You wouldnt shake hands with a man like that, she said, and though she was smiling I could tell she was serious. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding woods. We know that the closest established breeding population is in either the Everglades of Florida theres a small population down there and then out in South Dakota and Nebraska. Weve done a lot of work over the years investigating sightings. I wasnt planning to shoot her unless she moved in my direction. Mountain lions inhabit the badlands and Missouri River breaks regions of North Dakota. Stupid me grabbed my camera and a stick as to protect myself ( yes stupid idea as I could stop this thing from attacking me lol. Advocates of the proposed Aid in Dying bill made an emotional plea to state legislators in Hartford on Wednesday to approve the legislation, introduced 15 separate times in Connecticut since 1994. As a scientist, lack of evidence is very good evidence. The journey is chronicled in the 2016 book, Abbott, of the Housatonic Valley Association, is equally skeptical of the vast majority of mountain lion sightings. We have people eating dinner in their kitchen, they hear a noise, all of a sudden a bear walks in, so they run into their bedroom to get away from the bear, while the bears out ransacking their refrigerator. Mountain lion spotted in East Haddam - YouTube 0:00 / 2:17 Mountain lion spotted in East Haddam 6,872 views Apr 27, 2012 22 Dislike Share Save WTNH News8 135K subscribers A Mountain lion. , located in the golf course community of Coyote Lakes. People clearly arent lying when they say they saw a cougar; [the sighting] has a profound effect on them.. But no. However, the Department of Energy and. When I shared their story with the staff at the center where my sister lived, I expected surprise and interested. People often get very emotional about it, Hawley says. However, Hawley noted that Eastern bobcats tend to have very few spots compared to bobcats that are out west or even in the Midwest. If they have spots, they are typically in the white, underside part of the bodies or on the insides of their legs. The history of this theory in Connecticut and New England goes back long before our current era of fake news. In 2011, genetic testing confirmed that a mountain lion originated in South Dakota and traveled more than 1,500 miles before being struck by a car on the Merritt Parkway, according to Reuters. Here in southern Utah, lions have been known to occupy home ranges as large as 513 square miles. Joseph Uscinski, professor of political science at the University of Miami, and a conspiracy theory expert, says these types of theories are not uncommon. We hope their support inspires you to donate so that we can continue telling stories that inform, educate, and inspire you and your neighbors. More recently, unexplained animal sightings in Connecticut and other states became more and more associated with mountain lions. Matthew Johnson/Vermont Historical Society. McEnroe: It is an uphill challenge. It had rained previously. 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. Snow Camp Market. So its this gathering storm. Connecticut Republicans are proposing to reduce the cost of electricity by removing state taxes and surcharges from customer invoices. Our hunter friend was hunting in central NH when they came upon an adult deer carcass way up in a tree. She IS, perhaps, the most knowledgeable and experienced person in this arena and I listened intently to her presentation (Richmond, VT 2018). Its OK, he told me. McEnroe: Scientifically, this is a case where absence of evidence is kind of evidence of absence, right? Well, I KNOW there was at least one mountain lion in NE because years ago (maybe 35 or so) I lived in Longmeadow, MA. As unlikely as it sounds, it was a more believable theory than some of the alternatives, among them that the cat was evidence of a breeding population in the state that was being kept secret by DEEP. There have been 40 confirmed mountain lion sightings since 2002 in the state, according to the Wildlife Department. There are no mountain lions in Connecticut, so why do we keep seeing them? According to the Smithsonians National Zoo, bobcats are part of the lynx genus, which means they are related to other cats like the Canadian lynx, Iberian lynx and Eurasian lynx. - YouTube Multiple people in North Stonington claim they've spotted a mountain lion roaming around. . Hawley:Were sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. A lifelong Connecticut resident, Nicole has a degree in Communications from Fairfield University. Ive seen tracks (Downeast Maine) and others have seen them, plain as day. WOODBRIDGE, CT (WFSB) - Police in Woodbridge said they have received reports of mountain lion sightings in town. Bobcats are plentiful across Connecticut and are between 18 and 35 pounds. Join Us. An expert said it was probably a basking shark. It is also the most common wild cat found in North America. Another important difference: bobcats are found in Connecticut while mountain lions are not. Respect predators, protect them but dont worship or try to hug them! The real reason that they wont admit that a breeding population exists, is that listing a population of endangered species would wreak ECONOMIC havoc in a number of arenas, mostly logging/forestry. For a solid four seconds, Marchibroda watched as a large, sleek cat standing about three feet tall with a long, curled tail crossed Skyline Drive near Gavel Springs Gap less than 100 feet in front of them. Hawley: Wildlife biologists across the United States know where the current mountain lion range is. Massachusetts and several other New England states have bear hunting, or harvest, seasons, which proponents say help control populations. Hey, I know what I saw. In 2011, genetic testing confirmed that a mountain lion originated in South Dakota and traveled more than 1,500 miles before being struck by a car on the Merritt Parkway, according to Reuters. How did I know? Bobcats and a possible mountain lion have been mentioned within the past few weeks. No doubt of what it was; size, color and recognizable tail. 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. It can run at speeds of up to 50 mph. Mountain Lions:100 all the way up to 200 pounds, Mountain Lions:Can grow up to 6 feet long. 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. On another large animal that is most definitely here: bears. 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. That's not to say that pits are not formidable dogs, they are. Learn More Who We Are & What We Do. We need [an apex] predator back on the land, Sue Morse 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. Its extremely rare for a person to see a wild animal and to underestimate its size. 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. Instead, people should remain facing the cat and not turn their back on it, make noise and make themselves appear as large as possible by raising their arms over their heads with a jacket. It was a lion-like cat with a tan coat and no spots that was about three times the size of our 30- to 35-pound dog. [Betty] and the other guys dont do this shit. Below are some of the first-hand. Otherwise, Hawley said cats like bobcats want nothing to do with people, and they will generally prey on chickens, small dogs or cats. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. Our wildlife biologists and enforcement agents are mostly political bureaucrats who dont often venture more than 100yards from the truck. Mountain lions are carnivores (meat eaters) and prey mostly on deer. Well, theres no difference between Maine and New Brunswick, anyway, said Betty. I appreciated Ottmann and Bettys confidence and commitment, but here I was, poking through thorny thickets behind a bar, trailing a bleeding man whose devotion to proving the presence of cougars was beginning to seem like a quixotic quest with no end. Then in June 2011, there were reports of a mountain lion in Greenwich and, for the first time, a photo. The one thing that jumped out at her the tail. Its length varies from five to . So its this gathering storm. In some versions, state officials dont want to alarm people about the feline predators in their midst. Its not a bear, not a dog, not a deer, not a bobcat. Lets learn to live alongside this very large animal is one of the schools of thought. Zillow has 20 photos of this $299,000 3 beds, 2 baths, -- sqft single family home located at 2439 Adams Farm Ct, Snow Camp, NC 27349 built in 1999. Neither resemble a cougar! on route to stone tower on Quabbin Hill. 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. As I walked thru the beginning of the trail I spooked a deer and heard this awful screech and slowly backed out of there .. State conservation officials believe this photo, taken in Greenwich in 2011, shows a mountain lion. Guns n' Gear), whose first name is Mike, is a United States Air Force and Army Veteran who uses his "experience on a . Please. But honest misidentifications are more common. Abbott believes it is possible that more mountain lions such as the one that was killed in Milford in 2011 could migrate here. 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. I think they never left, Ottmann piped in. Hawley said the last confirmed mountain lion sighting in the state was one that was killed on the Merritt Parkway in 2011 when a car struck the animal near Exit 55. Can they really all be cases of false identification? 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. The cougar and the states refusal to admit it was here made the local paper. Ive heard some biologists say it is not a distinct subspecies. Fight at end of CT high school basketball game involving Middletown, Weaver second in as many days, How UConn women's basketball forward Amari DeBerry landed on ESPN SportsCenter's Top 10 plays, Connecticut boys hockey top performers / games to watch (Jan. 17), Goggles? Length of body. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. The guide told him earlier in the summer he and a couple clients had watched a moutain lion come down to the bank of the Deerfield River just upstream and take a small deer, fawn, drag it into the woods and it kill it, they could hear the screams of the deer as the cougar finished the job. For mountain lions in Connecticut, a lack of evidence is very good evidence. Adult females can be 7 feet long and weigh between . I was deer hunting with my father, it was in the fall about 7 years ago, in Barre Ma towards the Templeton Ma lines. I mentioned this to a neighbor who spotted one a few miles away. But its also a great story that lays out how an animal this large, at 150 pounds, traveling through even rural areas, leaves signs and is detected. 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. ), 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. The 2-year-old male cougar, dubbed P-89, was found dead early Monday on a shoulder along U.S. He soon developed a five-question litmus test: How far away were you? Young pumas dispersing from Western habitats are being killed at the source, compromising the Easts critical opportunity for ecosystem health and the return of an apex carnivore., Regardless of where they are found, or whether people want to hunt or protect them, people are enchanted by mountain lions. As a scientist, lack of evidence is very good evidence. That maybe, just maybe, what my wife and others saw wasnt a bobcat that seemed bigger in the thrill of the moment, but a real, honest-to-goodness mountain lion, a long-lost ghost of the forest. Give today at any amount and join the 50,000 members who are Lizzie Post Would Like Your Attention. He drove me out to the spot. Rego says that the way bobcats stride when they run, often times a rear leg is kicked up in the back and that could be mistaken for a long tail.. Weve got a growing bear population. 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. My parents friend in Deposit, NY, posted a young catamount sitting on the front porch on Facebook. 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. Fight at end of CT high school basketball game involving Middletown, Weaver second in as many days, How UConn women's basketball forward Amari DeBerry landed on ESPN SportsCenter's Top 10 plays, Connecticut boys hockey top performers / games to watch (Jan. 17), Goggles? Facebook . Ive attended talks with Sue Morse. Two were confirmed in Logan County (2014 and 2015), and one . When you look at a state like Connecticut, with all the people we have here, all the trail cameras we have in the woods, all the cars we have driving you can imagine if we had an established population here in Connecticut, we would know about it pretty quickly. In 1978, mountain lions were listed as a state threatened species. 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? When I accepted the assignment to write about my quest to uncover the truth regarding the existence of cougars in New England, I had little idea what I was agreeing to. People often get very emotional about it, Hawley says. Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Two mountain lion encounters in his driveway. Initially, officials believed it had been released from a private handler. 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. The main habitat requirement for mountain lions is stalking cover to successfully hunt prey. Hawley: I feel strongly that we need a harvest here in Connecticut. Adults are a uniform tan or tawny in color, with a white or cream-colored chin, undersides and inner legs. Officially, there are no mountain lions in New England, although there is a good possibility the big cats could be here, Tate said. I was outdoor with my two pugs and quickly scooped them up and brought them in the house. However, the National Wildlife Federation notes that the mountain lions range spreads all across the Americas, from the Canadian Yukon to The Strait of Magellan, making it the greatest range of any living mammal in the Americas.. Today, nearly 60% of Connecticut is covered in forest, and bobcats are regularly observed throughout the state. 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. Morse introduced me to her cat, Allister, whom she referred to as her portable puma. Then she fetched me a beer. To answer these and other questions about sightings of mountain lions, I turned to DEEPs Rego, who has investigated many purported cougar sightings over the past three decades. Still, there are those of us who know what weve seen. Hawley: I feel strongly that we need a harvest here in Connecticut. Morse, 70, comports herself in a friendly and no-nonsense manner. Mountain lions (commonly called cougar or puma) vary in size and weight. Theres something in human nature to overestimate the size of wild animals we see, especially if we get a brief glance and if the animal is moving. He adds, Bobcats can get pretty large and some people believe they should have pretty visible spots and very often theyre pretty uniform in color. This is especially true in the summer, when my wifes sighting occurred. A 140-pound male mountain lion was hit by a car and killed in 2011 in Milford, Connecticut. Even though the experts say there arent any mountain lions in CT, there are. I now live in Boulder, CO where we have regular sightings.same animal as 35 yrs agohands down, Warren ,Ma early morning having my coffee on my front steps and noticed about 50 feet across the Road something coming out of the trail as it did it looked out at the road and turned around as it did I could see that it was a mountain lion ! Ask people who spend time outside Connecticut cities and you will hear firsthand or secondhand accounts of mountain lions. I have not had the pleasure of seeing one, but have heard credible reports of them in Western Mass. They denied it until a cougar was hit as it tried to cross the very busy Merritt Parkway. But other hard evidence of the big cats presence is elusive. Mountain Lion Update - May 8, 2020, by Sam Wilson, Furbearer and Carnivore Program Manager. Patrick Skahill is a reporter and digital editor at Connecticut Public. MLF. You dont even have to go out and look for it.. She favors plaid shirts, green Dickies work pants, and hiking boots, and she chided me for shaking her hand too gently. If you believe you have seen a mountain lion and want to report it to NH Fish and Game, please contact the Wildlife Division at (603) 271-2461 or wildlife@wildlife.nh.gov to request an observation report form. N.H.'s Fish and Game Females ranges are much smaller so it will take reintroduction or a few savvy wildlife biologist in the dead of night. Probably are lions in western NC, too. So theres fresh mud. Body coloration can range from tan to gray and cubs are usually covered with blackish brown spots. However, many of their claimsespecially Mr. Bettys contention of roughly a dozen personal sightings in New Englandare hard to take seriously. 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. A trail runner in Utah experienced a terrifying encounter with a mother mountain lion that stalked him on a trail for six minutes, lunging him at least three times . 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. Mountain Lions: cougars, pumas, panthers and catamounts. We even had a sighting someone here at DEEP, in my office, was convinced they saw a mountain lion. And even the home entries are kind of changing. "There's no evidence of breeding pairs," he said. 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 . They were also seen at other times by members of my family and other people in the neighborhood. 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. You cant mistake the long tail. 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. Dogos have been DOCUMENTED killing mountain lion / wolf. Put bluntly, Morse does not believe that New England is home to cougars. He wore red suspenders and a baseball cap. My mother always said she saw one across the street from our house one night in the late 50s early 60s. Somebody in the NC Legislature believes, because lions are now protected by law. Tim Abbott, the regional land conservation and greenprint director for the Housatonic Valley Association, says that during a lecture on mountain lions last winter at Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village, when the speaker asked if anyone had seen a mountain lion, half of the roughly 400 people in attendance raised their hands. I couldnt tell you how happy I would be if mountain lions were actually recolonizing the state of Connecticut, Hawley says, but its just not happening., Hawley spoke about bobcats, mountain lions and bears on The Colin McEnroe Show: Megafauna mania: our obsession with mountain lions and other large predators.. 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. A trail camera was set up and confirmed the presence of a mountain lion on February 16, 2020. Body length: 5 - 8 feet Ear length: 3 - 4 inches Tail length: 21 - 35 inches Weight: 90 - 160 pounds Behavior: Mountain lions are solitary animals except during the breeding season or when females are raising kittens. Wright, however, didnt agree with his mentor and began writing publicly about mountain lions in the East. Im not an expert on human psychology, but if youre looking for something, you have a greater chance of actually seeing it. As I looked at my daughter and then turned to follow the direction she was looking, I saw the animal in my side mirror. Also known as 'cougars' or 'pumas,' mountain lions are reclusive creatures that feed mainly on deer, raccoons, rodents and various small mammals, experts say. "Mountain lions are considered extinct in the northeast." Bobcats are not uncommon in Connecticut, according to the state, although their population is limited throughout the state, with the. Your donation today will allow us to continue this work on your behalf. Many, many times, in many different ways along its travel up through Minnesota, Michigan and to Canada, down through New York, through hair samples, blood samples, trail camera photos. Honestly, leaving this out of your article would seem to perpetuate the notion that there is a conspiracy to keep us all in ignorance. But sometimes, instead of mountain lions, people thought they saw other creatures in the Connecticut woods, of which authorities were supposedly aware. She served as the Senior Producer for 'The Colin McEnroe Show' for several years before stepping down in 2021 and returning to her previous career as a registered nurse. Mountain lions have traveled through Fairfield County in the past. It was a 140-pound male mountain lion, the first confirmed in Connecticut in more than 100 years. What time of day was it? 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). 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. Mountain lions are solitary animals, traveling alone except during mating season or when a female is supporting young. The mountain lion is believed to have had an encounter with a family on their lawn. 11538 W MOUNTAIN LION Ct, Surprise, AZ 85378 $404,055 Redfin Estimate 2 Beds 2 Baths 1,289 Sq Ft Off Market This home last sold for $236,000 on Mar 31, 2020. 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. 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. Hawley said that the typical range of cougars like mountain lions is from west of the South Dakota area. I was just amazed as I watched this scene in my own back yard. Sport hunting for cougars is not sustainable and shouldnt be allowed to go on. Probably because of all the hunters that would be out trying to get their trophy and endangering others. 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. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! One day I most certainly watched him/her being chased up and down our chain link fence by a neighbors large dog who was barking insanely and couldnt quite catch the cougar, who finally made it away from the fence to escape the determined dog whod had him trapped up against it. The next week, on June 11, the cat was hit and killed by an SUV on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Milford. Spatz and Sue dont want to go where were going.. And the clincher, What would you say was the most distinguishing feature? Additional samples were collected and are pending DNA analysis. She was calling from a trail in Pootatuck State Forest, the 1,200-acre strip of nature occupying the hills above Squantz Pond in New Fairfield. The Mountain Lion will return to feed on the prey for up to 10 days. For helpful information on identifying mountain lion tracks and more, visit the Missouri Department of . If we end up with a population, it will be the result of a colonizer female who gets here somehow, some way, and the rest will be history.. I saw an adult cougar/catamount twice within a two week period. The range of a Mountain Lion may cover 25 to 785 square miles. Lets learn to live alongside this very large animal is one of the schools of thought. The Mountain Lion is a large, slender cat with a smallish head and noticeably long tail. Mountain lion facts. In yet another variant, DEEP is said to be helicoptering mountain lions in to help control the deer population. How to Report a Possible Mountain Lion Sighting. . Despite frequent claims, there has only been one confirmed mountain lion sighting since the late 1800s here. I lived in Woodstock, CT in 2005/2006. His bicycle was later found with the chain unbroken, but off the sprockets. Or at least theyre not supposed to be. 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? Genetic testing placed the animal in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and the cat had been sighted at several different points during its long journey east. I only saw the back side, but he was huge. Sometimes people feared fishers (erroneously attributing the blood-curdling screams of foxes to these hard-to-spot creatures), and in the late 1930s, after several animals were slain under strange circumstances in Glastonbury, the Hartford Courant dubbed the lion-like creature supposedly responsible, the Glawackus. 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. Ive seen bobcats before, this wasnt a bobcat. And its a lose-lose situation, because theres really not a whole lot you can tell them in most cases thats going to change their mind.. (Throughout history, people have had a deep fear of these creatures, hounding and hunting them mercilessly.) It was a flooded area. Experts need to see the body to dismiss their prejudices. TOLLAND A local woman reported Friday that she saw a mountain lion in the area of Sand Hill Road, . To Betty and Ottmann, the dominant narrative of the occasional itinerant cougar from the West is not particularly relevant to the facts on the ground. 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. Today, instead of focusing on cougar sightings in Eastern states, many cougar enthusiasts want to protect the animal from being hunted in the regions in which they are currently found.