See Something 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. I saw on three occasions in about the same location a beautiful mtn lion with the long bushytail that curves at the end. 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. Video - Trade Show Recaps; Videos - Can We Find a Time to Talk? When we reached tower, a ranger arrived in a pickup. The animal that was killed in Connecticut proved that. The police and everyone else just shook their heads but she to her dying breath said she saw a mountain lion in Lexington MA. She said it jumped up on the neighbors stone wall which was pretty high and walked across it. I thought about why this might be and the best I could come up with for an answer is that we feel a kind of nostalgia for the wild. There is a reason that millions of people were afraid to go in the water after they saw the movie Jaws. Its distinctive featurethe one that sets it apart from other North American wild catsis its tail, which is thick and often as long as its body. My neighbors have seen several over the last 15-20 years. Apex predators like the cougar and wolf make for a healthier ecosystem. But my eyes picked up something and I knew, right away, that it was alive. The name " Camel's Rump " was assigned on a historical map made by Ira Allen in 1798. 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. In 2011, the U.S. All those deer hunters represent a kind of ad hoc search party. Ottmann nodded. Probably because of all the hunters that would be out trying to get their trophy and endangering others. 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. Mountain lions are large, tan cats. Regarding a breeding population that is the unknown. I live in New Milford and I saw one crossing the road in front of me when I stopped to get my mail from my mailbox. Americans called the mountain " Tah-wak-be-dee-ee-wads. He was a dark butterscotch color, very tall and lanky (taller and thinner than a really big German Shepard) and that tail. Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. This assessment is echoed by the aforementioned Christopher Spatz, who has been studying cougars for better than 20 years. 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. It had traveled, certainly, though Minnesota and Wisconsin and, who knows, perhaps even Vermont and might, then, have accounted for some of those sightings. He coined the term landscape of fear to describe the relationship between predator and prey in the wild. I live in Hopkinton, NH and saw one coming up from the Contoocook River one misty morning. Looking at the mounted animal, behind the glass, had made me feel kind of well, sad. and with my friend Chris Christinat who lives in hartsville we saw one stalking a rabbit on her lawn about autumn of 2009. According to official estimates, as many as 1,000 people own, in spite of legal prohibitions, captive animals. Face to face, maybe, with a sure enough catamount. As pets or for exhibit. 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. Everglades Panther 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. If theres a middle ground in the cougar debate, it belongs to John Harrigan, a veteran outdoorsman, newspaper reporter, and widely read syndicated columnist. The animal, I learned, is called many things: mountain lion, panther, catamount, puma, cougar and more. Running into a mountain lion can be a scary experience. You need breeding pairs and theyd probably settle down long before they got here.. If this habitat can support them, it should. Green Mountain Lion Corp #256 34 Blair Park Road Ste. They are most definitely here. They were also reluctant to certify that turkey and moose had returned the Quabin reservoir lands for many years after locals reported seeing them. 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. The old logging road was easy enough to navigate and I let my feet follow it while I kept my eyes up and scanning. It can run 50 miles an hour and clear a twelve-foot fence. There are also many unconfirmed sightings. Now that USFW has declared them extinct, why not formally reintroduce them. It can run at speeds of up to 50 mph. 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. The glasses I carried were of good quality with exceptional light-gathering property. Several years ago, I saw what was definitely a cougar walking along a street. But, I think with education and planning, we should reintroduce wolves and cougar in the Northeast. I came across a dead adult deer carcass high up in an oak tree. THAT is a mountain lion! The light was failing and I was on my way out of the woods. 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. 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. Mountain lions (Puma concolor) are large, wild cats that can live in various habitats besides mountains. How did I know? I saw one yesterday in Windsor Cty Vermont. We witnessed a mountain lion stalking a herd of deer. Until 2011, that question rested upon a hypothetical. Could be a deer, but it didnt seem to be tall enough. 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. 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. 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. A 2,000 Mile Journey They are here & ..just a matter of time with photo or kill on a highway/road. Ottmann and I walked farther. There are no breeding cougars in New England and we do not need any. Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. He didn't want to dispute what people are saying they saw, he simply says they need proof to substantiate it. Prior to the mid-1990s, the late Wildlife Professor Harold Hitchcock of Middlebury College, became Vermont's Official Big Cat 'hunter', who sought evidence of the Big Cats across the Maple State. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. The cougar and the states refusal to admit it was here made the local paper. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. If the mountain lion is a certified killer of sheep and, sometimes, cattle, it has also occasionally attacked humans. Females ranges are much smaller so it will take reintroduction or a few savvy wildlife biologist in the dead of night. Ive attended talks with Sue Morse. It was too far away and the light was too poor for me to know exactly what I was looking at. You need to understand that every biologist that works for the state has a duty to deny mountain lions. So long as the tails there, that is. I was just amazed as I watched this scene in my own back yard. For instance, a favorite food for deer is the seedlings of forest tree species. So Blodgett brought what he had learned in Wyoming and Arizona back to Vermont with him and began following up on catamount sightings. 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. Dismissing most of the sightings as probable bobcats, Morse asserted that the scientific evidence has not been proven. 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. Some with cameras. Morse introduced me to her cat, Allister, whom she referred to as her portable puma. Then she fetched me a beer. In March of 1965, the Colorado legislature repealed the old mountain lion bounty of $50, which was first enacted in 1924. It was definitely a cougar. Concerned for people / pets and a school just down the street, stopped to report the sighting where dispatch told me that if I did not have proof they would not respond. What set it off was a National Geographic special on mountain lions in California, right after my daughter and I had two encounters in my driveway, Betty told me. All of which is to say that if Alexander Crowell wasnt afraid on that long-ago Thanksgiving Day, he probably should have been. Harrigans interest in cougars was sparked in the late 70s, after he took ownership of The Coos County Democrat and began noticing the steady influx of reported sightings. I wasnt the only one to see the big cat. Our county. I had been foraging up in an area that is rocky. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. We also had bobcats that we saw quite often but I am positive that these were mountain lions! And, if those people who said they were seeing catamounts were wrong, and not just making it up, then what were they seeing? We clearly have migratory male cougars coming through. 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. Betty, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the process. 2,110 likes. 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. Vermont-based naturalist SueMorse has spent decades studying, tracking, andphotographing cougars outwest. 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. The mountain lion can weigh upwards of 200 pounds and it can move like well, like a cat. But there was certainty, or near-certainty, on the part of the witnesses who, it seemed, would swear to having seen a catamount. Inslerman said the DEC received about a half-dozen calls reporting sightings of mountain lions last year; two calls this week. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. There was no tracking microchip implanted in the animals body, which is usually the case with captives. Of course. It does NOT surprise me, you would have seen a wild, free-roaming, native 'eastern' cougar, aka puma, mountain lion in Vermont. They were also seen at other times by members of my family and other people in the neighborhood. She said it was long and thick. Although the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared the . An expert said it was probably a basking shark. In my case, I had seen just about everything else in the Vermont woods in the several years that I had been going out, and not just during deer season. Mr. Betty and Mr.Ottomans passion and efforts are impressive. Especially by one that he remembers involving a kill site.. 8 Arlington (9-10) and No. Provided by Touchpoints The combined scoring differential in those matchups was 158-77. When I shared their story with the staff at the center where my sister lived, I expected surprise and interested. It has nothing to do with trophy hunting, public safety, etc. Big kitty. A deer is a wild animal and it is always a pleasure to see oneunless it is in the high beams, at night. Body coloration can range from tan to gray and cubs are usually covered with blackish brown spots. We need [an apex] predator back on the land, Sue Morse told me. A mountain lion was responsible for that too. In the few seconds that this took, I had convinced myself that I was looking at a mountain lion. Still, there is no saying that it will not happen. Videos - Industry Stories; Find Candidates; One wonders just how tolerant Vermonters would be of a healthy population of mountain lions after one attacked a child waiting for the school bus. Stupid me grabbed my camera and a stick as to protect myself ( yes stupid idea as I could stop this thing from attacking me lol. 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. 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. Morse has been tracking cougars for 45 years, mostly in the mountains of the West, where their existence is not in doubt. As cleared lands became reforested, many species that had been squeezed into small regions where there was still habitat,or hunted to near extinction, could be replanted in their former range. 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 . 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. 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. Bill and I are full-throttle. 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. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. This is part of the cougar business. At Green Mountain Lion Corp, we specialize in placing professionals in a variety of industries. He knew it was only a matter of time. There are so many great sites out there devoted to. Several years of doing the follow-ups, then, convinced Blodgett that there were no catamounts in Vermont. 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. It kills to eat but does not necessarily practice any sort of conservation ethic. Im not surprised that various state officers deny the presence of cougars in new England. I was outdoor with my two pugs and quickly scooped them up and brought them in the house. This was after the department sent him out west to study the behavior of mountain lions. But never a catamount. Indeed! Catamounts are large wild cats that are also called panthers, cougars or mountain lions. 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. So yes they are here and not to sure why they dont admit to them being around ! Especially among those who did believe. The discussion of whether federal lands should be a place to subsidize cattle ranching is another question. The last catamount killed in Vermont was shot in 1881. This isnt to say she believes none of these animals has stepped foot on New England soil over the past century. Out & About | Best New England Holiday Events for 2019. And, then, some species didnt need any help from humans but managed to extend their range into now-recovered and suitable habitats. If someone described seeing a black panther, for example, then you knew right away and you didnt need to do any more investigating.. 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? I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! The mountain lion can weigh upwards of 200 pounds and it can move like well, like a cat. He soon developed a five-question litmus test: How far away were you? You wouldnt shake hands with a man like that, she said, and though she was smiling I could tell she was serious. A wildlife camera snapped the image in late 2019 and the refuge shared it on Facebook this month, challenging followers to find the hidden mountain lion. 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? ), 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. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. These things happen suddenly and they are over quickly. 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. We were talking about those animals, like coyotes and turkeys, that have re-established themselves in Vermont and, unlike the rattlers, are thriving. However, when I asked the room of 200 or so people how many believe they had seen a mountain lion/cougar/puma/catamount, hands shot up all around the room about 25% of those present.
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