mountain lion vermont

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. Email: info@grnvt.com. 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. But this requires a breeding pair. Ordinary, the lone males do not range much more than 100 miles. I came across a dead adult deer carcass high up in an oak tree. I reported it to Connecticut DEEP, only to be told there are no cougars in Connecticut. 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: It is possible that cougars of unknown origin may be breeding to a limited extent in Vermont. 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. There are many officials in denial up here, but we know what we saw and there are too many sightings by the local folks to be ignored. When he suggested we retrace our route, past lion, to see a sow bear with cubs, we headed in the opposite direction. They were also reluctant to certify that turkey and moose had returned the Quabin reservoir lands for many years after locals reported seeing 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. The tails gotta be there. Their bodies are mainly covered in tawny-beige fur, except for the whitish-gray belly and chest. 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. It kills to eat but does not necessarily practice any sort of conservation ethic. I could hear the steady rush of traffic on Route 315. For several years, Blodgett, a wildlife biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife, conducted those follow up investigations. Can they really all be cases of false identification? Its closest living relative is the cheetah. Respect predators, protect them but dont worship or try to hug them! What color was it? Mountain lions are around 4 feet long with a two-and-a-half foot tail and can stand 24-30 inches tall at the shoulder. They knew what they were doing, Blodgett says. Within six weeks, he continued, I was getting off the plane in Jackson Hole for a national mountain lion conference. 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. The Strafford & Area Lions conducted its Food From The Heart food drive February 11th through the 18th, collecting 981.6 pounds of food and receiving monetary donations of $1,262 which were used to purchase food and other items to be donated to the Sharon, Vershire and Thetford food shelves. In the 37 years Ive been working, things have changed in ways Id never have predicted. 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. 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. Distinguished by a boxy head, big paws and a VERY long tail. Anticipating, perhaps, a moment like this. Thats a reasonable assertion. But other hard evidence of the big cats presence is elusive. But, I think with education and planning, we should reintroduce wolves and cougar in the Northeast. Its range was once similarly vast; from the high north regions of the Yukon to the Straits of Magellan. I also had a coworker report a similar experience around the same time. The restrictions/regulations surrounding management of an endangered species is incredibly cumbersome, and would be difficult to manage. To Betty and Ottmann, the dominant narrative of the occasional itinerant cougar from the West is not particularly relevant to the facts on the ground. But my eyes picked up something and I knew, right away, that it was alive. If there is a follow up investigation, it turns out that people were mistaken about what they saw.. 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). Where I live bears, wolves cougars etc roamed freely and now sadly if one of those apex predators is spotted our DNR will usually destroy it. They are most definitely here. Several years ago, I saw what was definitely a cougar walking along a street. I met with Morse at her home in Jericho. What are the chances of wolves coming back to Vermont? The regions top predator, the coyote, is classified by biologists as a mesopredator (a type that in New England includes skunks and raccoons), which feeds primarily on smaller animals. As I looked at my daughter and then turned to follow the direction she was looking, I saw the animal in my side mirror. Harrigan nodded. Among the mountain lions typical behaviors is the way it will revisit, for several days, the carcass of an animal it has killed, moving it and cacheing it until there is nothing left to eat or the flesh has turned. My own inclination, for the little it matters, is to side with the professionals like Blodgett. Ottmann nodded. We hadnt seen a cougar, nor any evidence to suggest a cougar had traveled these woods recently. And so we come to the great divide over cougars in New England. The females are where its at, she said. 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! Also known as cougars, panthers or pumas, mountain lions range in color from tan to grey, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service. 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. They denied it until a cougar was hit as it tried to cross the very busy Merritt Parkway. I saw one about 10 years ago, on our road. Dismissing most of the sightings as probable bobcats, Morse asserted that the scientific evidence has not been proven. There is a lot of good habitat between here and the places where there are established populations of mountain lions, he said. All of us with rifles, most of them scoped. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! This could, of course, be projection on my part. 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. How big was the animal? Phone: +1 802 448 8250. Morse has been tracking cougars for 45 years, mostly in the mountains of the West, where their existence is not in doubt. People clearly arent lying when they say they saw a cougar; [the sighting] has a profound effect on them.. 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. Photo courtesy of Dave O'Donnell. Id need proof if I wanted people to believe me. However, many of their claimsespecially Mr. Bettys contention of roughly a dozen personal sightings in New Englandare hard to take seriously. The discussion of whether federal lands should be a place to subsidize cattle ranching is another question. Fear is actually one of the most powerful ecological forces we know, and its a really important management tool., According to Laundre, the problems caused by a relatively fear-free ecosystem are not always obvious, in part because they can take decades to fully manifest. It is hard for me to believe that the big cats havent found plenty of space to roam without regular detection. And some people might decide to release them into the wild rather than keeping them in their possession. I moved very carefully to get my hand in my pocket and my fingers around the glasses. The mountain lionalso known as the cougar, puma, panther, or catamountis a large cat species native to the Americas. At least once a year thered be a story from somewhere, but I only ran the absolute best, he told me. 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. 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. His mention of these encounters was so matter-of-fact that I found myself nodding along. 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. They are there and thriving!!!! Morse introduced me to her cat, Allister, whom she referred to as her portable puma. Then she fetched me a beer. 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). Sue Morse, a professional animal tracker, believes that means cougars will, eventually, return to Vermont. 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! I was deer hunting with my father, it was in the fall about 7 years ago, in Barre Ma towards the Templeton Ma lines. 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. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. 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. 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. Unlike male cougars, the femaleslike this Montana cat with her cubdont tend to strike out for new territory, which makes it unlikely that a breeding population would establish itself far from the cougars current habitatsbut not impossible. 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 Life of a Predator and The African Lion. Others have seen cougar in neighboring towns . But examination of the carcass raised suspicions. I only saw the back side, but he was huge. Spatz and Sue dont want to go where were going.. But there was not enough evidence to either prove or disprove that a mountain lion had done the killing. Actually, Blodgett says, something of the opposite was true. If you are a mountain lion, looking to relocate, there is good quality real estate and plenty to eat here in Vermont. ), 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. They were inevitably fleeting. 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. Mid Vermont Christian School Eagles forfeited their girls basketball playoff game on Tuesday against Long Trail School Mountain Lions. Matthew Johnson/Vermont Historical Society. Around 1830, the . It was fast as hell but there was no mistaking its not only long,but THICK tail as it disappeared into the woods. He didn't want to dispute what people are saying they saw, he simply says they need proof to substantiate it. Stratton Magazine Celebrating Manchester and the Mountains. There was no denying that the carcass, which was examined by experts, was that of a mountain lion. 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. In their estimation, the presence of a breeding cougar population in New England would likely stem from our proximity to Canada, where, as they rightly point out, DNA analysis has resulted in 19 positive identifications across Quebec and New Brunswick since 2001 (although some of these were shown to be of South American lineage, suggesting escaped pets). No way to proveor disproveit. my father was recently trout fishing in central Mass. If LTS can take care of business in that one, it would host the winner of the Bennington County matchup between No. At the head of the driveway is a flower sales table in front of a modest size greenhouse. COLCHESTER, Vt. Catamounts are. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. 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. He worked, in Wyoming and Arizona, with other professionals, some with government agencies, like the one he works for, and others who were hunters and trappers, often employed by ranchers who had lost stock to mountain lions. Yes, of course they are here, transients. The animal that was killed in Connecticut proved that. 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. People said that the catamountas the animal is called in Vermontwas still around and you heard stories about someone who would swear to having seen one. This, said Vermont Fish and Wildlife fur-bearer project leader Chris Bernier, is why he takes reports of mountain lion sightings seriously. ), 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. 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. 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. [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. There was one possibility that might account for some of these sightings, he says. This guy was very intelligent, he had abandoned a professional career to pursue his dream of guiding. Of course. Then, a mountain lion was run over by an SUV on the outskirts of New Haven, Connecticut. The solitary animal seeks out new territory and eventually a new population will be established. So if coyotes could return and establish robust populations, why not a few catamounts? Perhaps, then, the ultimate question isnt whether cougars are among us, but rather how we can encourage them to settle here. The one thing that jumped out at her the tail. When that last catamount was killed by a deer hunter, the state was paying a $20 bounty for pelts or carcasses. The last time a mountain lion was captured in New York was in the . 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. Perfect conditions, then, for thinking you saw something. It can run 50 miles an hour and clear a twelve-foot fence. Wildlife biologists, as professional scientists, require a higher level of documentation and proof. But, yes, thats exactly what it was. That was plain, right away. I just heard from a fellow college student of a siting in Greenfield last fall and two in Colrain this spring. 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. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding woods. Videos. The 1881 death of this catamount officially marked the end of cougars in Vermont; however, the very last Eastern cougar is thought to be an animal that was killed in Somerset County, Maine, in 1938. 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. Probably are lions in western NC, too. 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. Indeed! 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