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. What are the chances of wolves coming back to Vermont? 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. 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. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. According to official estimates, as many as 1,000 people own, in spite of legal prohibitions, captive animals. Green Mountain Lion Corp #256 34 Blair Park Road Ste. 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! [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 live in Vermont and have seen, in broad daylight, a mountain lion (catamount, cougar, puma). It can run 50 miles an hour and clear a twelve-foot fence. At least once a year thered be a story from somewhere, but I only ran the absolute best, he told me. So I asked him about the catamount and if the animal in Connecticut was some sort of advance scout for a coming wave of resident lions. 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. 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. 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 had been foraging up in an area that is rocky. Humans and wildlife MUST learn to live along side each other and we MUST learn to respect nature. Before I departed the Old Well Tavern, Bo Ottmann offered to lead me on a walk into an adjacent stretch of woods, where, he assured me, cougars might be found. They may get here, Doug Blodgett said to me one afternoon. Their bodies are mainly covered in tawny-beige fur, except for the whitish-gray belly and chest. Green Mountain Lion Corp. Home; Apply Now! You dont even have to go out and look for it.. Im not surprised that various state officers deny the presence of cougars in new England. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. 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. I reported it to Connecticut DEEP, only to be told there are no cougars in Connecticut. 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. There are also many unconfirmed sightings. 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. I think I may have pissed her off since I was up in that area X2 this week. When he suggested we retrace our route, past lion, to see a sow bear with cubs, we headed in the opposite direction. Defenders of Wildlife developed funding to support wolf predation on cattle which I believe worked. The cougar and the states refusal to admit it was here made the local paper. If someone described seeing a black panther, for example, then you knew right away and you didnt need to do any more investigating.. The Vermont woods would be a lot more interesting with mountain lions in them. In Vermont, the last known mountain lion was shot near Barnard in 1881, ending an era when the predators were such a nuisance that the state offered a $20 bounty per pelt. But I learned something else in my ad hoc researchesnamely that this was a question that aroused a lot of passion in people. One one occasion she had two little ones with her so their den must have been sort of closeby. It kills to eat but does not necessarily practice any sort of conservation ethic. Green Mountain Lion Corporation, Inc. Business Consulting and Services Williston, Vermont 5,563 followers Boutique management recruiting firm focusing on heavy equipment manufacturing & distribution. When that last catamount was killed by a deer hunter, the state was paying a $20 bounty for pelts or carcasses. There was no mistake. The police and everyone else just shook their heads but she to her dying breath said she saw a mountain lion in Lexington MA. They knew what they were doing, Blodgett says. Looking at the mounted animal, behind the glass, had made me feel kind of well, sad. 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. The expert opinion held up until a man was killed by a Great White not too far away. You could have 50. 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. We were talking about those animals, like coyotes and turkeys, that have re-established themselves in Vermont and, unlike the rattlers, are thriving. But other hard evidence of the big cats presence is elusive. ), 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. A deer is a wild animal and it is always a pleasure to see oneunless it is in the high beams, at night. 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.. 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. If theyre in one, theyre in the other.. He didn't want to dispute what people are saying they saw, he simply says they need proof to substantiate it. But my eyes picked up something and I knew, right away, that it was alive. Wildlife do really crazy things, and you just never know.. We really must establish first that these beautiful animals SHOULD be in every state that was once THEIR habitat. It is hard for me to believe that the big cats havent found plenty of space to roam without regular detection. If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! 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. When a cats around, its not hard to find evidence. Face to face, maybe, with a sure enough catamount. 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. 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 . He wore red suspenders and a baseball cap. 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 . Friends that go backcountry skiing in Vermont have reported seeing tracks to me many times and I have seen pictures of the pawprints myself that look overwheming like a mountain lion. The glasses I carried were of good quality with exceptional light-gathering property. Interesting article, but it is really incomplete without a discussion of the legal implications of having a confirmed endangered species such as the Eastern Cougar in New England. Video - Trade Show Recaps; Videos - Can We Find a Time to Talk? Several years of doing the follow-ups, then, convinced Blodgett that there were no catamounts in Vermont. Even in areas of high cougar density, the there are far more attacks on humans by domesticated dogs or deer/car collision fatalities than those due to cougar attack. Because while male cougars eventually strike out on their own and occasionally wander far from home, females are, as Morse puts it, hardwired to remain close to their mothers home range. In the few seconds that this took, I had convinced myself that I was looking at a mountain lion. Not a bobcat 100% mountain lion and anybody that tries to think a bobcat as any resemblance to a mountain lion clearly has no idea about wildlife there are a lot of false reports because of this however they are without a doubt in part of New England and fish and game has as usual covered up despite coming out and following mountain lion tracks in the snow through the woods in Central Mass and finding a deer carcass 20 feet up in a tree and said to the landowner yep you probably have a mountain lion passing through and asked for the homeowner not to speak much about it furthermore DNA confirmation of a horse that was attacked in Petersham Massachusetts in the last several years and also the Quabbin Reservoir DNA were mountain lion without a doubt they are here. Blodgett and I were returning from a day spent looking forand finding timber rattlesnakes, a species that is endangered in Vermont. Records suggest that cash bounties for cougar kills were relatively common in the late 1700s and early 1800s; in the Adirondacks, a trapper named Thomas Meacham was credited with 77 cougar kills. 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. 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. Morse, 70, comports herself in a friendly and no-nonsense manner. He never found the evidence. It was a striking animal, certainly, but it was no mountain lion. This was after the department sent him out west to study the behavior of mountain lions. He says that if mountain lions do . I saw one yesterday in Windsor Cty Vermont. People said that the catamountas the animal is called in Vermontwas still around and you heard stories about someone who would swear to having seen one. There are no breeding cougars in New England and we do not need any. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. I had been the first vehicle in a line held up by one lane traffic on a bridge reconstruction. [The catamounts] movements were so noiseless that Mr. Crowell found himself in this dangerous proximity before he was aware of it, and it was only by great coolness and daring that he severely wounded the animal and perhaps saved his own life, reads a placard attached to the display case. In the 37 years Ive been working, things have changed in ways Id never have predicted. I lived in Woodstock, CT in 2005/2006. Bearded, bowler hat, expression impenetrable behind facial hair and the stoicism of an earlier era. These sightings usually took place at night or in fading light, like that of my bobcat encounter. 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. 9 Grace Christian (9-11). Were arrogant if we think were the only species that makes decisions based on fear, he told me when I called him at his home in Oregon. The first time was in the yard which was surrounded by woods. The mountain lion can weigh upwards of 200 pounds and it can move like well, like a cat. These were old growth woods and the canopy had kept the ground cover down, so I could see three or four hundred yards ahead of me but not clearly, because of the gloom. Morse has been tracking cougars for 45 years, mostly in the mountains of the West, where their existence is not in doubt. My daughter said to me thats the biggest cat Ive ever seen. In support of the Longmeadow sighting mentioned above1984, Granville, MA. It was definitely a cougar. This was, after all, a long, long way from the nearest known population of mountain lions and virtually the heart of the suburban East. Of course no dash cam or accessible phone camera at the time! Watching a potential winter storm. To date, Keeping Track has helped conserve 40,000 acres in 12 states and inQuebec. Success stories being more fun to talk about than the other kind. Some with cameras. Lizzie Post Would Like Your Attention. When I came out, the cat appeared in front of me coming up a rise (incredibly close to some ski condos). I do this shit.. You wouldnt shake hands with a man like that, she said, and though she was smiling I could tell she was serious. 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. Could be a deer, but it didnt seem to be tall enough. It has, in fact, more names than any animal in the world. Mountain Lions - Rocky Mountain National Park (U.S. National Park Service) NPS.gov Park Home Learn About the Park Nature Animals Mammals Mountain Lion Mountain Lion Last updated: May 4, 2018 Was this page helpful? Spatz and Sue dont want to go where were going.. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. I only saw the back side, but he was huge. 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. 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. No need since so we guess it has moved on from the northeast corner of Connecticut. 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. There was the vaguest of trails, crisscrossed by deadfalls and a sharp-thorned bush that soon drew blood from Ottmanns right hand. Because they are.. People like you are the problem and cause of extinctions. 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. Betty, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the process. In recent years, it has been expanding its range elsewhere; moving into mid-western states like Illinois and Missouri from its established range in the Rocky Mountain states and the Dakotas. Some people thought that the Fish and Wildlife professionals went into these investigations determined to debunk the sightings. They set the stage for the exotics to move in, and this has a huge impact on our ecology, he said. So if coyotes could return and establish robust populations, why not a few catamounts? How big was the animal? Now that USFW has declared them extinct, why not formally reintroduce them. They are most definitely here. And, now, here I was. Height. Tom Stearns, a Vermont Game Warden says they get reports all the time. Early spring 2019 I caught a glimpse of one entering over grown brush on the side of the road very very early in the morning. I had a pair of good binoculars in my coat pocket. Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. They especially come down from the mountains when there is a big water shortgage. 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. 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. Still, there is no saying that it will not happen. As livestock farming came to dominate the landscape, pressure on the big cats slowly mounted on two fronts: The number of farmers wanting them dead was increasing, while the rapid transition from forest to farmland meant their habitat was shrinking. Mid Vermont Christian School (MVCS) was set to play the Long Tail Mountain Lions last Tuesday before the former decided not to compete based on concerns for player safety and fairness. It has, in fact, more names than any animal in the world. Honestly, leaving this out of your article would seem to perpetuate the notion that there is a conspiracy to keep us all in ignorance. 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. 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. By now, I knew the answer to that one. Vermont Mountain Lion Sightings. Well, theres no difference between Maine and New Brunswick, anyway, said Betty. Beautiful animal. Out & About | Best New England Holiday Events for 2019. 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. Then, follow-up DNA researchmatching samples from the carcass with those from scat and hair collected in other locationsestablished that the animal had come to Connecticut from the Black Hills of North Dakota. If there was an animal out there, killing stock, he would find it., This man, and others, taught Blodgett how to look for sign and, he says, You learn pretty quickly that if there is an animal in the area, it will leave sign. It is what wildlife biologists call an apex carnivore, which means it can overpower pretty much any other creature in its environmentwith the exception of an armed human. Check out 4 Seconds Until Impact by Bruce Hemming, or Cat Urbigkits books about predator attacks in unlikely places . I was agnostic, I suppose, on these stories which the state wildlife biologists inevitably found impossible to substantiate and, often, easy to disprove. 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 is a mountain lion! And thats a surprisingly complex question, because it hinges on numerous factors: policy and politics, culture and conditioning, habitat and, frankly, hubris. The cat is dead. Because he lives among them, Harrigan understands that no one knows the woods better. 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. And so we come to the great divide over cougars in New England. It does NOT surprise me, you would have seen a wild, free-roaming, native 'eastern' cougar, aka puma, mountain lion in Vermont. I moved very carefully to get my hand in my pocket and my fingers around the glasses. The tavern was quiet except for some hard-rock music playing on the radio, the murmur of a handful of men at the bar, and us. Public opinion surveys show many more would support reintroduction, than oppose. Clearly, Puma concolor once inhabited the forests of the Northeast, although its difficult to say in what numbers. But that was OK. Bo Ottmann, A Lobster Trap Menorah Shines in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Chips Off the Old Block | Knowledge & Wisdom, Yankee Candle | New England by the Numbers, First Christmas | Krissy OSheas Scandinavian-Inspired Holiday Cottage, The Sweet Life | Holiday Baking with Dorie Greenspan, 2019 Yankee Magazine Editors Choice Food Awards, In the Kitchen at Mayfair Farm | Weekends with Yankee. Green Mountain Lion Corp #256 34 Blair Park Road Ste. All of which is to say that if Alexander Crowell wasnt afraid on that long-ago Thanksgiving Day, he probably should have been. 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