Today marks the date of our inception. Betty, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the process. What we do not have is a secure predator corridor.. Height. Im not surprised that various state officers deny the presence of cougars in new England. 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! Hes even had his own false sighting. No doubt of what it was; size, color and recognizable tail. CNN . 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. Mountain Lions in New York. Over time, Wright became convinced Eastern cougars lived in small pockets in the deep woods. Mountain Lions: Large tan cats with a distinctive two to three-foot curving tail, that can almost touch the ground as they walk. Broken Down: The National Society of Leadership and Success? Reading Time: 4 mins read . Sign up for our newsletterto get the latest and greatest content fromConnecticut Magazinedelivered right to your inbox. WOODBRIDGE, CT (WFSB) - Police in Woodbridge said they have received reports of mountain lion sightings in town. This isnt to say she believes none of these animals has stepped foot on New England soil over the past century. Massachusetts and several other New England states have bear hunting, or harvest, seasons, which proponents say help control populations. Weights range from 80 to 225 pounds, but the average is 140 pounds. The first time was in the yard which was surrounded by woods. And were one of the most densely populated states as far as humans. Bill Betty of Matunuck, a mountain lion expert who spoke at the South Kingstown Land Trust barn Oct. 30, thinks there is ample evidence pointing to the existence of a mountain lion in Matunuck. Mountain Lions: cougars, pumas, panthers and catamounts. 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. Im always amazed at the sheer volume of people who are interested in cougars, more even than wolves, she says. Its OK, he told me. Mountain lions also have tails that can grow up to 3 feet. N.H.'s Fish and Game State lawmakers have entertained bills to establish a bear hunting season for years, but so far, none of those proposals has passed. A bobcats tail is short and bob-like, while mountain lions have long, curving tails that can grow up to 3 feet. And there are different schools of thought about that. 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. By now, I knew the answer to that one. Out & About | Best New England Holiday Events for 2019. 90th Annual New Haven Register All-State Football First Team. In the 37 years Ive been working, things have changed in ways Id never have predicted. Even in the controlled environment of a lab, the truth about Eastern cougars seems to be almost willfully eluding its seekers. Im not an expert on human psychology, but if youre looking for something, you have a greater chance of actually seeing it. 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. 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. A month after the cat was struck and killed, researchers confirmed it had traveled more than 1,500 miles from the Black Hills of South Dakota. Its a cool story with how far that animal walked. Connecticut Dept. We told him what we saw, and he confirmed other sightings on the property. Two were confirmed in Logan County (2014 and 2015), and one . The sighting on Gerdes Road is the third in the past month and very close to the most recent one, on . 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. More recently, unexplained animal sightings in Connecticut and other states became more and more associated with mountain lions. We really must establish first that these beautiful animals SHOULD be in every state that was once THEIR habitat. Zillow has 20 photos of this $299,000 3 beds, 2 baths, -- sqft single family home located at 2439 Adams Farm Ct, Snow Camp, NC 27349 built in 1999. The scientific name for the catamount is Puma concolor. There was one photographed on a porch in Greenwich, CT, looking in the patio window that made national news a decade ago. ), 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. Its not my call. Got a question or comment? Prior to becoming a reporter, he was the founding producer of Connecticut Public Radio's The Colin McEnroe Show, which began in 2009. Were getting more and more home entries every year. I lived in Woodstock, CT in 2005/2006. Patrick's reporting has appeared on NPR's Morning Edition, Here & Now, and All Things Considered. 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. Officially, there are no mountain lions in New England, although there is a good possibility the big cats could be here, Tate said. They are named for their short (bobbed) tail which is often about six inches in length. Box 1896 Sacramento, CA 95812 916-442-2666 info@mountainlion.org. She said it was long and thick. Regarding a breeding population that is the unknown. The cougar and the states refusal to admit it was here made the local paper. Then in June 2011, there were reports of a mountain lion in Greenwich and, for the first time, a photo. He can be reached by phone at 860-275-7297 or by email: pskahill@ctpublic.org. 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 ! Mrgunsngear (Mr. We know that the closest established breeding population is in either the Everglades of Florida theres a small population down there and then out in South Dakota and Nebraska. 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. Males can reach up to two metres in length and weigh over 60 kilograms. Can they really all be cases of false identification? The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. Thats a reasonable assertion. They have a right to exist here and they contribute to healthier prey species. Hawley: Wildlife biologists across the United States know where the current mountain lion range is. 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. She was calling from a trail in Pootatuck State Forest, the 1,200-acre strip of nature occupying the hills above Squantz Pond in New Fairfield. He drove me out to the spot. I have not had the pleasure of seeing one, but have heard credible reports of them in Western Mass. They were also seen at other times by members of my family and other people in the neighborhood. "Connecticut is cougar heaven . The second occasion was on the way to work when I saw the cougar/catamount crossing Route 44. Harold Davis just bought a new snowplow. Bios and videos of the New Haven Register's 90th First-Team All-State Football players. 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. A trail camera was set up and confirmed the presence of a mountain lion on February 16, 2020. About This Home This charming 2 bed, 2 bath home, sits on a large lot facing north/south. My mother always said she saw one across the street from our house one night in the late 50s early 60s. are received by 1:00 p.m. CT, June 9, 2020 by Sheri Henderson at the Lincoln . We hope their support inspires you to donate so that we can continue telling stories that inform, educate, and inspire you and your neighbors. The states beautiful wilderness and mountainous terrain are prime mountain lion habitats. Updated . are larger and heavier than females (60 to 100 lbs.). Megafauna mania: our obsession with mountain lions and other large predators., Megafauna mania: our obsession with mountain lions and other large predators. Working in the 1980s in southern California, where there are cougars, biologist Paul Beier said that 95 percent of cougar sightings they investigated turned out to be misidentifications. He has also reported for the Marketplace Morning Report. Rego says that the way bobcats stride when they run, often times a rear leg is kicked up in the back and that could be mistaken for a long tail.. 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. So yes they are here and not to sure why they dont admit to them being around ! 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. However, the captive lion theory was also wrong. Bearded, bowler hat, expression impenetrable behind facial hair and the stoicism of an earlier era. I think they never left, Ottmann piped in. It has nothing to do with trophy hunting, public safety, etc. Anyone can get fooled. My daughter said to me thats the biggest cat Ive ever seen. You cant mistake the long tail. I dont ever say to people, Thats not what you saw. I say, I hope you saw one, Spatz told me when I called him at his home in upstate New York. Many, many times, in many different ways along its travel up through Minnesota, Michigan and to Canada, down through New York, through hair samples, blood samples, trail camera photos. If a young male Cougar disperses East, instead of West, they're going to keep walking because they're going tokeep looking for an area where they can find a mate, he said. 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.. Colorado and California have the highest estimated populations of mountain lions in the United States. All of which is to say that if Alexander Crowell wasnt afraid on that long-ago Thanksgiving Day, he probably should have been. 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. Those are the two closest populations that we have here. I have learned one thing in my career, and thats to never say never, she said. This article appeared in theNovember 2019issue ofConnecticut Magazine. UConn women's basketball's Dorka Juhsz, Amari DeBerry play 'word sneak' at press conference, Fight breaks out after CT high school basketball game between Bassick, Wilbur Cross, Guide to Legal Cannabis Dispensaries in CT, The Best Bathroom Remodeling Companies in CT, recent mountain lion sightings in Connecticut have not been confirmed, 10 criminal cases to watch in Connecticut in 2023, Haar: Pepperidge Farm HQ to exit CT for NJ with 170 jobs, After 350 years, the name of a CT river could be changed. Hawley: Yeah. For mountain lions in Connecticut, a lack of evidence is very good evidence. Then in June 2011, there were reports of a mountain lion in Greenwich and, for the first time, a photo. Mountain Lions:100 all the way up to 200 pounds, Mountain Lions:Can grow up to 6 feet long. Habitat. She IS, perhaps, the most knowledgeable and experienced person in this arena and I listened intently to her presentation (Richmond, VT 2018). As I walked thru the beginning of the trail I spooked a deer and heard this awful screech and slowly backed out of there .. 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. Im not an expert on human psychology, but if youre looking for something, you have a greater chance of actually seeing it. Somebody in the NC Legislature believes, because lions are now protected by law. If you believe you have seen a mountain lion and want to report it to NH Fish and Game, please contact the Wildlife Division at (603) 271-2461 or wildlife@wildlife.nh.gov to request an observation report form. His mentor, Aldo Leopold, a prominent wildlife biologist, also believed this, but felt if people learned about these populations, they would be hunted to extinction. 8 January. When a cats around, its not hard to find evidence. This guy was very intelligent, he had abandoned a professional career to pursue his dream of guiding. The cat is dead. In yet another variant, DEEP is said to be helicoptering mountain lions in to help control the deer population. Morse founded Keeping Track in the belief that getting citizens interested and engaged in wildlife will have the knock-on effect of getting them interested and engaged in how land-use decisions affect wild populationsand might provide the impetus for conservation efforts. I had been foraging up in an area that is rocky. (My wife didnt get a look at the tail.) A full-sized mountain line was photographed on the campus of the Brunswick School in Greenwich on Sunday, along with a matching paw print and a 9-inch lion dropping that seals the scientific deal. (Throughout history, people have had a deep fear of these creatures, hounding and hunting them mercilessly.) We also had bobcats that we saw quite often but I am positive that these were mountain lions! 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. 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. Rumors of their hidden presence persisted. Mountain Lions: They are officially extinct. Bobcats: They are are the only wild cat found in the state and the most common in North America. The next week, on June 11, the cat was hit and killed by an SUV on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Milford. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This setting should only be used on your home or work computer. Another possibility is to use the dosdude1 patcher to upgrade the MacBook to Sierra, this being generally possible on any unsupported machines mid-2008 or later. I was just amazed as I watched this scene in my own back yard. Spatz and Sue dont want to go where were going.. Theres also the lack of visual evidence, more glaring each passing year as so many hikers and hunters now carry phones with cameras. Betsy started as an intern at WNPR in 2011 after earning a Master's Degree in American and Museum Studies from Trinity College. Nowhere in New England is the matter definitively settled. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding 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. We met for lunch on a Sunday morning in early March, and it didnt take long for me to understand why Harrigan is such a popular columnist. You cansubscribe here, orfind the current issue on sale here. 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. 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. Mountain lions have been dispersing away from these population areas, and researchers recently mapped all confirmed mountain lion observations from 1990-2008 (LaRue et al. Hawley: Yeah. 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. That maybe, just maybe, what my wife and others saw wasnt a bobcat that seemed bigger in the thrill of the moment, but a real, honest-to-goodness mountain lion, a long-lost ghost of the forest. How big was the animal? But its also a great story that lays out how an animal this large, at 150 pounds, traveling through even rural areas, leaves signs and is detected. Hear the full interview: Megafauna mania: our obsession with mountain lions and other large predators, Connecticut Dept. 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). On another large animal that is most definitely here: bears. [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. Nearby grocery stores include Food Lion, Star Food. The truth is, I was by this point dubious. 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. Photos of the cat did nothing to convince DEEP the cat was here. 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. They can be found in several different ecosystems including mountains, forests, wetlands, and deserts. 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. Published: Dec 17, 2022 SACRAMENTO - Governor Gavin Newsom issued the below statement today after the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that mountain lion P-22 has been humanely euthanized following a comprehensive medical evaluation that found severe injuries and chronic health problems. A few years later, though, the scat was retested with DNA analysis and found to be canid, rather than feline, in origin. 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. To answer these and other questions about sightings of mountain lions, I turned to DEEPs Rego, who has investigated many purported cougar sightings over the past three decades. Weve done a lot of work over the years investigating sightings. According to Jason Hawley, a wildlife biologist for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protections Wildlife Division, the department gets around 100 sighting reports of mountain lions each year, but upon further investigation, a good proportion of the sightings end up being bobcats. 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. You know, weve had so many home entries this year. Its documented through track surveys, aerial surveys, trapping and collaring surveys. Bobcats are most frequently misidentified by the public as mountain lions, but theyre not the only animals mislabeled. Hey, I know what I saw. I think I may have pissed her off since I was up in that area X2 this week. Probably because of all the hunters that would be out trying to get their trophy and endangering others. At least once a year thered be a story from somewhere, but I only ran the absolute best, he told me. The young typically remain with their mother for 2 years. You could have 50. Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Bobcats typically have brown fur with a reddish tinge that is marked with black or brown spots or stripes, according to the National Zoo. But a high-profile sighting in 2011 stirred up renewed interest in the animals here, when a mountain lion from South Dakota was hit and killed by a car on a Connecticut highway. Icould hear the panic in my wifes voice. He knew it was only a matter of time. October 12, 2020 10:47 pm ET. Its definitely a problem thats only going to get worse. It's rare to see an up-close look at mountain lion behavior out in the wild, let alone a whole family. Especially when pictures are blurry which happens a lot in trail cameras or youll get pictures taken at night or something on Ring cameras that hind leg really does often look like a tail kind of curling up behind the 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. My encounter was in Middlesex, VT along the river road (Route 2) just below I89. In the 1930s, Bruce Wright, an influential wildlife manager from New Brunswick, Canada, began gathering reports of sightings of mountain lions in the East and searching for their tracks. Middlebury, Vermont | Could You Live Here? You need to understand that every biologist that works for the state has a duty to deny mountain lions. Still, sightings are common. However, the Department of Energy and. The history of this theory in Connecticut and New England goes back long before our current era of fake news. he recalls. 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. Eastern cougars (mountain lions) do not have a native, self sustaining population in New York State. But a high-profile sighting in 2011 stirred up renewed interest in the animals here, when a mountain lion from South Dakota was hit and killed by a car on a Connecticut highway. 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). There is also something appealing about the idea that there is an animal out there so cunning that it has escaped our notice and the eyes of our cameras. When you look at a state like Connecticut, with all the people we have here, all the trail cameras we have in the woods, all the cars we have driving you can imagine if we had an established population here in Connecticut, we would know about it pretty quickly. In a Facebook poll, 84 people said they believe mountain lions are in the county, 37 say they've personally seen them, and three people say they do not exist. The Great Divide | Are There Mountain Lions in New England. 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. Email editor@connecticutmag.com. 1 After three deer were killed on his property in March, Matunuck resident Abel Collins found what he suspected might be a mountain lion track nearby. What set it off was a National Geographic special on mountain lions in California, right after my daughter and I had two encounters in my driveway, Betty told me. DEEP believes their numbers have increased in recent years. Abbott, of the Housatonic Valley Association, is equally skeptical of the vast majority of mountain lion sightings. Bobcats and a possible mountain lion have been mentioned within the past few weeks. I started to get nervous so I was scanning the area low and high in the trees. 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. The big cat on the ground before him, motionless, yet somehow still embodying that particular feline litheness, as if, with the flick of its tail, it might bound to its feet and disappear into the woods. The big cat traveled some 1,100 miles before his life came to a tragic end after being hit by a SUV on Route 15 in . Hawley:Were sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. People clearly arent lying when they say they saw a cougar; [the sighting] has a profound effect on them.. Matthew Johnson/Vermont Historical Society. My assumption is it was the same animal. Manchester, CT 06045 Phone: 800-237-3606 Email: service@journalinquirer.com. At the time, a specialist from the Iowa Department of Natural. I saw a Mountain Lion in 2007 in Northfield, MA at the junctions of Rtes 10 and 63. The map from that publication is shown below, with the current mountain lion range in green and confirmed mountain lion locations as black dots. Stephen Gencarella, professor of folklore studies at the University of Massachusetts and a Connecticut resident, says, The government coverup is only the latest version of something that could stretch back in the oral tradition to precolonial times. He notes that supposed mountain lion sightings spiked in the late 1800s and early 1900s shortly after the animals disappeared from New Englands woods. Those are the two closest populations that we have here. Initially, officials believed it had been released from a private handler. What time of day was it? The restrictions/regulations surrounding management of an endangered species is incredibly cumbersome, and would be difficult to manage. We even had a sighting someone here at DEEP, in my office, was convinced they saw a mountain lion. When you look at a state like Connecticut, with all the people we have here, all the trail cameras we have in the woods, all the cars we have driving you can imagine if we had an established population here in Connecticut, we would know about it pretty quickly. Not long after, what was believed to be the same mountain lion was struck and killed on Route 15 in Milford. 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. You dont even have to go out and look for it.. People like you are the problem and cause of extinctions. McEnroe: It is an uphill challenge. It is hard for me to believe that the big cats havent found plenty of space to roam without regular detection. Could UConn women's basketball be back to 'square one' with seven available players at Seton Hall? For instance, a favorite food for deer is the seedlings of forest tree species. It used to be that a bear would go into a house when someone wasnt home. 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. They have been absent from this state since the late 1800s; however, there have been a few isolated sightings. The MPD Animal Care and Control Unit's report includes a fact sheet about mountain lions, which has many common names, including "puma, catamount and panther.". UConn women's basketball's Dorka Juhsz, Amari DeBerry play 'word sneak' at press conference, Fight breaks out after CT high school basketball game between Bassick, Wilbur Cross, Amanda Bynes, Steve from 'Blues Clues' to appear at 90s Con in CT, Connecticut paranormal convention coming back this spring, Bridgeport woman competes to find love on Paramount+ dating show, Self-taught pianist Serene to perform at Grace Farms. Ottmann and I walked farther. 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( 2014 and 2015 ), and all things Considered go out and look for it.. like., officially, certainly dead a specialist from the Iowa Department of Natural: can grow up to pounds... Piped in players at Seton Hall can recommend without hesitation Waterfox Classic web browser and., orfind the current mountain lion on February 16, 2020 by Sheri at... 2011 after earning a Master 's Degree in American and Museum Studies from College.