I go out into the woods on the opening day of deer season every year and a lot of other Vermonters are out there with me. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. This much was certain: it was a wild mountain lion and it was in an area where one had not been seen for more than 100 years. To date, Keeping Track has helped conserve 40,000 acres in 12 states and inQuebec. 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. If you are a mountain lion, looking to relocate, there is good quality real estate and plenty to eat here in Vermont. The restrictions/regulations surrounding management of an endangered species is incredibly cumbersome, and would be difficult to manage. When a cats around, its not hard to find evidence. As I looked at my daughter and then turned to follow the direction she was looking, I saw the animal in my side mirror. His mention of these encounters was so matter-of-fact that I found myself nodding along. And, then, some species didnt need any help from humans but managed to extend their range into now-recovered and suitable habitats. 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. my father was recently trout fishing in central Mass. The evidence, he says, just wasnt there., Mountain Lions Revisit Kill Sites The one thing that jumped out at her the tail. Respect predators, protect them but dont worship or try to hug them! But this requires a breeding pair. Ordinary, the lone males do not range much more than 100 miles. If you dont think cougars are coming to the East, think again, she said, leaning forward for emphasis. You cant mistake the long tail. 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. 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. It had moved a little and was standing unconcealed, now, in the middle of the logging road. Dismissing most of the sightings as probable bobcats, Morse asserted that the scientific evidence has not been proven. Saw one on old mountain rd Peterborough N.H. a few years ago on my property followed it and ran to get my camera have a photo but in distance by time got it was amazing animal t Metcalf. 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. There was no mistake. Morse, 70, comports herself in a friendly and no-nonsense manner. Threat of Being Attacked 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. Lacked, almost any tail at all, for that matter. Videos - Industry Stories; Find Candidates; And, according to people who swear they know what they saw the catamount. Green Mountain Lion Corporation, Inc. Business Consulting and Services Williston, Vermont 5,563 followers Boutique management recruiting firm focusing on heavy equipment manufacturing & distribution. Perfect conditions, then, for thinking you saw something. 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. If this habitat can support them, it should. 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. And so we come to the great divide over cougars in New England. His Tail was very long almost touching the ground and as thick as velvet rope. They are most definitely here. 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. 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. But right now youre dealing with top-notch guys. But they would certainly pay attention if they did see one. People clearly arent lying when they say they saw a cougar; [the sighting] has a profound effect on them.. That was plain, right away. Photos of the cat did nothing to convince DEEP the cat was here. They knew what they were doing, Blodgett says. But it seems virtually inevitable that a time is coming when that thing you see on the trail up ahead of you might be something to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Out & About | Best New England Holiday Events for 2019. A 140-pound male mountain lion was hit by a car and killed in 2011 in Milford, Connecticut. They are there and thriving!!!! People like you are the problem and cause of extinctions. By now, I knew the answer to that one. The expert opinion held up until a man was killed by a Great White not too far away. Lizzie Post Would Like Your Attention. Mid Vermont Christian School Eagles forfeited their girls basketball playoff game on Tuesday against Long Trail School Mountain Lions. A 2,000 Mile Journey Green Mountain Lion Corp. Home; Apply Now! One one occasion she had two little ones with her so their den must have been sort of closeby. How big was the animal? Honestly, leaving this out of your article would seem to perpetuate the notion that there is a conspiracy to keep us all in ignorance. Video - Trade Show Recaps; Videos - Can We Find a Time to Talk? They have a right to exist here and they contribute to healthier prey species. It is hard for me to believe that the big cats havent found plenty of space to roam without regular detection. The mountain lion can weigh upwards of 200 pounds and it can move like well, like a cat. Whatever it was, it was standing motionless and, I thought, looking back at me as intently as I was staring at it. Two mountain lion encounters in his driveway. He/she was UNMISTAKEABLY a mountain lion: stretched out straight, long tail straight out behind him, golden/beigey color, and smallish head, little ears. I had a pair of good binoculars in my coat pocket. 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. Perhaps, then, the ultimate question isnt whether cougars are among us, but rather how we can encourage them to settle here. Public opinion surveys show many more would support reintroduction, than oppose. You wouldnt shake hands with a man like that, she said, and though she was smiling I could tell she was serious. I also had a coworker report a similar experience around the same time. Id splurged on them. 104 Williston, VT 05495. Vermont offers plenty of habitat in which mountain lions could thrive. I wished it were a camera with a long lens to document the sighting. Until 2011, that question rested upon a hypothetical. Its range was once similarly vast; from the high north regions of the Yukon to the Straits of Magellan. Responding to complaints about a predator eating a local farmers sheep, Crowell and a small group of fellow hunters had tracked the big cat through the snow. Around 1830, the . There was a tin of American Spirit tobacco on the table (Ottmanns), a laptop (Bettys), a notebook (mine), and a tumbler of Bacardi and Coke (Ottmanns again). Part of this belief is rooted in his journalistic experience, which across the decades has cultivated his nose for sincerity. The tail, I said. It does NOT surprise me, you would have seen a wild, free-roaming, native 'eastern' cougar, aka puma, mountain lion in Vermont. Green Mountain Lion Corp #256 34 Blair Park Road Ste. They were also seen at other times by members of my family and other people in the neighborhood. The mountain lion is also known as cougar, panther, or puma. He was a dark butterscotch color, very tall and lanky (taller and thinner than a really big German Shepard) and that tail. We need [an apex] predator back on the land, Sue Morse told me. 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 second occasion was on the way to work when I saw the cougar/catamount crossing Route 44. 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. He soon developed a five-question litmus test: How far away were you? In the few seconds that this took, I had convinced myself that I was looking at a mountain lion. In Vermont, it was 1881. 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. Predator removal was steady and unforgiving from the early 1800s . Big kitty. A few years later, though, the scat was retested with DNA analysis and found to be canid, rather than feline, in origin. 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. This could, of course, be projection on my part. Wildlife is unpredictable (and several people go missing in wild areas, parks especially, every year -Probably not because of alien abduction). It has nothing to do with trophy hunting, public safety, etc. In my mind, I went through all the nots. The cougar and the states refusal to admit it was here made the local paper. The deer dont eat the exotics, but they eat the competitors. In Vermont, for instance, a few dozen wild turkeys from Pennsylvania were released in 1969 and multiplied into the thousands we have here now. So Blodgett brought what he had learned in Wyoming and Arizona back to Vermont with him and began following up on catamount sightings. 2,110 likes. Vermont-based naturalist SueMorse has spent decades studying, tracking, andphotographing cougars outwest. 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. I had seen bear, deer, coyotes, foxes, that one bobcat all the usual suspects. 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. However, many of their claimsespecially Mr. Bettys contention of roughly a dozen personal sightings in New Englandare hard to take seriously. I went back and told the tale to anyone who would listen. 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? 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. She said it was long and thick. 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. Beautiful animal. 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. There are also many unconfirmed sightings. They especially come down from the mountains when there is a big water shortgage. 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. Phone: +1 802 448 8250. Several years of doing the follow-ups, then, convinced Blodgett that there were no catamounts in Vermont. Even though the experts say there arent any mountain lions in CT, there are. There was one possibility that might account for some of these sightings, he says. Finally, in the third camp, there are the true believersthe cougar truthers, if you willthe men and women for whom the only logical conclusion (often reached after a significant investment of time, thought, and sometimes money) is that right here, right now, cougars live among us, feeding and breeding and rearing their young, and that suggesting otherwise is sheer ignorance, willful denial, or part of a mosaic of conspiracy. 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. Scat, tracks, lays, scratch mounds youll see these things.. 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. It jumped 28 feet across the road. 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. As land was cleared for farming and the cats prey species declined in number, it went after livestock. 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