We think theyre coming in from Canada, Betty told me. What color was it? Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. Phone: . About six years ago, my mother and step-father were traveling some back roads down to New Boston, NH to visit my sister where she lived in an extended care facility. Hes also unafraid to take unpopular positions when he deems it necessary: Shortly before our meeting, hed signed a petition in favor of keeping ATVs off public roads. 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. Still, there is no saying that it will not happen. 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. His mention of these encounters was so matter-of-fact that I found myself nodding along. Instead, the responsne I heard were nonchalant, Oh, yes, lots of people have seen that mountain lion around here; pretty isnt it?. Sue Morse, a professional animal tracker, believes that means cougars will, eventually, return to Vermont. 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. 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. Distinguished by a boxy head, big paws and a VERY long tail. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. The second occasion was on the way to work when I saw the cougar/catamount crossing Route 44. I just heard from a fellow college student of a siting in Greenfield last fall and two in Colrain this spring. Americans called the mountain " Tah-wak-be-dee-ee-wads. But they would certainly pay attention if they did see one. Then saw him a few more times from further away across the road and along the edge sometimes of the woods. I had seen only one in my life and it was not in Vermont, where the mountain lion was officially extinct, the last one having been killed in 1881. A deer is a wild animal and it is always a pleasure to see oneunless it is in the high beams, at night. The restrictions/regulations surrounding management of an endangered species is incredibly cumbersome, and would be difficult to manage. As I looked at my daughter and then turned to follow the direction she was looking, I saw the animal in my side mirror. 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. He/she was UNMISTAKEABLY a mountain lion: stretched out straight, long tail straight out behind him, golden/beigey color, and smallish head, little ears. If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! 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. 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. Of course. Watching a potential winter storm. She favors plaid shirts, green Dickies work pants, and hiking boots, and she chided me for shaking her hand too gently. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. Whatever it was, it was standing motionless and, I thought, looking back at me as intently as I was staring at it. Respect predators, protect them but dont worship or try to hug them! 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. 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. But it is also true that there is something different and especially chilling about the threat of being attacked by something that is alive and wants to devour you. 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? Apex predators like the cougar and wolf make for a healthier ecosystem. I also had a coworker report a similar experience around the same time. In Vermont, for instance, a few dozen wild turkeys from Pennsylvania were released in 1969 and multiplied into the thousands we have here now. Not a bobcat or a coyote or a fisher or anything else that might be mistaken for a mountain lion. Phone: +1 802 448 8250. I wasnt the only one to see the big cat. Its not my call. By now, I knew the answer to that one. COLCHESTER, Vt. Catamounts are. A 140-pound male mountain lion was hit by a car and killed in 2011 in Milford, Connecticut. And, more often than not, when I told it, the person listening would nod and tell me about someone who had definitely seen a mountain lion/catamount in the Vermont woods or crossing a highway or, even, in the back yard. Public opinion surveys show many more would support reintroduction, than oppose. The glasses I carried were of good quality with exceptional light-gathering property. 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 scientific name for the catamount is Puma concolor. Morse, 70, comports herself in a friendly and no-nonsense manner. The discussion of whether federal lands should be a place to subsidize cattle ranching is another question. He didn't want to dispute what people are saying they saw, he simply says they need proof to substantiate it. When I shared their story with the staff at the center where my sister lived, I expected surprise and interested. Typical species behavior is for males to disperse from an area when the population reaches the carrying capacity of the habitat. 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. A journey of nearly 2,000 miles. Things seem to move at twilight and you never know. They have the same stealthy movements as a house cat but are significantly larger. Actually, Blodgett says, something of the opposite was true. You dont even have to go out and look for it.. When that last catamount was killed by a deer hunter, the state was paying a $20 bounty for pelts or carcasses. It jumped 28 feet across the road. There was no mistake. The light was failing and I was on my way out of the woods. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. 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. 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. Tom Stearns, a Vermont Game Warden says they get reports all the time. It fled when I resumed my walk down the logging road and on to my truck. It is healthy to have respect and caution, but fear shouldnt drive ecological decision making. Wildlife management programs succeeded in reintroducing species to areas where they had not been seen for years. She IS, perhaps, the most knowledgeable and experienced person in this arena and I listened intently to her presentation (Richmond, VT 2018). I started this blog for people to discuss mountain lion sightings and reports in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. Theyre here. 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! Also moose. 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. Several years of doing the follow-ups, then, convinced Blodgett that there were no catamounts in Vermont. This is always been a debate however as someone who is an avid Outdoorsman I can say with certainty I know of at least 12 people that have personal accounts of seeing mountain lion in Central and Western Massachusetts. So if coyotes could return and establish robust populations, why not a few catamounts? But there was not enough evidence to either prove or disprove that a mountain lion had done the killing. Harrigan nodded. Lizzie Post Would Like Your Attention. 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. They are here in the Catskill Mountains, so named for the magnificent felines. Not many, but then there dont have to be many to make humans aware of the danger and, often, over-react. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! 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. Chance of snow 90%. 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. 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. 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. It has, in fact, more names than any animal in the world. My husband and where riding our Motorcycle down Rte 110 near Milan NH Interesting how tree stumps or boulders assume the shape of an animal in this kind of light. Especially among those who did believe. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding woods. on route to stone tower on Quabbin Hill. Green Mountain Lion Corp. Home; Apply Now! It can run at speeds of up to 50 mph. I met with Morse at her home in Jericho. Mid Vermont Christian School Eagles forfeited their girls basketball playoff game on Tuesday against Long Trail School Mountain Lions. Refuge volunteer Dale Erz originally. Its not a bear, not a dog, not a deer, not a bobcat. One cat will leave more than 10,000 tracks per day. Our wildlife biologists and enforcement agents are mostly political bureaucrats who dont often venture more than 100yards from the truck. 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. Yet I also remembered something Sue Morse had told me months before, as we sat in her living room drinking beer and chatting cats. The last time a mountain lion was captured in New York was in the . He set down his cigarette and looked me in the eye. Part of this belief is rooted in his journalistic experience, which across the decades has cultivated his nose for sincerity. 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. Low 24F. At the head of the driveway is a flower sales table in front of a modest size greenhouse. Regarding a breeding population that is the unknown. You cant mistake the long tail. . We clearly have migratory male cougars coming through. But, I think with education and planning, we should reintroduce wolves and cougar in the Northeast. We have a lot of them here in N CA. So, traffic had been slowed from both ends for a good 3-5 minutes. Our county. 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. It is hard for me to believe that the big cats havent found plenty of space to roam without regular detection. How big was the animal? 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. The Spatz and Sue Ottmann referred to are Christopher Spatz and Sue Morse, two of the better-known and arguably most experienced cougar skeptics in the Northeast. But never a catamount. The solitary animal seeks out new territory and eventually a new population will be established. 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. First about the animal, itself, and then about the lore and the possibility that the catamount was not, in fact, extinct in Vermont. And thats a surprisingly complex question, because it hinges on numerous factors: policy and politics, culture and conditioning, habitat and, frankly, hubris. Inslerman said the DEC received about a half-dozen calls reporting sightings of mountain lions last year; two calls this week. Periods of snow. Of course no dash cam or accessible phone camera at the time! I saw an adult cougar/catamount twice within a two week period. 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