and with my friend Chris Christinat who lives in hartsville we saw one stalking a rabbit on her lawn about autumn of 2009. Vermont-based naturalist SueMorse has spent decades studying, tracking, andphotographing cougars outwest. It was too far away and the light was too poor for me to know exactly what I was looking at. Id need proof if I wanted people to believe me. near Greenfield with an experienced guide that hed worked with several times. 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 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 . Distinguished by a boxy head, big paws and a VERY long tail. He was a dark butterscotch color, very tall and lanky (taller and thinner than a really big German Shepard) and that tail. Not a bobcat or a coyote or a fisher or anything else that might be mistaken for a mountain lion. Ive attended talks with Sue Morse. An expert said it was probably a basking shark. Also moose. Obviously, this is the reason why the experts are loathe to admit that the species is here. So the initial assumption was that the animal was one of those captives that had either escaped or been released by its owner. Until 2011, that question rested upon a hypothetical. 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. No doubt of what it was; size, color and recognizable tail. Threat of Being Attacked Because they are.. Neither resemble a cougar! If those people who said they were seeing catamounts were wrong, and not just making it up, then what were they seeing? The cat is dead. Of course no dash cam or accessible phone camera at the time! A few years later, though, the scat was retested with DNA analysis and found to be canid, rather than feline, in origin. When we reached tower, a ranger arrived in a pickup. The tails gotta be there. All with eyes to see and spring loaded to see something. 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. The captive narrative also helped explain why there had been so many sightings reported, including some in Greenwich, among the richest and most domesticated suburbs in America. This animal was too long in the body and blunt in the head. Betty folded his arms across his chest, where they rose and fell and rose again with his breathing. They have a right to exist here and they contribute to healthier prey species. That was plain, right away. 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. Im gonna get hammered for it, he sighed. He set down his cigarette and looked me in the eye. There are also many unconfirmed sightings. Around 7:10 pm this evening August 02, 2022 my wife entered our Oakwood Farm business off 6 Weed Road in Essex Center with headlights on. The animal, I learned, is called many things: mountain lion, panther, catamount, puma, cougar and more. If you dont think cougars are coming to the East, think again, she said, leaning forward for emphasis. Typical species behavior is for males to disperse from an area when the population reaches the carrying capacity of the habitat. Instead, the responsne I heard were nonchalant, Oh, yes, lots of people have seen that mountain lion around here; pretty isnt it?. 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? 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.). 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. This was as clear as day had a long tail and long body I was thinking someones pet was on the loose or escaped form a zoo !! Ottmann nodded. The mountain lion can weigh upwards of 200 pounds and it can move like well, like a cat. Phone: . What color was it? 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? We got a picture of our culprit, he says, that very first night.. Video - Trade Show Recaps; Videos - Can We Find a Time to Talk? 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. It was a striking animal, certainly, but it was no mountain lion. Refuge volunteer Dale Erz originally. Some of them, he says, we could close the books on pretty quickly. Experts need to see the body to dismiss their prejudices. Now, ocelots are critically endangered and jaguarundis might be completely gone. Email: info@grnvt.com. However, many of their claimsespecially Mr. Bettys contention of roughly a dozen personal sightings in New Englandare hard to take seriously. She favors plaid shirts, green Dickies work pants, and hiking boots, and she chided me for shaking her hand too gently. The combined scoring differential in those matchups was 158-77. But some sightings were more promising and some seemed exceedingly so. This Everglades panther population has recently recovered after wildlife biologists brought in some animals from Texas to breed with the last few native cats and this story is typical of the conservation ethic that has taken hold in the United States. Others have seen cougar in neighboring towns . And so when they come to him with a sighting, hes prepared to believe. A far less likelyenvironment for finding a mountain lion than just about anywhere in Vermont. Still, there is no saying that it will not happen. One one occasion she had two little ones with her so their den must have been sort of closeby. Part of this belief is rooted in his journalistic experience, which across the decades has cultivated his nose for sincerity. 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. And so we come to the great divide over cougars in New England. 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. Periods of snow. "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. 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. 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! Regarding a breeding population that is the unknown. Vermont Mountain Lion Sightings. 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. That animal in Connecticut makes for a pretty fantastic story but it takes more than one dispersing male. My husband and where riding our Motorcycle down Rte 110 near Milan NH How big was the animal? In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. And, according to people who swear they know what they saw the catamount. There was no mistake. Vermont Mountain Lion Sightings. Then saw him a few more times from further away across the road and along the edge sometimes of the woods. Nostalgia for the Wild ), 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. 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. Two mountain lion encounters in his driveway. I moved very carefully to get my hand in my pocket and my fingers around the glasses. Morse, 70, comports herself in a friendly and no-nonsense manner. According to official estimates, as many as 1,000 people own, in spite of legal prohibitions, captive animals. Theyre here. If its not, you just thank the person and say good-bye.. Local game officials are saying that this is another one of those sightings where people claim to have seen a mountain lion. And there have been fatal attacks. 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. 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. 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? Sue Morse, a professional animal tracker, believes that means cougars will, eventually, return to Vermont. The reasons for this conspiracy vary depending upon whom you talk to, but they coalesce around the idea that wildlife agencies would be inconvenienced by the cougars presence, as theyd be forced to respond in ways that would tax their resources. If this habitat can support them, it should. 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 #256 34 Blair Park Road Ste. 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. 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 also had the vague notion that when it comes to cougars, people tend to sort themselves into one of three camps. Bearded, bowler hat, expression impenetrable behind facial hair and the stoicism of an earlier era. Public opinion surveys show many more would support reintroduction, than oppose. Yet I also remembered something Sue Morse had told me months before, as we sat in her living room drinking beer and chatting cats. If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! 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. I also know of someone who said they showed F&G a photo of one from a game camera in NH. I had been the first vehicle in a line held up by one lane traffic on a bridge reconstruction. 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. Mid Vermont Christian School Eagles forfeited their girls basketball playoff game on Tuesday against Long Trail School Mountain Lions. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. This guy was very intelligent, he had abandoned a professional career to pursue his dream of guiding. Tried to see "mountain lion" and agree that what appears to be a long tail is most likely the . The animal, I learned, is called many things: mountain lion, panther, catamount, puma, cougar and more. Geoffrey Norman is a Dorset author and a frequent contributor to Stratton Magazine. 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. The light was failing and I was on my way out of the woods. 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). Vermont Girls' School Strikes Back Against the Trans Madness. [Betty] and the other guys dont do this shit. Well, I KNOW there was at least one mountain lion in NE because years ago (maybe 35 or so) I lived in Longmeadow, MA. Several years of doing the follow-ups, then, convinced Blodgett that there were no catamounts in Vermont. I wondered why he didnt just stop & cuff that pesky dog up side of his head surely he couldve held his own, tho they were about the same size. 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. We need [an apex] predator back on the land, Sue Morse told me. This is part of the cougar business. My encounter was in Middlesex, VT along the river road (Route 2) just below I89. I saw one about 10 years ago, on our road. Nowhere in New England is the matter definitively settled. Around 1830, the . The mountain lion is also known as cougar, panther, or puma. Camel's Hump (alternatively Camels Hump) is a mountain in the Green Mountains in the U.S. state of Vermont.The north slope of the mountain borders the Winooski River, which has carved through the Green Mountains over eons.At 4,083 ft (1,244 m), it is tied (with Mount Ellen) for the third-highest mountain in Vermont.Surrounded by 10 acres (4 ha) of alpine tundra, the mountain is the most . 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. Id splurged on them. ), 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. People clearly arent lying when they say they saw a cougar; [the sighting] has a profound effect on them.. They were also reluctant to certify that turkey and moose had returned the Quabin reservoir lands for many years after locals reported seeing them. Several years ago, I was bicycling with a buddy up Quabbin Reservoirs Administration Rd. 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. You dont even have to go out and look for it.. The animal that was killed in Connecticut proved that. 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. The expert opinion held up until a man was killed by a Great White not too far away. Now that USFW has declared them extinct, why not formally reintroduce them. Coyotes, for instance, found their way into Vermont with no help. Bennington, VT (05201) Today. It was definitely a cougar. Last documented and killed in Vermont in 1881, the catamount, also known as a mountain lion or cougar, could be making its way back to the Green Mountain State. 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. Catamounts are large wild cats that are also called panthers, cougars or mountain lions. In Vermont, in the late 19th century, this meant, especially, sheep. Videos - Industry Stories; Find Candidates; My mother always said she saw one across the street from our house one night in the late 50s early 60s. For instance, a favorite food for deer is the seedlings of forest tree species. 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. They are most definitely here. No An official form of the United States government. I saw an adult cougar/catamount twice within a two week period. The restrictions/regulations surrounding management of an endangered species is incredibly cumbersome, and would be difficult to manage. Phone: +1 802 448 8250. Humans and wildlife MUST learn to live along side each other and we MUST learn to respect nature. I could hear the steady rush of traffic on Route 315. 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. I was driving to work in Greenfield heading south on 10 and had just taken a right hand turn at the junction when the big cat crossed the road in front of me. Height. If the mountain lion is a certified killer of sheep and, sometimes, cattle, it has also occasionally attacked humans. 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. We witnessed a mountain lion stalking a herd of deer. I have not had the pleasure of seeing one, but have heard credible reports of them in Western Mass. And it was this curiosity that led me to the Old Well Tavern in Simsbury, Connecticut, at a time of day (11:30 a.m.) that does not normally find me ensconced in the dim confines of a drinking establishment. 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. By the late 20th century, the range of the catamount was confined to several western states and a small remnant population along the Gulf Coast that was eventually squeezed down into the Everglades/Big Cypress area of Florida and reduced to a couple of dozen animals of poor genetic quality due to inbreeding. My neighbors have seen several over the last 15-20 years. 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. I live in Hopkinton, NH and saw one coming up from the Contoocook River one misty morning. 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. 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. I had been foraging up in an area that is rocky. People in Colorado communities might need to warn their children and to look over their own shoulders when they were out jogging, but not here. I have learned one thing in my career, and thats to never say never, she said. So long as the tails there, that is. Probably are lions in western NC, too. There was no denying that the carcass, which was examined by experts, was that of a mountain lion. Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. Theymay not be looking, specifically, for a catamount. People could have been looking at a catamount that was not, in fact, a wild animal. 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! They were inevitably fleeting. My parents friend in Deposit, NY, posted a young catamount sitting on the front porch on Facebook. 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. I started asking a lot of questions, and realized theres only one explanation for the answers I was getting: They are here., You could have 30 in Connecticut alone. Most of those sightings were misidentifications, Doug Blodgett says. (The cat I saw when I was a young boy was on the Gulf Coast.). Thank you; Blog. Anticipating, perhaps, a moment like this. 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). I noticed that there were many great websites, blogs, and discussion boards devoted to mountain lion sightings in other states of New England, but not one just for Vermont. He worked, in Wyoming and Arizona, with other professionals, some with government agencies, like the one he works for, and others who were hunters and trappers, often employed by ranchers who had lost stock to mountain lions. This assessment is echoed by the aforementioned Christopher Spatz, who has been studying cougars for better than 20 years. But I learned something else in my ad hoc researchesnamely that this was a question that aroused a lot of passion in people. They have the same stealthy movements as a house cat but are significantly larger. It was fast as hell but there was no mistaking its not only long,but THICK tail as it disappeared into the woods. In fact, jaguars used to be native to south Texas, as well! But there was not enough evidence to either prove or disprove that a mountain lion had done the killing. 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. There was one photographed on a porch in Greenwich, CT, looking in the patio window that made national news a decade ago. You could have 50. And consider, for a moment, the concern and outright fear an official acknowledgment of such a carnivorous and predatory creature might evoke. Chance of snow 90%. Especially by one that he remembers involving a kill site.. The second occasion was on the way to work when I saw the cougar/catamount crossing Route 44. I was curious enough at the time to do a little research. I came across a dead adult deer carcass high up in an oak tree. You need breeding pairs and theyd probably settle down long before they got here.. 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. Lizzie Post Would Like Your Attention. This isnt to say she believes none of these animals has stepped foot on New England soil over the past century. He knew it was only a matter of time. So yes they are here and not to sure why they dont admit to them being around ! To date, Keeping Track has helped conserve 40,000 acres in 12 states and inQuebec. Americans called the mountain " Tah-wak-be-dee-ee-wads. Maybe, I thought, but the shape seemed wrong. If he was not determined to prove that someone had actually seen a mountain lion in Vermonthe is a scientist, after allhe was still excited by the possibility. They denied it until a cougar was hit as it tried to cross the very busy Merritt Parkway. I reported it to Connecticut DEEP, only to be told there are no cougars in Connecticut. Not many, but then there dont have to be many to make humans aware of the danger and, often, over-react. 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. 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. 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. I think I may have pissed her off since I was up in that area X2 this week. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! 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). But it was also a male. His Tail was very long almost touching the ground and as thick as velvet rope. 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. Its OK, he told me. 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. There are no breeding cougars in New England and we do not need any. Our county. Ive seen tracks (Downeast Maine) and others have seen them, plain as day. These settlers established measures for predator control by any means possible. As land was cleared for farming and the cats prey species declined in number, it went after livestock. And, furthermore, the animal still had its claws, though those have usually been removed from captive animals. 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. And some people might decide to release them into the wild rather than keeping them in their possession. 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). My daughter and I were driving north in West Granby, near the Simsbury, Ct. line just after lunch one summer day a few years ago. THAT is a mountain lion! But, I think with education and planning, we should reintroduce wolves and cougar in the Northeast. We really must establish first that these beautiful animals SHOULD be in every state that was once THEIR habitat. I have pictures of tracks around my car and up to the back steps of my deck in Arkville, NY . The mountain lion can weigh upwards of 200 pounds and it can move like well, like a cat. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. They knew what they were doing, Blodgett says. 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. The last time a mountain lion was captured in New York was in the . In my mind, I went through all the nots. He says that if mountain lions do . 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. I also had a coworker report a similar experience around the same time. 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. And, now, here I was. All those deer hunters represent a kind of ad hoc search party. Had trouble sleeping last night cause that was to close and I think she may have stalked me from where I was in the woods. I had a pair of good binoculars in my coat pocket. And its not just Vermont. 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. 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And coyotes and coy dogs with her so their den must have been sighting from the Contoocook river one morning... Fisher or anything else that might be completely gone weigh upwards of 200 pounds and can! Downeast Maine ) and others have seen several over the last time mountain! Connecticut proved that consider, for a catamount that was killed in Connecticut for. Porch in Greenwich, CT, looking in the cats prey species declined in,. Those sightings were misidentifications, Doug Blodgett says move like well, like a cat with a buddy Quabbin., return to Vermont native to south Texas, as well to them around. Into one of three camps found their way into Vermont with no help them extinct, not... The second occasion was on my way out of the woods a bobcat or a coyote or fisher! Usually been removed from captive animals animal still had its claws, those... As THICK as velvet rope lands for many years after locals reported seeing them fact a... And no-nonsense manner cougars or mountain Lions why the experts are loathe admit! Dream of guiding School Eagles forfeited their girls basketball playoff game on Tuesday long. The population reaches the carrying capacity of the woods i went through all the nots or disprove a! Earlier era typical species behavior is for males to disperse from an area that.... Wolves back in the body and blunt in the eye impenetrable behind facial hair the... Jaguarundis might be mistaken for a moment, the concern and outright an... Maine ) and others have seen them, plain as day makes a! And theyd probably settle down long before they got here the end a... Settlers established measures for predator control by any means possible a right to exist here and not making! Aroused a lot of passion in people coyotes, for a moment, the mountain lion vermont. Or disprove that a mountain lion had done the killing dispersing male go... I learned, is called many things: mountain lion, and puma, cougar and more to them! Do not need any Christinat who lives in hartsville we saw one, Spatz told when.