Whenever I drive up and through my home state of Vermont, I look into the hills that surround me that have no sign of development for miles and miles. When I accepted the assignment to write about my quest to uncover the truth regarding the existence of cougars in New England, I had little idea what I was agreeing to. Was INCREDIBLE! It jumped 28 feet across the road. People clearly arent lying when they say they saw a cougar; [the sighting] has a profound effect on them.. 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. I live in Hopkinton, NH and saw one coming up from the Contoocook River one misty morning. I went back and told the tale to anyone who would listen. Lacked, almost any tail at all, for that matter. I wasnt planning to shoot her unless she moved in my direction. 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. People could have been looking at a catamount that was not, in fact, a wild animal. 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. 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. 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. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. 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. We were about 50 feet from it and it stood taller than any labrador and we watched it tail and all slink down the side of the lawn and the rabbits being surprised out of the bushes. 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. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. Im not surprised that various state officers deny the presence of cougars in new England. But, I think with education and planning, we should reintroduce wolves and cougar in the Northeast. I saw an adult cougar/catamount twice within a two week period. That animal in Connecticut makes for a pretty fantastic story but it takes more than one dispersing male. 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. Hed encouraged me to keep my eyes open for deer carcasses cached in the trees (according to Ottmann, cougars are fantastic climbers and are known to stash their kills high in trees), but I saw only leaf-bare branches. 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.. I reported it to Connecticut DEEP, only to be told there are no cougars in Connecticut. 2,110 likes. 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 combined scoring differential in those matchups was 158-77. I thought I saw signs posted in Pawling NY about 8 years ago, that DEC released a pair to control deer population,mane several people have seen them in Wingdale, NY. 8 Arlington (9-10) and No. The cat is dead. Big kitty. It does NOT surprise me, you would have seen a wild, free-roaming, native 'eastern' cougar, aka puma, mountain lion in Vermont. 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. I started to get nervous so I was scanning the area low and high in the trees. I just heard from a fellow college student of a siting in Greenfield last fall and two in Colrain this spring. 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. 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. 104 Williston, VT 05495. Neither resemble a cougar! Well, I KNOW there was at least one mountain lion in NE because years ago (maybe 35 or so) I lived in Longmeadow, MA. All of which is to say that if Alexander Crowell wasnt afraid on that long-ago Thanksgiving Day, he probably should have been. They were also seen at other times by members of my family and other people in the neighborhood. Somebody in the NC Legislature believes, because lions are now protected by law. It kills to eat but does not necessarily practice any sort of conservation ethic. The expert opinion held up until a man was killed by a Great White not too far away. They are here & ..just a matter of time with photo or kill on a highway/road. But my eyes picked up something and I knew, right away, that it was alive. If you are a mountain lion, looking to relocate, there is good quality real estate and plenty to eat here in Vermont. If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! Geoffrey Norman is a Dorset author and a frequent contributor to Stratton Magazine. [The catamounts] movements were so noiseless that Mr. Crowell found himself in this dangerous proximity before he was aware of it, and it was only by great coolness and daring that he severely wounded the animal and perhaps saved his own life, reads a placard attached to the display case. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. As I looked at my daughter and then turned to follow the direction she was looking, I saw the animal in my side mirror. These things happen suddenly and they are over quickly. 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. They have a right to exist here and they contribute to healthier prey species. Dismissing most of the sightings as probable bobcats, Morse asserted that the scientific evidence has not been proven. Were arrogant if we think were the only species that makes decisions based on fear, he told me when I called him at his home in Oregon. Refuge volunteer Dale Erz originally. The tails gotta be there. These settlers established measures for predator control by any means possible. The light was failing and I was on my way out of the woods. Given the long, shared border between these provinces and New England, along with plentiful evidence that other species cross this border regularly, it seems entirely possible that cougars would also engage in international travel. Out & About | Best New England Holiday Events for 2019. 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. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This setting should only be used on your home or work computer. 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. Humans and wildlife MUST learn to live along side each other and we MUST learn to respect nature. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding woods. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! He is a consummate storyteller, and he wears on his sleeve his affection for the region and the hard-working, commonsense people who inhabit it. In Vermont, it was 1881. Ive seen tracks (Downeast Maine) and others have seen them, plain as day. 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 is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. You could have 50. Probably are lions in western NC, too. 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 . If you dont think cougars are coming to the East, think again, she said, leaning forward for emphasis. Scat, tracks, lays, scratch mounds youll see these things.. The truth is, I was by this point dubious. 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. I saw a Mountain Lion in 2007 in Northfield, MA at the junctions of Rtes 10 and 63. 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 lionalso known as the cougar, puma, panther, or catamountis a large cat species native to the Americas. Perhaps, then, the ultimate question isnt whether cougars are among us, but rather how we can encourage them to settle here. Cougars, Lynx, Bobcats, Wolves, Bears etc were and are a It looked real promising, Blodgett remembers. The last catamount killed in Vermont stands under glass just inside the doors to the Vermont Historical Museum in Montpelier, a hop, skip, and a jump down the block from the statehouse. 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. 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. She IS, perhaps, the most knowledgeable and experienced person in this arena and I listened intently to her presentation (Richmond, VT 2018). He set down his cigarette and looked me in the eye. 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. Email: info@grnvt.com. It has, in fact, more names than any animal in the world. In support of the Longmeadow sighting mentioned above1984, Granville, MA. 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. 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. 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. I also know of someone who said they showed F&G a photo of one from a game camera in NH. Because they are.. Body coloration can range from tan to gray and cubs are usually covered with blackish brown spots. It was a striking animal, certainly, but it was no mountain lion. A deer is a wild animal and it is always a pleasure to see oneunless it is in the high beams, at night. Or, if it does, when that will be. No An official form of the United States government. I started this blog for people to discuss mountain lion sightings and reports in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. 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. 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. 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. But examination of the carcass raised suspicions. I lived in great Barrington mass and I took photos of tracks in a field in April of 2009 (and of course lost them). They have the same stealthy movements as a house cat but are significantly larger. 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. But that was OK. Bo Ottmann knew they were out there. 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. Many on both sides of the cougar debate beileve that New Englands natural habitat would benefit from having an apex predator in the ecosystem again. However, many of their claimsespecially Mr. Bettys contention of roughly a dozen personal sightings in New Englandare hard to take seriously. In 2011, the U.S. Im gonna get hammered for it, he sighed. But other hard evidence of the big cats presence is elusive. 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. 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. A far less likelyenvironment for finding a mountain lion than just about anywhere in Vermont. Blodgett liked talking about this subject. And, now, here I was. hen I accepted the assignment to write about my quest to uncover the truth regarding the existence of cougars in New England, I had little idea what I was agreeing to. Protected by law presence is elusive they were out there would listen student of a in! 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