Some with cameras. 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. At least once a year thered be a story from somewhere, but I only ran the absolute best, he told me. I started this blog for people to discuss mountain lion sightings and reports in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. 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). This animal was too long in the body and blunt in the head. 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. They set the stage for the exotics to move in, and this has a huge impact on our ecology, he said. This guy was very intelligent, he had abandoned a professional career to pursue his dream of guiding. These sightings usually took place at night or in fading light, like that of my bobcat encounter. There was no denying that the carcass, which was examined by experts, was that of a mountain lion. 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. 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. ), 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. I had a clear look, through the glasses at a bobcat. The mountain lion can weigh upwards of 200 pounds and it can move like well, like a cat. In Vermont, it was 1881. If these people say they saw something, Im going to listen., If theres one thing people on all sides of the debate can agree on, its that a breeding population of cougars is essential to the overall health of New Englands ecosystems, which currently lack an apex predator. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! Something I had not expected ever to experience. I think they never left, Ottmann piped in. Instead, the responsne I heard were nonchalant, Oh, yes, lots of people have seen that mountain lion around here; pretty isnt it?. First about the animal, itself, and then about the lore and the possibility that the catamount was not, in fact, extinct in Vermont. We really must establish first that these beautiful animals SHOULD be in every state that was once THEIR habitat. But it was also a male. It has, in fact, more names than any animal in the world. [Betty] and the other guys dont do this shit. Lacked, almost any tail at all, for that matter. 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. Green Mountain Lion Corp #256 34 Blair Park Road Ste. I thought I saw signs posted in Pawling NY about 8 years ago, that DEC released a pair to control deer population,mane several people have seen them in Wingdale, NY. I just heard from a fellow college student of a siting in Greenfield last fall and two in Colrain this spring. It is healthy to have respect and caution, but fear shouldnt drive ecological decision making. Please. Our county. She IS, perhaps, the most knowledgeable and experienced person in this arena and I listened intently to her presentation (Richmond, VT 2018). But this requires a breeding pair. Ordinary, the lone males do not range much more than 100 miles. Video - Trade Show Recaps; Videos - Can We Find a Time to Talk? Thats a reasonable assertion. 104 Williston, VT 05495. 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. Inslerman said the DEC received about a half-dozen calls reporting sightings of mountain lions last year; two calls this week. 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. For several years, Blodgett, a wildlife biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife, conducted those follow up investigations. Our hunter friend was hunting in central NH when they came upon an adult deer carcass way up in a tree. All with eyes to see and spring loaded to see something. The females are where its at, she said. Blodgett liked talking about this subject. The expert opinion held up until a man was killed by a Great White not too far away. COLCHESTER, Vt. Catamounts are. These things happen suddenly and they are over quickly. Ottmann and I walked farther. Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. My assumption is it was the same animal. He coined the term landscape of fear to describe the relationship between predator and prey in the wild. But they would certainly pay attention if they did see one. Well, theres no difference between Maine and New Brunswick, anyway, said Betty. When he suggested we retrace our route, past lion, to see a sow bear with cubs, we headed in the opposite direction. Provided by Touchpoints 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 . Tom Stearns, a Vermont Game Warden says they get reports all the time. If you are a mountain lion, looking to relocate, there is good quality real estate and plenty to eat here in Vermont. 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. I reported it to Connecticut DEEP, only to be told there are no cougars in Connecticut. There are so many great sites out there devoted to. 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. 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. Even though the experts say there arent any mountain lions in CT, there are. Typical species behavior is for males to disperse from an area when the population reaches the carrying capacity of the habitat. Not a bobcat or a coyote or a fisher or anything else that might be mistaken for a mountain lion. 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. Ive attended talks with Sue Morse. 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. Probably are lions in western NC, too. Things seem to move at twilight and you never know. "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. Nowhere in New England is the matter definitively settled. 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. Long Trail beat Arlington 62-40 on Feb. 7. The combined scoring differential in those matchups was 158-77. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding woods. 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. There is no shortage of deer for all apex predators whether they are canine, feline, or human. The mountain lionalso known as the cougar, puma, panther, or catamountis a large cat species native to the Americas. It can run 50 miles an hour and clear a twelve-foot fence. 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. If you dont think cougars are coming to the East, think again, she said, leaning forward for emphasis. I lived in great Barrington mass and I took photos of tracks in a field in April of 2009 (and of course lost them). 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. The evidence, he says, just wasnt there., Mountain Lions Revisit Kill Sites Im not surprised that various state officers deny the presence of cougars in new England. It was huge! Now that USFW has declared them extinct, why not formally reintroduce them. Regarding a breeding population that is the unknown. By now, I knew the answer to that one. 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. 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 . I was agnostic, I suppose, on these stories which the state wildlife biologists inevitably found impossible to substantiate and, often, easy to disprove. We need cougars and we need wolves back in the Northeast, because a landscape of fear is a well-balanced landscape.. Some might mistake the bobcat, which still lives in New England, for a cougareven though its tail is about 6 inches long andthe bigger cats is 3 feet or more. They are much larger than bobcat and lynx, young adults can still have spots too. 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 . 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 favors plaid shirts, green Dickies work pants, and hiking boots, and she chided me for shaking her hand too gently. He says that if mountain lions do . 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. Its not a bear, not a dog, not a deer, not a bobcat. Distinguished by a boxy head, big paws and a VERY long tail. It was definitely a cougar. However, many of their claimsespecially Mr. Bettys contention of roughly a dozen personal sightings in New Englandare hard to take seriously. 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. 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. But examination of the carcass raised suspicions. When that last catamount was killed by a deer hunter, the state was paying a $20 bounty for pelts or carcasses. 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. He/she was UNMISTAKEABLY a mountain lion: stretched out straight, long tail straight out behind him, golden/beigey color, and smallish head, little ears. There was no mistake. 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. But there was certainty, or near-certainty, on the part of the witnesses who, it seemed, would swear to having seen a catamount. Spatz and Sue dont want to go where were going.. Then saw him a few more times from further away across the road and along the edge sometimes of the woods. 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. near Greenfield with an experienced guide that hed worked with several times. My daughter said to me thats the biggest cat Ive ever seen. It fled when I resumed my walk down the logging road and on to my truck. This is a site for people to discuss mountain lion sightings in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. Refuge volunteer Dale Erz originally. There are no breeding cougars in New England and we do not need any. I have learned one thing in my career, and thats to never say never, she said. Bennington, VT (05201) Today. Ottmann nodded. Several years of doing the follow-ups, then, convinced Blodgett that there were no catamounts in Vermont. This is part of the cougar business. Several years ago, I saw what was definitely a cougar walking along a street. And some people might decide to release them into the wild rather than keeping them in their possession. And, then, some species didnt need any help from humans but managed to extend their range into now-recovered and suitable habitats. 8 Arlington (9-10) and No. Beautiful creature. 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. 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. Especially among those who did believe. It was fast as hell but there was no mistaking its not only long,but THICK tail as it disappeared into the woods. Even in the controlled environment of a lab, the truth about Eastern cougars seems to be almost willfully eluding its seekers. Green Mountain Lion Corp. Home; Apply Now! 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 have pictures of tracks around my car and up to the back steps of my deck in Arkville, NY . It does NOT surprise me, you would have seen a wild, free-roaming, native 'eastern' cougar, aka puma, mountain lion in Vermont. Bill and I are full-throttle. Height. Their bodies are mainly covered in tawny-beige fur, except for the whitish-gray belly and chest. If LTS can take care of business in that one, it would host the winner of the Bennington County matchup between No. Escapes by these animals were not impossible. Videos. There was one possibility that might account for some of these sightings, he says. The one thing that jumped out at her the tail. If the mountain lion is a certified killer of sheep and, sometimes, cattle, it has also occasionally attacked humans. Blodgett and I were returning from a day spent looking forand finding timber rattlesnakes, a species that is endangered in Vermont. My husband and where riding our Motorcycle down Rte 110 near Milan NH Beautiful animal. 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! Within six weeks, he continued, I was getting off the plane in Jackson Hole for a national mountain lion conference. [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. I will never forget what I saw! Or, if it does, when that will be. So you can imagine there. 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. Some people say they have seen a catamount in the woods. Put bluntly, Morse does not believe that New England is home to cougars. But I dont think it will happen any time soon.. Interesting how tree stumps or boulders assume the shape of an animal in this kind of light. Morse introduced me to her cat, Allister, whom she referred to as her portable puma. Then she fetched me a beer. 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. People clearly arent lying when they say they saw a cougar; [the sighting] has a profound effect on them.. I started to get nervous so I was scanning the area low and high in the trees. The one killed on the Connecticut highway was on a journey worthy of Odysseus so it isnt likely that there will be a thriving population of mountain lions in Fairfield County, raiding backyard cocktail parties, anytime soon. When we reached tower, a ranger arrived in a pickup. Others have seen cougar in neighboring towns . Catamounts are large wild cats that are also called panthers, cougars or mountain lions. 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.). He was a dark butterscotch color, very tall and lanky (taller and thinner than a really big German Shepard) and that tail. Betty, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the process. As pets or for exhibit. 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. Indeed! 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. As land was cleared for farming and the cats prey species declined in number, it went after livestock. Some of them, he says, we could close the books on pretty quickly. My stepfather had been a hunter and was no stranger to seeing animals in the woods and countryside, so when they came up over a knoll in the road and saw a large cat looking at them, he saw the face and thought, bobcatuntil they then saw the rest of the animals body: huge, beautifully tawny colored, and in possession of what my mother described as a very long tail, that was as thick as my wrist. Carcass, which was examined by experts, was that of a lion... 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