mountain lion vermont

Blodgett liked talking about this subject. A journey of nearly 2,000 miles. 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. 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. According to official estimates, as many as 1,000 people own, in spite of legal prohibitions, captive animals. But this requires a breeding pair. Ordinary, the lone males do not range much more than 100 miles. Two mountain lion encounters in his driveway. My mother always said she saw one across the street from our house one night in the late 50s early 60s. 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. Photos of the cat did nothing to convince DEEP the cat was here. It was huge! The mountain lion is also known as cougar, panther, or puma. There was no denying that the carcass, which was examined by experts, was that of a mountain lion. Adult males may be more than 8 feet long (from the tip of the nose to the tip of the tail), and can weigh between 130 and 150 pounds. Videos - Industry Stories; Find Candidates; 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. Mountain lions are around 4 feet long with a two-and-a-half foot tail and can stand 24-30 inches tall at the shoulder. Ottmann and I walked farther. Long Trail beat Arlington 62-40 on Feb. 7. 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. We were talking about those animals, like coyotes and turkeys, that have re-established themselves in Vermont and, unlike the rattlers, are thriving. Yet dozens of. My husband and where riding our Motorcycle down Rte 110 near Milan NH my father was recently trout fishing in central Mass. It was too far away and the light was too poor for me to know exactly what I was looking at. I wished it were a camera with a long lens to document the sighting. For instance, a favorite food for deer is the seedlings of forest tree species. The 1881 death of this catamount officially marked the end of cougars in Vermont; however, the very last Eastern cougar is thought to be an animal that was killed in Somerset County, Maine, in 1938. My parents friend in Deposit, NY, posted a young catamount sitting on the front porch on Facebook. Americans called the mountain " Tah-wak-be-dee-ee-wads. 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. The last time a mountain lion was captured in New York was in the . As I looked at my daughter and then turned to follow the direction she was looking, I saw the animal in my side mirror. I was outdoor with my two pugs and quickly scooped them up and brought them in the house. The animal was too small and it lacked the long, sinuous tail of the catamount. Apex predators like the cougar and wolf make for a healthier ecosystem. The combined scoring differential in those matchups was 158-77. The police and everyone else just shook their heads but she to her dying breath said she saw a mountain lion in Lexington MA. 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 . In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. I saw a Mountain Lion in 2007 in Northfield, MA at the junctions of Rtes 10 and 63. o" which translates to " the mountain like a seat." Samuel de Champlain's exploration party in the 1630's called the mountain " lion couchant " or resting lion. 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. But right now youre dealing with top-notch guys. Prior to the mid-1990s, the late Wildlife Professor Harold Hitchcock of Middlebury College, became Vermont's Official Big Cat 'hunter', who sought evidence of the Big Cats across the Maple State. 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. Perfect conditions, then, for thinking you saw something. Its not my call. 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. All of which is to say that if Alexander Crowell wasnt afraid on that long-ago Thanksgiving Day, he probably should have been. I had been the first vehicle in a line held up by one lane traffic on a bridge reconstruction. Harrigan is 72 and lives just outside the northern New Hampshire town of Colebrook; he has a long, craggy face that seems almost to have molded itself after the mountainous landscape of his home state. A 2,000 Mile Journey And there have been fatal attacks. Of course no dash cam or accessible phone camera at the time! Something I had not expected ever to experience. Beautiful creature. 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. Especially among those who did believe. Height. I was curious enough at the time to do a little research. I saw on three occasions in about the same location a beautiful mtn lion with the long bushytail that curves at the end. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding woods. They denied it until a cougar was hit as it tried to cross the very busy Merritt Parkway. Wildlife is unpredictable (and several people go missing in wild areas, parks especially, every year -Probably not because of alien abduction). The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. 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. All with eyes to see and spring loaded to see something. Scat, tracks, lays, scratch mounds youll see these things.. That was plain, right away. 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? First about the animal, itself, and then about the lore and the possibility that the catamount was not, in fact, extinct in Vermont. Fish and Wildlife Service unofficially declared the Eastern cougar extinct. 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. 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. Still, there are those of us who know what weve seen. In Vermont, in the late 19th century, this meant, especially, sheep. Photo courtesy of Dave O'Donnell. The tails gotta be there. I got the glasses to my eyes and focused on the animal. [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. The animal, I learned, is called many things: mountain lion, panther, catamount, puma, cougar and more. How big was the animal? 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. We really must establish first that these beautiful animals SHOULD be in every state that was once THEIR habitat. There was, in California last year, a case of a mountain lion seriously injuring a six-year old who was walking a trail in Silicon Valley country. 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. Tom Stearns, a Vermont Game Warden says they get reports all the time. 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. The Christian school also dropped out of the state . 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 I dont think it will happen any time soon.. Concerned for people / pets and a school just down the street, stopped to report the sighting where dispatch told me that if I did not have proof they would not respond. I started to get nervous so I was scanning the area low and high in the trees. They are most definitely here. This isnt to say she believes none of these animals has stepped foot on New England soil over the past century. It was a striking animal, certainly, but it was no mountain lion. Until 2011, that question rested upon a hypothetical. Still, I wanted to believe those sightings were real. It has nothing to do with trophy hunting, public safety, etc. If theyre in one, theyre in the other.. 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. Phone: +1 802 448 8250. But no. If this habitat can support them, it should. In the few seconds that this took, I had convinced myself that I was looking at a mountain lion. I must have looked doubtfulwe were within spitting distance of a heavily trafficked road and only 12 miles from downtown Hartfordbut both Ottmann and Betty told me that cougars actually prefer more populated areas, since thats where deer tend to congregate. 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. 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. 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. Ive heard some biologists say it is not a distinct subspecies. COLCHESTER, Vt. Catamounts are. 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? And, according to people who swear they know what they saw the catamount. 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 !! Not a bobcat or a coyote or a fisher or anything else that might be mistaken for a mountain lion. 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. Since then, there have been a handful of confirmed mountain lion sightings in the Northeast, although most have been thought to be escaped captive animals. Dont forget, south Texas also used to home to two other species of cats ocelots and jaguarundis. But perhaps an even larger portion is the product of his enduring faith in the men and womanloggers, hunters, trapperswhose vocations and avocations have instilled in them a deep familiarity with wild places and the creatures who inhabit them. If LTS can take care of business in that one, it would host the winner of the Bennington County matchup between No. It jumped 28 feet across the road. When I came out, the cat appeared in front of me coming up a rise (incredibly close to some ski condos). One summer I saw what I assumed was the same cougar several different times in my neighborhood which was near a long strip of woods along I 91 and used to be a large open field across the road from our home. 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. So the initial assumption was that the animal was one of those captives that had either escaped or been released by its owner. It was a bright sunny summer day. Several years ago, I was bicycling with a buddy up Quabbin Reservoirs Administration Rd. Betty folded his arms across his chest, where they rose and fell and rose again with his breathing. My assumption is it was the same animal. For several years, Blodgett, a wildlife biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife, conducted those follow up investigations. In 2011, the U.S. THAT is a mountain lion! 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. 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. Nowhere in New England is the matter definitively settled. 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? We hadnt seen a cougar, nor any evidence to suggest a cougar had traveled these woods recently. Probably because of all the hunters that would be out trying to get their trophy and endangering others. 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. The last catamount killed in Vermont was shot in 1881. The discussion of whether federal lands should be a place to subsidize cattle ranching is another question. We got a picture of our culprit, he says, that very first night.. The old logging road was easy enough to navigate and I let my feet follow it while I kept my eyes up and scanning. 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. Inslerman said the DEC received about a half-dozen calls reporting sightings of mountain lions last year; two calls this week. 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. The glasses I carried were of good quality with exceptional light-gathering property. 2,110 likes. He never found the evidence. 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. They are there and thriving!!!! Humans and wildlife MUST learn to live along side each other and we MUST learn to respect nature. At least once a year thered be a story from somewhere, but I only ran the absolute best, he told me. Theyre here. Vermont Mountain Lion Sightings. Their bodies are mainly covered in tawny-beige fur, except for the whitish-gray belly and chest. A far less likelyenvironment for finding a mountain lion than just about anywhere in Vermont. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. Provided by Touchpoints 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. 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. Betty was quiet, and I wondered if even he, a man who does not doubt the presence of these cats in our midst and who himself claims multiple sightings, thought Ottmann was exaggerating. She favors plaid shirts, green Dickies work pants, and hiking boots, and she chided me for shaking her hand too gently. The expert opinion held up until a man was killed by a Great White not too far away. 5-7 yards from me. Public opinion surveys show many more would support reintroduction, than oppose. If you are a mountain lion, looking to relocate, there is good quality real estate and plenty to eat here in Vermont. 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. Responding to complaints about a predator eating a local farmers sheep, Crowell and a small group of fellow hunters had tracked the big cat through the snow. Maybe, I thought, but the shape seemed wrong. It is hard for me to believe that the big cats havent found plenty of space to roam without regular detection. These things happen suddenly and they are over quickly. This was after the department sent him out west to study the behavior of mountain lions. Thank you; Blog. One cat will leave more than 10,000 tracks per day. 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