Westford, MA, crossing Dunstable Rd from Long Sought For Pond into the woods. He says that if mountain lions do . 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. 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. 8 Arlington (9-10) and No. Newspaperman John Harrigan has long covered the New England outdoors, including writing the New Hampshire Sunday News column Woods, Water & Wildlife which ran for almost 40 years. A 140-pound male mountain lion was hit by a car and killed in 2011 in Milford, Connecticut. Mountain lions are large, tan cats. 5-7 yards from me. When we reached tower, a ranger arrived in a pickup. And there have been fatal attacks. They denied it until a cougar was hit as it tried to cross the very busy Merritt Parkway. This could, of course, be projection on my part. All those deer hunters represent a kind of ad hoc search party. In fact, jaguars used to be native to south Texas, as well! Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. I was curious enough at the time to do a little research. I live in Hopkinton, NH and saw one coming up from the Contoocook River one misty morning. You dont even have to go out and look for it.. I saw one about 10 years ago, on our road. For several years, Blodgett, a wildlife biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife, conducted those follow up investigations. Put bluntly, Morse does not believe that New England is home to cougars. Yes I have seen several pictures on game cameras from people in Massachusetts in Central and western Mass that do have mountain lions on their game camera so please dont be ignorant. You need to understand that every biologist that works for the state has a duty to deny mountain lions. Clearly, Puma concolor once inhabited the forests of the Northeast, although its difficult to say in what numbers. We need [an apex] predator back on the land, Sue Morse told me. Some with cameras. Video - Trade Show Recaps; Videos - Can We Find a Time to Talk? That animal in Connecticut makes for a pretty fantastic story but it takes more than one dispersing male. Because they are.. As I looked at my daughter and then turned to follow the direction she was looking, I saw the animal in my side mirror. 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. It has, in fact, more names than any animal in the world. In the 37 years Ive been working, things have changed in ways Id never have predicted. Jason. Blodgett and I were returning from a day spent looking forand finding timber rattlesnakes, a species that is endangered in Vermont. Its not a bear, not a dog, not a deer, not a bobcat. As pets or for exhibit. I do this shit.. I reported it to Connecticut DEEP, only to be told there are no cougars in Connecticut. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. on route to stone tower on Quabbin Hill. Spring Loaded to See Something The cougar and the states refusal to admit it was here made the local paper. Chance of snow 90%. It was huge! First about the animal, itself, and then about the lore and the possibility that the catamount was not, in fact, extinct in Vermont. 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. 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? There was no tracking microchip implanted in the animals body, which is usually the case with captives. The animal was shot in the town of Barnard on Thanksgiving Day 1881 by a man named Alexander Crowell. The scientific name for the catamount is Puma concolor. So Blodgett brought what he had learned in Wyoming and Arizona back to Vermont with him and began following up on catamount sightings. 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. If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! All of us with rifles, most of them scoped. I got the glasses to my eyes and focused on the animal. Morse, 70, comports herself in a friendly and no-nonsense manner. But this requires a breeding pair. Ordinary, the lone males do not range much more than 100 miles. Wildlife management programs succeeded in reintroducing species to areas where they had not been seen for years. Distinguished by a boxy head, big paws and a VERY long tail. But there was not enough evidence to either prove or disprove that a mountain lion had done the killing. 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. I lived in Woodstock, CT in 2005/2006. 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 in Colorado communities might need to warn their children and to look over their own shoulders when they were out jogging, but not here. If 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. Snow accumulating 3 to 5 inches.. . Mr. Betty and Mr.Ottomans passion and efforts are impressive. We hadnt seen a cougar, nor any evidence to suggest a cougar had traveled these woods recently. 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. Anticipating, perhaps, a moment like this. Thats a reasonable assertion. 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 . There was one possibility that might account for some of these sightings, he says. Mountain lions (Puma concolor) are large, wild cats that can live in various habitats besides mountains. 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. Also moose. They are here in the Catskill Mountains, so named for the magnificent felines. Local game officials are saying that this is another one of those sightings where people claim to have seen a mountain lion. 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. He soon developed a five-question litmus test: How far away were you? But other hard evidence of the big cats presence is elusive. Bill and I are full-throttle. We need cougars and we need wolves back in the Northeast, because a landscape of fear is a well-balanced landscape.. I saw a Mountain Lion in 2007 in Northfield, MA at the junctions of Rtes 10 and 63. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. Ottmann and I walked farther. Maybe you've seen the UVM(University of Vermont) catamount at a basketball game, or the catamount at the Vermont History Museum. In my mind, I went through all the nots. The mountain lion is also known as cougar, panther, or puma. My parents friend in Deposit, NY, posted a young catamount sitting on the front porch on Facebook. 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. Blodgett liked talking about this subject. [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. When he suggested we retrace our route, past lion, to see a sow bear with cubs, we headed in the opposite direction. That it had, somehow, made a return and established residence. The animal that was killed in Connecticut proved that. Height. Whatever it was, it was standing motionless and, I thought, looking back at me as intently as I was staring at it. But, yes, thats exactly what it was. We also had bobcats that we saw quite often but I am positive that these were mountain lions! 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. I went back and told the tale to anyone who would listen. I had a pair of good binoculars in my coat pocket. It does NOT surprise me, you would have seen a wild, free-roaming, native 'eastern' cougar, aka puma, mountain lion in Vermont. Americans called the mountain " Tah-wak-be-dee-ee-wads. But that was OK. Bo Ottmann knew they were out there. Several years ago, I saw what was definitely a cougar walking along a street. Betty was quiet, and I wondered if even he, a man who does not doubt the presence of these cats in our midst and who himself claims multiple sightings, thought Ottmann was exaggerating. Early spring 2019 I caught a glimpse of one entering over grown brush on the side of the road very very early in the morning. The real reason that they wont admit that a breeding population exists, is that listing a population of endangered species would wreak ECONOMIC havoc in a number of arenas, mostly logging/forestry. And, now, here I was. A journey of nearly 2,000 miles. Running into a mountain lion can be a scary experience. 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. We clearly have migratory male cougars coming through. Earlier in the year, Id attended one of these presentations, and even in the tiny village of Woodbury, Vermont, on a stiflingly hot summer evening, nearly 100 people showed up to hear her speak and see her photographs (Morse is a magnificent wildlife photographer). 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. They are there and thriving!!!! It jumped 28 feet across the road. Well, theres no difference between Maine and New Brunswick, anyway, said Betty. It has, in fact, more names than any animal in the world. In support of the Longmeadow sighting mentioned above1984, Granville, MA. Vermont offers plenty of habitat in which mountain lions could thrive. However, many of their claimsespecially Mr. Bettys contention of roughly a dozen personal sightings in New Englandare hard to take seriously. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. Since then, there have been a handful of confirmed mountain lion sightings in the Northeast, although most have been thought to be escaped captive animals. Even though the experts say there arent any mountain lions in CT, there are. The combined scoring differential in those matchups was 158-77. Tried to see "mountain lion" and agree that what appears to be a long tail is most likely the . vital part of this countries ecosystem. [Betty] and the other guys dont do this shit. At least once a year thered be a story from somewhere, but I only ran the absolute best, he told me. This was after the department sent him out west to study the behavior of mountain lions. Still, I wanted to believe those sightings were real. 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 cat I saw when I was a young boy was on the Gulf Coast.). The deer dont eat the exotics, but they eat the competitors. It can run at speeds of up to 50 mph. 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. Ottmann grew up and still lives just minutes from the tavern; his familiarity with the establishment was obvious (after we met in the parking lot, he led me into the building through the kitchen, greeting each of the staff by name). Email: info@grnvt.com. Thank you; Blog. But never a catamount. And, if those people who said they were seeing catamounts were wrong, and not just making it up, then what were they seeing? Ive seen tracks (Downeast Maine) and others have seen them, plain as day. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! Length of body. 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. 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. She IS, perhaps, the most knowledgeable and experienced person in this arena and I listened intently to her presentation (Richmond, VT 2018). Long Trail Mountain Lion roster: Myra Aldanondo, Olivia Cole-Bugay, Liz Daara, Rose Johnson, Aubrey Lanning, Molly Luikart, Camilla Marcy, Meara Morgan, Harlow Quail, . I had seen bear, deer, coyotes, foxes, that one bobcat all the usual suspects. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. We lived off of Mountain Rd in Granby, Ct for 8 years and I can say that without a doubt I am 100% sure that there are mountain lions living 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). Now, ocelots are critically endangered and jaguarundis might be completely gone. A 2,000 Mile Journey 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. But I dont think it will happen any time soon.. 104 Williston, VT 05495. Bennington, VT (05201) Today. Respect predators, protect them but dont worship or try to hug them! 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 seems humans just cant resist destroying these animals and either dont realize or dont care what damage we have done to our natural environment over the centuries. There is a lot of good habitat between here and the places where there are established populations of mountain lions, he said. 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. Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. 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. Looking at the mounted animal, behind the glass, had made me feel kind of well, sad. In 2011, the U.S. The reasons for this conspiracy vary depending upon whom you talk to, but they coalesce around the idea that wildlife agencies would be inconvenienced by the cougars presence, as theyd be forced to respond in ways that would tax their resources. There was one young kid, in his 20s, who had been doing it since he was in high school and he walked and thought like a cat. It kills to eat but does not necessarily practice any sort of conservation ethic. But it was also a male. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. We really must establish first that these beautiful animals SHOULD be in every state that was once THEIR habitat. 2,110 likes. Body coloration can range from tan to gray and cubs are usually covered with blackish brown spots. So you can imagine there. 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