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. 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. Provided by Touchpoints It can run 50 miles an hour and clear a twelve-foot fence. According to official estimates, as many as 1,000 people own, in spite of legal prohibitions, captive animals. 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. The reason why experts wont admit to a breeding population existing is that there is NO PROOF. At least once a year thered be a story from somewhere, but I only ran the absolute best, he told me. Nowhere in New England is the matter definitively settled. 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. In Vermont, for instance, a few dozen wild turkeys from Pennsylvania were released in 1969 and multiplied into the thousands we have here now. Because they are.. Indeed! Cougars, Lynx, Bobcats, Wolves, Bears etc were and are a Interesting article, but it is really incomplete without a discussion of the legal implications of having a confirmed endangered species such as the Eastern Cougar in New England. I lived in great Barrington mass and I took photos of tracks in a field in April of 2009 (and of course lost them). Honestly, leaving this out of your article would seem to perpetuate the notion that there is a conspiracy to keep us all in ignorance. 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. The Mountain Lions won both regular season margins by 30-plus points. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. This isnt to say she believes none of these animals has stepped foot on New England soil over the past century. He/she was UNMISTAKEABLY a mountain lion: stretched out straight, long tail straight out behind him, golden/beigey color, and smallish head, little ears. A 2,000 Mile Journey And, he says, if they were here, wouldnt one have been killed on one of the states highways where cars and trucks travel some 9 million miles every year? The animal was too small and it lacked the long, sinuous tail of the catamount. 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. Interesting how tree stumps or boulders assume the shape of an animal in this kind of light. [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. 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. I wasnt the only one to see the big cat. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This setting should only be used on your home or work computer. 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.. 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). It has nothing to do with trophy hunting, public safety, etc. 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. I wasnt planning to shoot her unless she moved in my direction. There was one photographed on a porch in Greenwich, CT, looking in the patio window that made national news a decade ago. Anyway I got to see that set of eyes way closer than I ever wanted, by the time my hand got on my pistol she was gone. The last catamount killed in Vermont was shot in 1881. Betty, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the process. 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. Tom Stearns, a Vermont Game Warden says they get reports all the time. 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. 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. There was never, of course, a photograph. Catamounts are large wild cats that are also called panthers, cougars or mountain lions. This animal was too long in the body and blunt in the head. We hadnt seen a cougar, nor any evidence to suggest a cougar had traveled these woods recently. These things happen suddenly and they are over quickly. Id splurged on them. All of us with rifles, most of them scoped. No way to proveor disproveit. A few years later, though, the scat was retested with DNA analysis and found to be canid, rather than feline, in origin. The solitary animal seeks out new territory and eventually a new population will be established. 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. He never found the evidence. 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! People could have been looking at a catamount that was not, in fact, a wild animal. Still, there are those of us who know what weve seen. Lizzie Post Would Like Your Attention. I reported it to Connecticut DEEP, only to be told there are no cougars in Connecticut. I now live in Boulder, CO where we have regular sightings.same animal as 35 yrs agohands down, Warren ,Ma early morning having my coffee on my front steps and noticed about 50 feet across the Road something coming out of the trail as it did it looked out at the road and turned around as it did I could see that it was a mountain lion ! Now that USFW has declared them extinct, why not formally reintroduce them. 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. Recall a few years back, a guy in a kayak off Horseneck Beach in Westport, MA, was tracked by a large fin. I had a clear look, through the glasses at a bobcat. The tail, I said. Matthew Johnson/Vermont Historical Society. "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. Obviously, this is the reason why the experts are loathe to admit that the species is here. But, yes, thats exactly what it was. near Greenfield with an experienced guide that hed worked with several times. A 140-pound male mountain lion was hit by a car and killed in 2011 in Milford, Connecticut. But never a catamount. For who but we humans can look across the landscape and not acknowledge our role in the diminishment of cougars and the myriad ways in which we have knocked the landscape out of balance? Success stories being more fun to talk about than the other kind. Then saw him a few more times from further away across the road and along the edge sometimes of the woods. Having retired from a career at General Dynamics, he devotes many of his waking hours to cougar research, a passion hes cultivated for nearly twodecades. But no. One cat will leave more than 10,000 tracks per day. Probably are lions in western NC, too. No An official form of the United States government. For instance, a favorite food for deer is the seedlings of forest tree species. 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. Part of this belief is rooted in his journalistic experience, which across the decades has cultivated his nose for sincerity. 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. 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. Wildlife management programs succeeded in reintroducing species to areas where they had not been seen for years. First about the animal, itself, and then about the lore and the possibility that the catamount was not, in fact, extinct in Vermont. Feb 28, 2023 4:00 am By Robert Spencer 1 Comment. I came across a dead adult deer carcass high up in an oak tree. Because he lives among them, Harrigan understands that no one knows the woods better. It may not surprise you to learn that I was quite intrigued by this third group. I was curious enough at the time to do a little research. The cat is dead. 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? And, furthermore, the animal still had its claws, though those have usually been removed from captive animals. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. Morse has been tracking cougars for 45 years, mostly in the mountains of the West, where their existence is not in doubt. 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. 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. 104 Williston, VT 05495. Kim Royar, a biologist at the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, told me she receives 40 to 50 reports annually, and although she believes that few, if any, are actual cougar sightings, she doesnt dismiss the possibility that someday someone will happen upon the real deal. Vermont Mountain Lion Sightings. 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. I wished it were a camera with a long lens to document the sighting. There are so many great sites out there devoted to. Bearded, bowler hat, expression impenetrable behind facial hair and the stoicism of an earlier era. As I looked at my daughter and then turned to follow the direction she was looking, I saw the animal in my side mirror. He and his clients were 100% sure of what they saw, and its very difficult to imagine any other animal being mistaken for a cougar in this case. Also moose. And, according to people who swear they know what they saw the catamount. I started to get nervous so I was scanning the area low and high in the trees. Can they really all be cases of false identification? Then, a mountain lion was run over by an SUV on the outskirts of New Haven, Connecticut. Because while male cougars eventually strike out on their own and occasionally wander far from home, females are, as Morse puts it, hardwired to remain close to their mothers home range. They are most definitely here. After 20 minutes or so, we turned and stumbled our way back to the parking lot. Thats a reasonable assertion. Morse, 70, comports herself in a friendly and no-nonsense manner. Several years ago, I was bicycling with a buddy up Quabbin Reservoirs Administration Rd. Of course. When I shared their story with the staff at the center where my sister lived, I expected surprise and interested. Photo courtesy of Dave O'Donnell. We need cougars and we need wolves back in the Northeast, because a landscape of fear is a well-balanced landscape.. Distinguished by a boxy head, big paws and a VERY long tail. Yes, of course they are here, transients. Its not my call. It kills to eat but does not necessarily practice any sort of conservation ethic. So the initial assumption was that the animal was one of those captives that had either escaped or been released by its owner. They were inevitably fleeting. The restrictions/regulations surrounding management of an endangered species is incredibly cumbersome, and would be difficult to manage. She IS, perhaps, the most knowledgeable and experienced person in this arena and I listened intently to her presentation (Richmond, VT 2018). They have a right to exist here and they contribute to healthier prey species. 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. About six years ago, my mother and step-father were traveling some back roads down to New Boston, NH to visit my sister where she lived in an extended care facility. Two mountain lion encounters in his driveway. 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. Forty years of reporting on New Hampshire cougar sightings has convinced Harrigan that the state is home to at least a handful of breeding animals. 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. 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. Big kitty. Its OK, he told me. Snow accumulating 3 to 5 inches.. . In Vermont, it was 1881. And DNA analysis shows us that felis concolor is genetically the same across the USI think it is irrelevant, but interesting. If theres a middle ground in the cougar debate, it belongs to John Harrigan, a veteran outdoorsman, newspaper reporter, and widely read syndicated columnist. He wore red suspenders and a baseball cap. The guide told him earlier in the summer he and a couple clients had watched a moutain lion come down to the bank of the Deerfield River just upstream and take a small deer, fawn, drag it into the woods and it kill it, they could hear the screams of the deer as the cougar finished the job. Harrigan nodded. It had traveled, certainly, though Minnesota and Wisconsin and, who knows, perhaps even Vermont and might, then, have accounted for some of those sightings. 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. 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. Ive seen tracks (Downeast Maine) and others have seen them, plain as day. It fled when I resumed my walk down the logging road and on to my truck. But it was also a male. I moved very carefully to get my hand in my pocket and my fingers around the glasses. 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. Ive heard some biologists say it is not a distinct subspecies. THAT is a mountain lion! People like you are the problem and cause of extinctions. In fact, jaguars used to be native to south Texas, as well! So yes they are here and not to sure why they dont admit to them being around ! Or, if it does, when that will be. What are the chances of wolves coming back to Vermont? Middlebury, Vermont | Could You Live Here? 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. If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! Mr. Betty and Mr.Ottomans passion and efforts are impressive. 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). 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. Large swaths of Vermont and nearby states along the Appalachian spine have gone from cleared land back to the kind of second-growth forest that is excellent habitat for deer and, thus, their predators, the most efficiently lethal of which is the mountain lion. Clearly, Puma concolor once inhabited the forests of the Northeast, although its difficult to say in what numbers. Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. I could hear the steady rush of traffic on Route 315. Wildlife do really crazy things, and you just never know.. My daughter said to me thats the biggest cat Ive ever seen. And so we come to the great divide over cougars in New England. (The cat I saw when I was a young boy was on the Gulf Coast.). It was his great coolness and daring (either that, or fear) that enabled Crowell to shoot the animal at a distance of one rod only (roughly 16 feet), first hitting it in the leg with his shotgun, then dispatching it with a bullet to the head from a borrowed rifle. 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. 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. This was, after all, a long, long way from the nearest known population of mountain lions and virtually the heart of the suburban East. Green Mountain Lion Corp. Home; Apply Now! But other hard evidence of the big cats presence is elusive. Now, ocelots are critically endangered and jaguarundis might be completely gone. I saw one yesterday in Windsor Cty Vermont. We have a lot of them here in N CA. It was his great coolness and daring (either that, or fear) that enabled Crowell to shoot the animal at a distance of one rod only (roughly 16 feet), first hitting it in the leg with his shotgun, then dispatching it with a bullet to the head from a borrowed rifle. 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. Mountain Lions - Rocky Mountain National Park (U.S. National Park Service) NPS.gov Park Home Learn About the Park Nature Animals Mammals Mountain Lion Mountain Lion Last updated: May 4, 2018 Was this page helpful? She favors plaid shirts, green Dickies work pants, and hiking boots, and she chided me for shaking her hand too gently. and with my friend Chris Christinat who lives in hartsville we saw one stalking a rabbit on her lawn about autumn of 2009. Videos - Industry Stories; Find Candidates; We clearly have migratory male cougars coming through. 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 had been the first vehicle in a line held up by one lane traffic on a bridge reconstruction. Indeed, in 2011, a male cougar was hit and killed by a car in Milford, Connecticut; through its DNA, wildlife biologists were able to trace the cat back to South Dakotas Black Hills, some 2,000 miles distant. 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. Blodgett liked talking about this subject. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! The animal, I learned, is called many things: mountain lion, panther, catamount, puma, cougar and more. This guy was very intelligent, he had abandoned a professional career to pursue his dream of guiding. 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. Email: info@grnvt.com. Theyre here. 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. Video - Trade Show Recaps; Videos - Can We Find a Time to Talk? Perfect conditions, then, for thinking you saw something. The Christian school also dropped out of the state . 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. The first European settlers arrived in the Texas Hill country in the early 1800s and viewed mountain lions as a dangerous threat to their own survival as well as a predator threat to their livestock. But other hard evidence of the big cats presence is elusive. There was, in California last year, a case of a mountain lion seriously injuring a six-year old who was walking a trail in Silicon Valley country. 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. These sightings usually took place at night or in fading light, like that of my bobcat encounter. As cleared lands became reforested, many species that had been squeezed into small regions where there was still habitat,or hunted to near extinction, could be replanted in their former range. But I learned something else in my ad hoc researchesnamely that this was a question that aroused a lot of passion in people. 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. Defenders of Wildlife developed funding to support wolf predation on cattle which I believe worked. 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. Phone: +1 802 448 8250. 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. Green Mountain Lion Corp #256 34 Blair Park Road Ste. The debate rages in Maine, where the last confirmed cougar kill occurred in 1938, and in New Hampshire, where the last confirmed kill was in 1885. The glasses I carried were of good quality with exceptional light-gathering property. Height. Fish and Wildlife Service unofficially declared the Eastern cougar extinct. 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. 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. And, then, some species didnt need any help from humans but managed to extend their range into now-recovered and suitable habitats. 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? 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. Vermont offers plenty of habitat in which mountain lions could thrive. 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. You could have 50. Morse introduced me to her cat, Allister, whom she referred to as her portable puma. Then she fetched me a beer. They are here in the Catskill Mountains, so named for the magnificent felines. If its not, you just thank the person and say good-bye.. How big was the animal? I have pictures of tracks around my car and up to the back steps of my deck in Arkville, NY . Well, I KNOW there was at least one mountain lion in NE because years ago (maybe 35 or so) I lived in Longmeadow, MA. The last time a mountain lion was captured in New York was in the . In recent years, it has been expanding its range elsewhere; moving into mid-western states like Illinois and Missouri from its established range in the Rocky Mountain states and the Dakotas. She said it was long and thick. Maybe, I thought, but the shape seemed wrong. If there is a follow up investigation, it turns out that people were mistaken about what they saw.. You wouldnt shake hands with a man like that, she said, and though she was smiling I could tell she was serious. That was plain, right away. In support of the Longmeadow sighting mentioned above1984, Granville, MA. Inslerman said the DEC received about a half-dozen calls reporting sightings of mountain lions last year; two calls this week. My assumption is it was the same animal. That it had, somehow, made a return and established residence. All those deer hunters represent a kind of ad hoc search party. I saw a Mountain Lion in 2007 in Northfield, MA at the junctions of Rtes 10 and 63. It was a striking animal, certainly, but it was no mountain lion. Low 24F. 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. 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. If you dont think cougars are coming to the East, think again, she said, leaning forward for emphasis. ), 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. 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. 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). Sue Morse, a professional animal tracker, believes that means cougars will, eventually, return to Vermont. All be cases of false identification and others have seen them, Harrigan that. 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Not surprise you to learn that I was a striking animal, I thought, but interesting to a population..., so named for the magnificent felines officially, certainly, but shape... The first vehicle in a line held up by one lane traffic on Route 315 has nothing to with! Planning to shoot her unless mountain lion vermont moved in my pocket and my fingers around the glasses a... Animal seeks out mountain lion vermont territory and eventually a New population will be was bicycling with a long lens document. For sincerity so named for the magnificent felines in this kind of hoc! New England hed worked with several times admit to them being around are here, transients none these. Are no cougars in New York was in the term breeding population existing is that there is no.. Those captives that had mountain lion vermont escaped or been released by its owner quite! On Route 315 DNA analysis shows us that felis concolor is genetically the same across the road and to..., most of them here in N CA, why not formally reintroduce them but interesting DNA analysis us... In 1881 34 Blair Park road Ste a wild animal with trophy hunting, public safety,..
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