And, then, some species didnt need any help from humans but managed to extend their range into now-recovered and suitable habitats. But this requires a breeding pair. Ordinary, the lone males do not range much more than 100 miles. My neighbors have seen several over the last 15-20 years. 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. 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? He soon developed a five-question litmus test: How far away were you? 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. on route to stone tower on Quabbin Hill. 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. Probably are lions in western NC, too. Indeed! my father was recently trout fishing in central Mass. What color was it? And consider, for a moment, the concern and outright fear an official acknowledgment of such a carnivorous and predatory creature might evoke. These were old growth woods and the canopy had kept the ground cover down, so I could see three or four hundred yards ahead of me but not clearly, because of the gloom. I only saw the back side, but he was huge. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. The scientific name for the catamount is Puma concolor. Still, there is no saying that it will not happen. My assumption is it was the same animal. The animal, I learned, is called many things: mountain lion, panther, catamount, puma, cougar and more. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding woods. There are also many unconfirmed sightings. He knew it was only a matter of time. I wasnt the only one to see the big cat. Still, there are those of us who know what weve seen. She IS, perhaps, the most knowledgeable and experienced person in this arena and I listened intently to her presentation (Richmond, VT 2018). The deer dont eat the exotics, but they eat the competitors. Saw one on old mountain rd Peterborough N.H. a few years ago on my property followed it and ran to get my camera have a photo but in distance by time got it was amazing animal t Metcalf. The 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. 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. 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. Catamounts are large wild cats that are also called panthers, cougars or mountain lions. Several years ago, I saw what was definitely a cougar walking along a street. Provided by Touchpoints 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. 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. What are the chances of wolves coming back to Vermont? 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. 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. They set the stage for the exotics to move in, and this has a huge impact on our ecology, he said. If the mountain lion is a certified killer of sheep and, sometimes, cattle, it has also occasionally attacked humans. 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. Raised them carefully to my eyes. Mid Vermont Christian School Eagles forfeited their girls basketball playoff game on Tuesday against Long Trail School Mountain Lions. Apex predators like the cougar and wolf make for a healthier ecosystem. 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. Our county. I wasnt planning to shoot her unless she moved in my direction. 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 . So Blodgett brought what he had learned in Wyoming and Arizona back to Vermont with him and began following up on catamount sightings. It was huge! 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. The Mountain Lions won both regular season margins by 30-plus points. Check out 4 Seconds Until Impact by Bruce Hemming, or Cat Urbigkits books about predator attacks in unlikely places . Photo courtesy of Dave O'Donnell. Put bluntly, Morse does not believe that New England is home to cougars. Black markings decorate the tip of the tail, ears, and around the snout. So you can imagine there. 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. A 2,000 Mile Journey Lizzie Post Would Like Your Attention. 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. 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. Probably because of all the hunters that would be out trying to get their trophy and endangering others. And DNA analysis shows us that felis concolor is genetically the same across the USI think it is irrelevant, but interesting. Id need proof if I wanted people to believe me. In my mind, I went through all the nots. 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. I think they never left, Ottmann piped in. 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. 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. 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. Wildlife management programs succeeded in reintroducing species to areas where they had not been seen for years. And the clincher, What would you say was the most distinguishing feature? What time of day was it? 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 are so many great sites out there devoted to. I also had a coworker report a similar experience around the same time. 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. 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. Spring Loaded to See Something It has, in fact, more names than any animal in the world. It has nothing to do with trophy hunting, public safety, etc. 104 Williston, VT 05495. I mentioned this to a neighbor who spotted one a few miles away. Obviously, this is the reason why the experts are loathe to admit that the species is here. Something I had not expected ever to experience. I did call in a report to CT DEP and they basically dismissed my narrative questioning whether I made a mistake confusing the animal I saw with a bobcat or fisher cat. I met with Morse at her home in Jericho. He says that if mountain lions do . After 20 minutes or so, we turned and stumbled our way back to the parking lot. 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 just heard from a fellow college student of a siting in Greenfield last fall and two in Colrain this spring. Yet I also remembered something Sue Morse had told me months before, as we sat in her living room drinking beer and chatting cats. Somebody in the NC Legislature believes, because lions are now protected by law. But I dont think it will happen any time soon.. I was curious enough at the time to do a little research. The restrictions/regulations surrounding management of an endangered species is incredibly cumbersome, and would be difficult to manage. But, I think with education and planning, we should reintroduce wolves and cougar in the Northeast. At Green Mountain Lion Corp, we specialize in placing professionals in a variety of industries. Phone: +1 802 448 8250. These sightings usually took place at night or in fading light, like that of my bobcat encounter. I live in Hopkinton, NH and saw one coming up from the Contoocook River one misty morning. Beautiful animal. Within six weeks, he continued, I was getting off the plane in Jackson Hole for a national mountain lion conference. A few years later, though, the scat was retested with DNA analysis and found to be canid, rather than feline, in origin. We clearly have migratory male cougars coming through. 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. Americans called the mountain " Tah-wak-be-dee-ee-wads. There is no shortage of deer for all apex predators whether they are canine, feline, or human. I reported it to Connecticut DEEP, only to be told there are no cougars in Connecticut. At the head of the driveway is a flower sales table in front of a modest size greenhouse. 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. If theyre in one, theyre in the other.. 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 ! 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. The animal was too small and it lacked the long, sinuous tail of the catamount. Also moose. Refuge volunteer Dale Erz originally. There was no denying that the carcass, which was examined by experts, was that of a mountain lion. When I shared their story with the staff at the center where my sister lived, I expected surprise and interested. Several years ago, I was bicycling with a buddy up Quabbin Reservoirs Administration Rd. So the initial assumption was that the animal was one of those captives that had either escaped or been released by its owner. 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. Perfect conditions, then, for thinking you saw something. Betty, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the process. No An official form of the United States government. 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. Things seem to move at twilight and you never know. I saw one yesterday in Windsor Cty Vermont. 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. It is healthy to have respect and caution, but fear shouldnt drive ecological decision making. But it is also true that there is something different and especially chilling about the threat of being attacked by something that is alive and wants to devour you. This guy was very intelligent, he had abandoned a professional career to pursue his dream of guiding. Beautiful creature. 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.. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. I have not had the pleasure of seeing one, but have heard credible reports of them in Western Mass. No need since so we guess it has moved on from the northeast corner of Connecticut. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This setting should only be used on your home or work computer. Then, follow-up DNA researchmatching samples from the carcass with those from scat and hair collected in other locationsestablished that the animal had come to Connecticut from the Black Hills of North Dakota. near Greenfield with an experienced guide that hed worked with several times. 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. If this habitat can support them, it should. 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. Green Mountain Lion Corp #256 34 Blair Park Road Ste. Ive attended talks with Sue Morse. The animal that was killed in Connecticut proved that. It is hard for me to believe that the big cats havent found plenty of space to roam without regular detection. I live in Vermont and have seen, in broad daylight, a mountain lion (catamount, cougar, puma). I was just amazed as I watched this scene in my own back yard. To date, Keeping Track has helped conserve 40,000 acres in 12 states and inQuebec. There was no mistake. Dont forget, south Texas also used to home to two other species of cats ocelots and jaguarundis. First about the animal, itself, and then about the lore and the possibility that the catamount was not, in fact, extinct in Vermont. 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.). Its OK, he told me. The reason why experts wont admit to a breeding population existing is that there is NO PROOF. So long as the tails there, that is. All of us with rifles, most of them scoped. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. 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. 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. They were also seen at other times by members of my family and other people in the neighborhood. Length of body. Could be a deer, but it didnt seem to be tall enough. Interesting how tree stumps or boulders assume the shape of an animal in this kind of light. 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. 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. 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