That was plain, right away. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. 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. I think they never left, Ottmann piped in. The tavern was quiet except for some hard-rock music playing on the radio, the murmur of a handful of men at the bar, and us. They may get here, Doug Blodgett said to me one afternoon. Watching a potential winter storm. No doubt of what it was; size, color and recognizable tail. It was a striking animal, certainly, but it was no mountain lion. Periods of snow. You need breeding pairs and theyd probably settle down long before they got here.. Apex predators like the cougar and wolf make for a healthier ecosystem. I was just amazed as I watched this scene in my own back yard. 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. Escapes by these animals were not impossible. Wildlife is unpredictable (and several people go missing in wild areas, parks especially, every year -Probably not because of alien abduction). Out & About | Best New England Holiday Events for 2019. I saw a Mountain Lion in 2007 in Northfield, MA at the junctions of Rtes 10 and 63. I live in Hopkinton, NH and saw one coming up from the Contoocook River one misty morning. 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. 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. Our county. Everglades Panther my father was recently trout fishing in central Mass. There, too, is Crowells photograph, grainy and old: the hunter leaning against a tree stump, his head propped casually on his left hand, elbow to stump, shotgun cradled in the crook of his right arm. 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. When he suggested we retrace our route, past lion, to see a sow bear with cubs, we headed in the opposite direction. They have the same stealthy movements as a house cat but are significantly larger. 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? Face to face, maybe, with a sure enough catamount. The solitary animal seeks out new territory and eventually a new population will be established. 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. At Green Mountain Lion Corp, we specialize in placing professionals in a variety of industries. There is a reason that millions of people were afraid to go in the water after they saw the movie Jaws. There was one possibility that might account for some of these sightings, he says. But that was OK. Bo Ottmann knew they were out there. So, traffic had been slowed from both ends for a good 3-5 minutes. 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. Of course no dash cam or accessible phone camera at the time! So yes they are here and not to sure why they dont admit to them being around ! 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. Blodgett and I were returning from a day spent looking forand finding timber rattlesnakes, a species that is endangered in Vermont. 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 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. We need cougars and we need wolves back in the Northeast, because a landscape of fear is a well-balanced landscape.. 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. Because he lives among them, Harrigan understands that no one knows the woods better. On the other side, there are those (as represented here by Bill Betty and Bo Ottmann, along with a number of others I spoke with) who say the overwhelming quantity of anecdotal evidence suggests otherwise. Theyre here. For several years, Blodgett, a wildlife biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife, conducted those follow up investigations. It looked real promising, Blodgett remembers. The restrictions/regulations surrounding management of an endangered species is incredibly cumbersome, and would be difficult to manage. ), 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. Honestly, leaving this out of your article would seem to perpetuate the notion that there is a conspiracy to keep us all in ignorance. 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. He didn't want to dispute what people are saying they saw, he simply says they need proof to substantiate it. Its range was once similarly vast; from the high north regions of the Yukon to the Straits of Magellan. 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. A deer is a wild animal and it is always a pleasure to see oneunless it is in the high beams, at night. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. He set down his cigarette and looked me in the eye. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. 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: Harrigans interest in cougars was sparked in the late 70s, after he took ownership of, Perhaps, then, the ultimate question isnt whether cougars are among us, but rather how we can encourage them to settle here, After 20 minutes or so, we turned and stumbled our way back to the parking lot. Then saw him a few more times from further away across the road and along the edge sometimes of the woods. 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 . Ive heard some biologists say it is not a distinct subspecies. 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. 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. He wore red suspenders and a baseball cap. Even in the controlled environment of a lab, the truth about Eastern cougars seems to be almost willfully eluding its seekers. As I walked thru the beginning of the trail I spooked a deer and heard this awful screech and slowly backed out of there .. 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. Betty, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the process. Morse introduced me to her cat, Allister, whom she referred to as her portable puma. Then she fetched me a beer. However, many of their claimsespecially Mr. Bettys contention of roughly a dozen personal sightings in New Englandare hard to take seriously. So long as the tails there, that is. We were talking about those animals, like coyotes and turkeys, that have re-established themselves in Vermont and, unlike the rattlers, are thriving. It was a bright sunny summer day. 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. In Vermont, for instance, a few dozen wild turkeys from Pennsylvania were released in 1969 and multiplied into the thousands we have here now. The one killed on the Connecticut highway was on a journey worthy of Odysseus so it isnt likely that there will be a thriving population of mountain lions in Fairfield County, raiding backyard cocktail parties, anytime soon. Using DNA and physical evidence, state environmental officials said they determined that the animal likely trekked more than 1,500 miles from South Dakota, a journey that was captured by trail camera (above). But never a catamount. Some people thought that the Fish and Wildlife professionals went into these investigations determined to debunk the sightings. Blodgett liked talking about this subject. 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. Matthew Johnson/Vermont Historical Society. Females ranges are much smaller so it will take reintroduction or a few savvy wildlife biologist in the dead of night. And there have been fatal attacks. This was, after all, a long, long way from the nearest known population of mountain lions and virtually the heart of the suburban East. Now, ocelots are critically endangered and jaguarundis might be completely gone. 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. These things happen suddenly and they are over quickly. All those deer hunters represent a kind of ad hoc search party. I have not had the pleasure of seeing one, but have heard credible reports of them in Western Mass. "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. Video - Trade Show Recaps; Videos - Can We Find a Time to Talk? Was INCREDIBLE! 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). An expert said it was probably a basking shark. Phone: . Those who believe the growth and expansion of mountain lion populations to be a good thing routinely make the old, you face a greater danger of being struck by lighting or drowned in the bathtub argument and it is no doubt accurate. I will never forget what I saw! The catamount is a creature of stealth and concealment; it stalks its prey, which on the EasternSeaboard would likely be deer, moose, porcupines, beavers, and domestic livestock. The one thing that jumped out at her the tail. At least once a year thered be a story from somewhere, but I only ran the absolute best, he told me. But a deer is not a predator, like a bear can be, and certainly not a pure predator like a mountain lion, which is a majestic animal precisely because it is also a dangerous one. They are there and thriving!!!! We witnessed a mountain lion stalking a herd of deer. You need to understand that every biologist that works for the state has a duty to deny mountain lions. 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. Yet dozens of. It had moved a little and was standing unconcealed, now, in the middle of the logging road. The cat is dead. 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. Respect predators, protect them but dont worship or try to hug them! The light was failing and I was on my way out of the woods. Westford, MA, crossing Dunstable Rd from Long Sought For Pond into the woods. Id splurged on them. 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. 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. 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. Still, I wanted to believe those sightings were real. They are much larger than bobcat and lynx, young adults can still have spots too. 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. 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. And its not just Vermont. I had a pair of good binoculars in my coat pocket. The females are where its at, she said. Vermont Mountain Lion Sightings. They denied it until a cougar was hit as it tried to cross the very busy Merritt Parkway. Spring Loaded to See Something In Vermont, the last known mountain lion was shot near Barnard in 1881, ending an era when the predators were such a nuisance that the state offered a $20 bounty per pelt. But I dont think it will happen any time soon.. I was agnostic, I suppose, on these stories which the state wildlife biologists inevitably found impossible to substantiate and, often, easy to disprove. Body coloration can range from tan to gray and cubs are usually covered with blackish brown spots. I mentioned this to a neighbor who spotted one a few miles away. 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. Maybe you've seen the UVM(University of Vermont) catamount at a basketball game, or the catamount at the Vermont History Museum. Actually, Blodgett says, something of the opposite was true. Lacked, almost any tail at all, for that matter. 8 Arlington (9-10) and No. As pets or for exhibit. Adult males can be around 8 feet in length and weigh between 130 and 150 pounds, while adult females can be 7 feet long and weigh between 65 and 90 pounds. In March of 1965, the Colorado legislature repealed the old mountain lion bounty of $50, which was first enacted in 1924. When I came out, the cat appeared in front of me coming up a rise (incredibly close to some ski condos). Scat, tracks, lays, scratch mounds youll see these things.. Tried to see "mountain lion" and agree that what appears to be a long tail is most likely the . In the 37 years Ive been working, things have changed in ways Id never have predicted. I saw one yesterday in Windsor Cty Vermont. But I learned something else in my ad hoc researchesnamely that this was a question that aroused a lot of passion in people. The mountain lionalso known as the cougar, puma, panther, or catamountis a large cat species native to the Americas. I had a clear look, through the glasses at a bobcat. And, furthermore, the animal still had its claws, though those have usually been removed from captive animals. But, I think with education and planning, we should reintroduce wolves and cougar in the Northeast. Coyotes, for instance, found their way into Vermont with no help. Now that USFW has declared them extinct, why not formally reintroduce them. The police and everyone else just shook their heads but she to her dying breath said she saw a mountain lion in Lexington MA. They especially come down from the mountains when there is a big water shortgage. They are most definitely here. Long Trail beat Arlington 62-40 on Feb. 7. 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. Bernier gets more than 50 reports of mountain lions a year. Indeed! 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). They knew what they were doing, Blodgett says. With the price off its head, the lion gained new stature, and in July 1965 . This assessment is echoed by the aforementioned Christopher Spatz, who has been studying cougars for better than 20 years. He coined the term landscape of fear to describe the relationship between predator and prey in the wild. Feb 28, 2023 4:00 am By Robert Spencer 1 Comment. The cougar and the states refusal to admit it was here made the local paper. Obviously, this is the reason why the experts are loathe to admit that the species is here. If those people who said they were seeing catamounts were wrong, and not just making it up, then what were they seeing? The reason why experts wont admit to a breeding population existing is that there is NO PROOF. Threat of Being Attacked The discussion of whether federal lands should be a place to subsidize cattle ranching is another question. Looking at the mounted animal, behind the glass, had made me feel kind of well, sad. I was tracking some deer tracks and I came to a promising deer run with a lot of deer scat on the ground when I noticed a cat track amongst the sign. ), 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. This is part of the cougar business. Spatz and Sue dont want to go where were going.. Two mountain lion encounters in his driveway. 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). 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 !! People clearly arent lying when they say they saw a cougar; [the sighting] has a profound effect on them.. It is healthy to have respect and caution, but fear shouldnt drive ecological decision making. My parents friend in Deposit, NY, posted a young catamount sitting on the front porch on Facebook. You cant mistake the long tail. The Great Divide | Are There Mountain Lions in New England. 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 . Sue Morse, a professional animal tracker, believes that means cougars will, eventually, return to Vermont. In fact, jaguars used to be native to south Texas, as well! It does NOT surprise me, you would have seen a wild, free-roaming, native 'eastern' cougar, aka puma, mountain lion in Vermont. Some of them, he says, we could close the books on pretty quickly. Ive seen tracks (Downeast Maine) and others have seen them, plain as day. In Vermont, it was 1881. He never found the evidence. The scientific name for the catamount is Puma concolor. The first time was in the yard which was surrounded by woods. They set the stage for the exotics to move in, and this has a huge impact on our ecology, he said. 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. I only saw the back side, but he was huge. 3 talking about this. I had seen bear, deer, coyotes, foxes, that one bobcat all the usual suspects. But there was not enough evidence to either prove or disprove that a mountain lion had done the killing. Typical species behavior is for males to disperse from an area when the population reaches the carrying capacity of the habitat. Videos - Industry Stories; Find Candidates; 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. Camel's Hump (alternatively Camels Hump) is a mountain in the Green Mountains in the U.S. state of Vermont.The north slope of the mountain borders the Winooski River, which has carved through the Green Mountains over eons.At 4,083 ft (1,244 m), it is tied (with Mount Ellen) for the third-highest mountain in Vermont.Surrounded by 10 acres (4 ha) of alpine tundra, the mountain is the most . THAT is a mountain lion! The deer dont eat the exotics, but they eat the competitors. It was huge! Until 2011, that question rested upon a hypothetical. Several years ago, I was bicycling with a buddy up Quabbin Reservoirs Administration Rd. But my eyes picked up something and I knew, right away, that it was alive. And DNA analysis shows us that felis concolor is genetically the same across the USI think it is irrelevant, but interesting. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This setting should only be used on your home or work computer. A journey of nearly 2,000 miles. This is a site for people to discuss mountain lion sightings in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. When a cats around, its not hard to find evidence. 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. If there is a follow up investigation, it turns out that people were mistaken about what they saw.. 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. Bill and I are full-throttle. One one occasion she had two little ones with her so their den must have been sort of closeby. To date, Keeping Track has helped conserve 40,000 acres in 12 states and inQuebec. 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. Ive never forgotten that and told it to many folks over the years, most of whom, I must say, thought I was hallucinating I guess but, it/he/she was a fact in Longmeadow, MA that summer long ago. Some people say they have seen a catamount in the woods. Fish and Wildlife Service unofficially declared the Eastern cougar extinct. As land was cleared for farming and the cats prey species declined in number, it went after livestock. It kills to eat but does not necessarily practice any sort of conservation ethic. 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