When I shared their story with the staff at the center where my sister lived, I expected surprise and interested. 1 After three deer were killed on his property in March, Matunuck resident Abel Collins found what he suspected might be a mountain lion track nearby. And so we come to the great divide over cougars in New England. Length of body. 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. Check out 4 Seconds Until Impact by Bruce Hemming, or Cat Urbigkits books about predator attacks in unlikely places . Bobcats and a possible mountain lion have been mentioned within the past few weeks. Habitat. And he said, This is where the mountain lion crossed. We walked in and there were fresh bobcat tracks in there. And consider, for a moment, the concern and outright fear an official acknowledgment of such a carnivorous and predatory creature might evoke. 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.. They denied it until a cougar was hit as it tried to cross the very busy Merritt Parkway. Our hunter friend was hunting in central NH when they came upon an adult deer carcass way up in a tree. When I came out, the cat appeared in front of me coming up a rise (incredibly close to some ski condos). Betty folded his arms across his chest, where they rose and fell and rose again with his breathing. Today marks the date of our inception. UConn women's basketball's Dorka Juhsz, Amari DeBerry play 'word sneak' at press conference, Fight breaks out after CT high school basketball game between Bassick, Wilbur Cross, Guide to Legal Cannabis Dispensaries in CT, The Best Bathroom Remodeling Companies in CT, recent mountain lion sightings in Connecticut have not been confirmed, 10 criminal cases to watch in Connecticut in 2023, Haar: Pepperidge Farm HQ to exit CT for NJ with 170 jobs, After 350 years, the name of a CT river could be changed. 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. Sometimes referred to as the ghosts of the forest, mountain lions or cougars are stealthy hunters that are hard to spot, even in areas they are known to inhabit. 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. Im always amazed at the sheer volume of people who are interested in cougars, more even than wolves, she says. Its length varies from five to . Bobcat sightings are not uncommon in Connecticut. Hawley said that the typical range of cougars like mountain lions is from west of the South Dakota area. Mountain Lions:They can have similar coloring and their tails can look alike, which has lead to some house cats being mistaken for them, even though mountain lions are much, much bigger. Mountain Lions: They are officially extinct. The main habitat requirement for mountain lions is stalking cover to successfully hunt prey. Hawley said the last confirmed mountain lion sighting in the state was one that was killed on the Merritt Parkway in 2011 when a car struck the animal near Exit 55. I wasnt the only one to see the big cat. We dont have extra money to do secret projects, he says. But sometimes, instead of mountain lions, people thought they saw other creatures in the Connecticut woods, of which authorities were supposedly aware. Even though the experts say there arent any mountain lions in CT, there are. Wildlife do really crazy things, and you just never know.. Hawley: I feel strongly that we need a harvest here in Connecticut. Below are some of the first-hand. Its a cool story with how far that animal walked. Weights range from 80 to 225 pounds, but the average is 140 pounds. on route to stone tower on Quabbin Hill. However, that doesnt mean that mountain lion sightings are all false or that there havent been roaming cats sighted. Almost every state has some sort of legend of something thats hiding somewhere, he says. Additional samples were collected and are pending DNA analysis. Ive seen bobcats before, this wasnt a bobcat. And its a lose-lose situation, because theres really not a whole lot you can tell them in most cases thats going to change their mind.. Instead, the responsne I heard were nonchalant, Oh, yes, lots of people have seen that mountain lion around here; pretty isnt it?. I have pictures of tracks around my car and up to the back steps of my deck in Arkville, NY . Eastern cougars (mountain lions) do not have a native, self sustaining population in New York State. Heres what to know about mountain lions (and other large cats) in Connecticut. The Damned Story: Eastern mountain lions, or pumas or cougars, were last officially seen in Connecticut near the end of the 19th century. I was just amazed as I watched this scene in my own back yard. The big cat has been extinct here since the mid-1800s. 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. Mountain lion front tracks are 3 to 4 1/4 long and 3 1/4 to 4 3/4 wide. My encounter was in Middlesex, VT along the river road (Route 2) just below I89. They have been absent from this state since the late 1800s; however, there have been a few isolated sightings. Its definitely a problem thats only going to get worse. The size of a lion's territory depends on the availability of food and habitat quality. The Mountain Lion will return to feed on the prey for up to 10 days. 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. Officially, the last mountain lions were hunted to extinction here in the late 1800s. Now the bears, they dont even care if people are home, theyll go right in the house. Then saw him a few more times from further away across the road and along the edge sometimes of the woods. Spatz and Sue dont want to go where were going.. It was a flooded area. 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. Mountain Lion Historically, mountain lions (Puma concolor) occurred throughout South Dakota and were considered numerous in the Black Hills. Dont forget, south Texas also used to home to two other species of cats ocelots and jaguarundis. 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. McEnroe: It is an uphill challenge. Stephen Gencarella, professor of folklore studies at the University of Massachusetts and a Connecticut resident, says, The government coverup is only the latest version of something that could stretch back in the oral tradition to precolonial times. He notes that supposed mountain lion sightings spiked in the late 1800s and early 1900s shortly after the animals disappeared from New Englands woods. Initially, officials believed it had been released from a private handler. Bobcats: Though technically a type of lynx, they are distinct from other species of lynx such as the Canadian lynx. It lowers the population in a way thats not going to affect the long-term population. 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. If you dont think cougars are coming to the East, think again, she said, leaning forward for emphasis. And Im assuming whatever were doing right now, its not working. near Greenfield with an experienced guide that hed worked with several times. We really must establish first that these beautiful animals SHOULD be in every state that was once THEIR habitat. Next to the jaguar, it is the largest North American cat. 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 could hear the steady rush of traffic on Route 315. Zillow has 20 photos of this $299,000 3 beds, 2 baths, -- sqft single family home located at 2439 Adams Farm Ct, Snow Camp, NC 27349 built in 1999. There was no mistake. Bobcats: They are about two to three times larger than their distant relative. Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. And Im assuming whatever were doing right now, its not working. 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. Hawley, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, says data dont support a breeding population of mountain lions in Connecticut. Although there are numerous reported sightings of mountain lions in Connecticut every year, the animals have actually been extinct in this state for more than a century. In a Facebook poll, 84 people said they believe mountain lions are in the county, 37 say they've personally seen them, and three people say they do not exist. Body coloration can range from tan to gray and cubs are usually covered with blackish brown spots. He has also reported for the Marketplace Morning Report. , located in the golf course community of Coyote Lakes. When you look at a state like Connecticut, with all the people we have here, all the trail cameras we have in the woods, all the cars we have driving you can imagine if we had an established population here in Connecticut, we would know about it pretty quickly. Bobcats are most frequently misidentified by the public as mountain lions, but theyre not the only animals mislabeled. 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! That maybe, just maybe, what my wife and others saw wasnt a bobcat that seemed bigger in the thrill of the moment, but a real, honest-to-goodness mountain lion, a long-lost ghost of the forest. What would motivate DEEP officials to do this isnt clear. ), 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. 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. Part of this belief is rooted in his journalistic experience, which across the decades has cultivated his nose for sincerity. The last confirmed mountain lion sighting in Connecticut occurred in 2011. Wed be seeing more carcasses of prey we would be seeing at least some carcasses of mountain lion prey. In 2011, the U.S. #3. It was a 140-pound male mountain lion, the first confirmed in Connecticut in more than 100 years. Its not a bear, not a dog, not a deer, not a bobcat. It can run at speeds of up to 50 mph. 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. Mountain lions have been dispersing away from these population areas, and researchers recently mapped all confirmed mountain lion observations from 1990-2008 (LaRue et al. If theres a middle ground in the cougar debate, it belongs to John Harrigan, a veteran outdoorsman, newspaper reporter, and widely read syndicated columnist. 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. In the 1930s, Bruce Wright, an influential wildlife manager from New Brunswick, Canada, began gathering reports of sightings of mountain lions in the East and searching for their tracks. Could UConn women's basketball be back to 'square one' with seven available players at Seton Hall? But you are talking Pacquiao (Pit) vs. Tyson (Dogo) in their prime. Joseph Uscinski, professor of political science at the University of Miami, and a conspiracy theory expert, says these types of theories are not uncommon. They have a right to exist here and they contribute to healthier prey species. March 20, 2022; Bob Dylan is Staying Busy in Isolation May 5, 2020; An Argument Against Gen Eds February 18, 2013; Forgive or Forsake: When an Artist Messes Up April 6, 2018; Computer Science and ESPN: An Interview with Christine Chung February 18, 2015; The Emperor Has No Clothes: Trump and COVID-19 April 22, 2020 A trail runner in Utah experienced a terrifying encounter with a mother mountain lion that stalked him on a trail for six minutes, lunging him at least three times . We hadnt seen a cougar, nor any evidence to suggest a cougar had traveled these woods recently. They also generally have spots on their fur. 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. Weight. He knew it was only a matter of time. 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. Continued investigation revealed mountain lion tracks, scat deposits and an additional cache of an elk calf. Rumors of their hidden presence persisted. She had seen an animal on foot in broad daylight. of Energy & Environmental Protection. He points out that when there was a real mountain lion in the state in 2011, his office publicized it immediately. 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. Obviously, this is the reason why the experts are loathe to admit that the species is here. Regarding a breeding population that is the unknown. Its definitely a problem thats only going to get worse. 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. Our Mission. His bicycle was later found with the chain unbroken, but off the sprockets. You dont even have to go out and look for it.. A bobcats tail is short and bob-like, while mountain lions have long, curving tails that can grow up to 3 feet.
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