The name " Camel's Rump " was assigned on a historical map made by Ira Allen in 1798. 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 ! 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. All of us with rifles, most of them scoped. At the head of the driveway is a flower sales table in front of a modest size greenhouse. Id need proof if I wanted people to believe me. Everglades Panther Harrigans interest in cougars was sparked in the late 70s, after he took ownership of The Coos County Democrat and began noticing the steady influx of reported sightings. 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. No way to proveor disproveit. Lacked, almost any tail at all, for that matter. 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. 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 think I may have pissed her off since I was up in that area X2 this week. You cant mistake the long tail. Betty, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the process. THAT is a mountain lion! I have learned one thing in my career, and thats to never say never, she said. Then saw him a few more times from further away across the road and along the edge sometimes of the woods. 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. 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. But that was OK. Bo Ottmann, A Lobster Trap Menorah Shines in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Chips Off the Old Block | Knowledge & Wisdom, Yankee Candle | New England by the Numbers, First Christmas | Krissy OSheas Scandinavian-Inspired Holiday Cottage, The Sweet Life | Holiday Baking with Dorie Greenspan, 2019 Yankee Magazine Editors Choice Food Awards, In the Kitchen at Mayfair Farm | Weekends with Yankee. The animal that was killed in Connecticut proved that. Middlebury, Vermont | Could You Live Here? 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. 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. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! In fact, jaguars used to be native to south Texas, as well! 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. So the initial assumption was that the animal was one of those captives that had either escaped or been released by its owner. But that was OK. Bo Ottmann knew they were out there. Morse introduced me to her cat, Allister, whom she referred to as her portable puma. Then she fetched me a beer. They are much larger than bobcat and lynx, young adults can still have spots too. He knew it was only a matter of time. Defenders of Wildlife developed funding to support wolf predation on cattle which I believe worked. As I turned a corner going north toward Waterbury, I saw the cat come up from the cornfield, saunter across the highway, turn and look in my direction and then amble off into the brush. My daughter said to me thats the biggest cat Ive ever seen. I have pictures of tracks around my car and up to the back steps of my deck in Arkville, NY . The solitary animal seeks out new territory and eventually a new population will be established. It has, in fact, more names than any animal in the world. Periods of snow. 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. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. 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. Yes, of course they are here, transients. This was, after all, a long, long way from the nearest known population of mountain lions and virtually the heart of the suburban East. I wasnt the only one to see the big cat. 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 isnt to say she believes none of these animals has stepped foot on New England soil over the past century. These settlers established measures for predator control by any means possible. They are here & ..just a matter of time with photo or kill on a highway/road. My own inclination, for the little it matters, is to side with the professionals like Blodgett. ), 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. Some with cameras. ), 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 cat is dead. I moved very carefully to get my hand in my pocket and my fingers around the glasses. But my eyes picked up something and I knew, right away, that it was alive. Most of those sightings were misidentifications, Doug Blodgett says. 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. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. 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. You dont even have to go out and look for it.. But other hard evidence of the big cats presence is elusive. I saw one yesterday in Windsor Cty Vermont. 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 . Bill and I are full-throttle. 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). For instance, a favorite food for deer is the seedlings of forest tree species. Typical species behavior is for males to disperse from an area when the population reaches the carrying capacity of the habitat. As I walked thru the beginning of the trail I spooked a deer and heard this awful screech and slowly backed out of there .. Dont forget, south Texas also used to home to two other species of cats ocelots and jaguarundis. Bearded, bowler hat, expression impenetrable behind facial hair and the stoicism of an earlier era. 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. Its OK, he told me. It fled when I resumed my walk down the logging road and on to my truck. Actually, Blodgett says, something of the opposite was true. 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). Others have seen cougar in neighboring towns . The tails gotta be there. 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. I reported it to Connecticut DEEP, only to be told there are no cougars in Connecticut. 104 Williston, VT 05495. If theyre in one, theyre in the other.. 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. Chance of snow 90%. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. Threat of Being Attacked Its not a bear, not a dog, not a deer, not a bobcat. I saw an adult cougar/catamount twice within a two week period. I was just amazed as I watched this scene in my own back yard. Yes I have seen several pictures on game cameras from people in Massachusetts in Central and western Mass that do have mountain lions on their game camera so please dont be ignorant. She IS, perhaps, the most knowledgeable and experienced person in this arena and I listened intently to her presentation (Richmond, VT 2018). They knew what they were doing, Blodgett says. I will never forget what I saw! So yes they are here and not to sure why they dont admit to them being around ! Success stories being more fun to talk about than the other kind. 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). The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. 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. 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. 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 . 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. If you dont think cougars are coming to the East, think again, she said, leaning forward for emphasis. on route to stone tower on Quabbin Hill. There was one photographed on a porch in Greenwich, CT, looking in the patio window that made national news a decade ago. 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! Neither resemble a cougar! The evidence, he says, just wasnt there., Mountain Lions Revisit Kill Sites Please. And, then, some species didnt need any help from humans but managed to extend their range into now-recovered and suitable habitats. What color was it? 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. 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. As land was cleared for farming and the cats prey species declined in number, it went after livestock. 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. The restrictions/regulations surrounding management of an endangered species is incredibly cumbersome, and would be difficult to manage. 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. 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. 2,110 likes. I thought about why this might be and the best I could come up with for an answer is that we feel a kind of nostalgia for the wild. 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. 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. The animal was too small and it lacked the long, sinuous tail of the catamount. But, yes, thats exactly what it was. 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 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. Snow accumulating 3 to 5 inches.. . 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. 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? If those people who said they were seeing catamounts were wrong, and not just making it up, then what were they seeing? The last catamount killed in Vermont was shot in 1881. 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. I just heard from a fellow college student of a siting in Greenfield last fall and two in Colrain this spring. Local game officials are saying that this is another one of those sightings where people claim to have seen a mountain lion. 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. Of course. He set down his cigarette and looked me in the eye. There is a reason that millions of people were afraid to go in the water after they saw the movie Jaws. But never a catamount. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. There are no breeding cougars in New England and we do not need any. 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. The one thing that jumped out at her the tail. 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. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. I was agnostic, I suppose, on these stories which the state wildlife biologists inevitably found impossible to substantiate and, often, easy to disprove. Females ranges are much smaller so it will take reintroduction or a few savvy wildlife biologist in the dead of night. The first time was in the yard which was surrounded by woods. 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. (The cat I saw when I was a young boy was on the Gulf Coast.). In March of 1965, the Colorado legislature repealed the old mountain lion bounty of $50, which was first enacted in 1924. Im gonna get hammered for it, he sighed. Green Mountain Lion Corp #256 34 Blair Park Road Ste. They are there and thriving!!!! In my mind, I went through all the nots. But they would certainly pay attention if they did see one. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. Catamounts are large wild cats that are also called panthers, cougars or mountain lions. It has nothing to do with trophy hunting, public safety, etc. Blodgett and I were returning from a day spent looking forand finding timber rattlesnakes, a species that is endangered in Vermont. Perfect conditions, then, for thinking you saw something. Still, I wanted to believe those sightings were real. The mountain lion can weigh upwards of 200 pounds and it can move like well, like a cat. Video - Trade Show Recaps; Videos - Can We Find a Time to Talk? Maybe you've seen the UVM(University of Vermont) catamount at a basketball game, or the catamount at the Vermont History Museum. Nowhere in New England is the matter definitively settled. The females are where its at, she said. There was the vaguest of trails, crisscrossed by deadfalls and a sharp-thorned bush that soon drew blood from Ottmanns right hand. 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. These sightings usually took place at night or in fading light, like that of my bobcat encounter. Tried to see "mountain lion" and agree that what appears to be a long tail is most likely the . 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. Stratton Magazine Celebrating Manchester and the Mountains. 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. Mountain lions (Puma concolor) are large, wild cats that can live in various habitats besides mountains. 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. 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. Height. 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. But the landowners were excited enough by the possibility that, persuaded by Blodgett, they bought a trail camera and set it up on the site. Refuge volunteer Dale Erz originally. Several years ago, I was bicycling with a buddy up Quabbin Reservoirs Administration Rd. Although the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared the . 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. And DNA analysis shows us that felis concolor is genetically the same across the USI think it is irrelevant, but interesting. 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. Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. Long Trail beat Arlington 62-40 on Feb. 7. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. No need since so we guess it has moved on from the northeast corner of Connecticut. Black markings decorate the tip of the tail, ears, and around the snout. A mountain lion was responsible for that too. 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. 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. Its mounted carcass is on display in Montpelier where Id seen it when I was the adult supervision for my daughters sixth-grade class trip to the capital. I wished it were a camera with a long lens to document the sighting. 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. People clearly arent lying when they say they saw a cougar; [the sighting] has a profound effect on them.. Tom Stearns, a Vermont Game Warden says they get reports all the time. 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. It can run at speeds of up to 50 mph. I have heard several accounts from sober, sane, intelligent people who have seen them (especially a latre, good friend who was a very competent spokesman and hunter.). Ottmann nodded. 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. Low 24F. We have a lot of them here in N CA. And, now, here I was. Americans called the mountain " Tah-wak-be-dee-ee-wads. This is part of the cougar business. 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. We strolled across the tavern parking lot and ducked into the forest, where Ottmann maintains a portion of his $15,000 worth of wildlife recording equipment (hes had no luck capturing a cougar on camera, though, despite more than a decade of trying). Regarding a breeding population that is the unknown. 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. Yet I also remembered something Sue Morse had told me months before, as we sat in her living room drinking beer and chatting cats. What are the chances of wolves coming back to Vermont? 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. Safety, etc too small and it can move like well, like a cat,... 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