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. The journey is chronicled in the 2016 book Heart of a Lion: A Lone Cats Walk Across America by William Stolzenburg. 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. Mountain Lions in New York. 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. And so we come to the great divide over cougars in New England. She still produces shows with Colin and the team when her schedule allows. 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. Mountain Lions: They are officially extinct. Even so, Abbott has heard of mountain lion sightings from what he deems reliable sources and believes its possible that other animals have made the difficult, some say almost miraculous trek, from the West to Connecticut. 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. 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: It is possible that cougars of unknown origin may be breeding to a limited extent in 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. 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. Using DNA and physical evidence, state environmental officials said they determined that the animal likely trekked more than 1,500 miles from South Dakota, a journey that was captured by trail camera (above). This is the second mountain lion sighting in North Texas in less than a month. Humans and wildlife MUST learn to live along side each other and we MUST learn to respect nature. His mentor, Aldo Leopold, a prominent wildlife biologist, also believed this, but felt if people learned about these populations, they would be hunted to extinction. The states beautiful wilderness and mountainous terrain are prime mountain lion habitats. Our hunter friend was hunting in central NH when they came upon an adult deer carcass way up in a tree. Hawley: I feel strongly that we need a harvest here in Connecticut. I saw one about 10 years ago, on our road. Mrgunsngear (Mr. 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. Our Mission. Westford, MA, crossing Dunstable Rd from Long Sought For Pond into the woods. (My wife didnt get a look at the tail.) I also know of someone who said they showed F&G a photo of one from a game camera in NH. As I looked at my daughter and then turned to follow the direction she was looking, I saw the animal in my side mirror. That's not to say that pits are not formidable dogs, they are. He has also reported for the Marketplace Morning Report. Manchester, CT 06045 Phone: 800-237-3606 Email: service@journalinquirer.com. 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. Two were confirmed in Logan County (2014 and 2015), and one . In my mind, I went through all the nots. July 20, 2022. A mountain lion was responsible for that too. What would motivate DEEP officials to do this isnt clear. The arrival of a real mountain lion in the state reframed the discussion in Connecticut surrounding the animal. of Energy & Environmental Protection. A few years later, though, the scat was retested with DNA analysis and found to be canid, rather than feline, in origin. community-supported public media service, Connecticut Public has relied on donor support for more than 50 years. Additional samples were collected and are pending DNA analysis. Perhaps, then, the ultimate question isnt whether cougars are among us, but rather how we can encourage them to settle here. Bobcats and a possible mountain lion have been mentioned within the past few weeks. Yale New Haven Health Check; . 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? Mountain Lion Sightings in CT Was the animal a pet set free? Betty, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the process. On one side, there are those (as represented here by Sue Morse, Kim Royar, and Christopher Spatz, along with a number of others I spoke with) who contend that the lack of verifiable evidence is proof that the animals are not here. And he said, This is where the mountain lion crossed. We walked in and there were fresh bobcat tracks in there. Email editor@connecticutmag.com. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. Mr. Betty and Mr.Ottomans passion and efforts are impressive. Apr 20, 2020. Were getting more and more home entries every year. It can run at speeds of up to 50 mph. I had been the first vehicle in a line held up by one lane traffic on a bridge reconstruction. Can they really all be cases of false identification? on the regular. McEnroe: Scientifically, this is a case where absence of evidence is kind of evidence of absence, right? He has also reported for the Marketplace Morning Report. And the clincher, What would you say was the most distinguishing feature? Body length: 3-4 ft. Tail: 2.5-3 ft. They are here in the Catskill Mountains, so named for the magnificent felines. We really must establish first that these beautiful animals SHOULD be in every state that was once THEIR habitat. Facebook . Then in June 2011, there were reports of a mountain lion in Greenwich and, for the first time, a photo. Even in parts of the country where there are documented breeding populations of mountain lions, there are still many false reports. Our wildlife biologists and enforcement agents are mostly political bureaucrats who dont often venture more than 100yards from the truck. 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. Even though the experts say there arent any mountain lions in CT, there are. . 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. Weve had housecats misidentified as mountain lions and even deer, Rego says. His mention of these encounters was so matter-of-fact that I found myself nodding along. Ask people who spend time outside Connecticut cities and you will hear firsthand or secondhand accounts of mountain lions. Snow Camp Market. The police and everyone else just shook their heads but she to her dying breath said she saw a mountain lion in Lexington MA. 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 its not, you just thank the person and say good-bye.. Its not my call. My daughter said to me thats the biggest cat Ive ever seen. Especially when pictures are blurry which happens a lot in trail cameras or youll get pictures taken at night or something on Ring cameras that hind leg really does often look like a tail kind of curling up behind the animal.. Hawley: Wildlife biologists across the United States know where the current mountain lion range is. A self-defense connoisseur with a large social media presence has ignited a firestorm over his posting of a video showing a mountain lion getting shot in the head. Wed be seeing more carcasses of prey we would be seeing at least some carcasses of mountain lion prey. Someone told New Canaan police that a mountain lion was spotted on Gerdes Road, just north of the Darien-New Canaan border, at about 6 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 14.. She favors plaid shirts, green Dickies work pants, and hiking boots, and she chided me for shaking her hand too gently. . The big cat traveled some 1,100 miles before his life came to a tragic end after being hit by a SUV on Route 15 in . 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. There are no breeding cougars in New England and we do not need any. Probably because of all the hunters that would be out trying to get their trophy and endangering others. He points out that when there was a real mountain lion in the state in 2011, his office publicized it immediately. As a carnivore biologist, Hawley says he would love it if mountain lions were here. 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. They set the stage for the exotics to move in, and this has a huge impact on our ecology, he said. 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! I wasnt the only one to see the big cat. October 12, 2020 10:47 pm ET. These highlights have been edited and condensed for length and clarity. 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.. Listen & Learn. 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. The next week, on June 11, the cat was hit and killed by an SUV on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Milford. And consider, for a moment, the concern and outright fear an official acknowledgment of such a carnivorous and predatory creature might evoke. They are named for their short (bobbed) tail which is often about six inches in length. However, the Department of Energy and. A trail camera was set up and confirmed the presence of a mountain lion on February 16, 2020. On the idea of bear hunting in Connecticut. Mountain Lions: cougars, pumas, panthers and catamounts. I was outdoor with my two pugs and quickly scooped them up and brought them in the house. (Throughout history, people have had a deep fear of these creatures, hounding and hunting them mercilessly.) An expert said it was probably a basking shark. A lifelong Connecticut resident, Nicole has a degree in Communications from Fairfield University. However, the population declined in the early 1900's due to unregulated hunting and bounties were placed on mountain lions until 1966. P.O. In their estimation, the presence of a breeding cougar population in New England would likely stem from our proximity to Canada, where, as they rightly point out, DNA analysis has resulted in 19 positive identifications across Quebec and New Brunswick since 2001 (although some of these were shown to be of South American lineage, suggesting escaped pets). Residents of Greenwich, Conn., have reported seeing a mountain lion roaming the woods -- even though the species is extinct in the region, MyFoxNY.com reports. Mountain Lions: cougars, pumas, panthers and catamounts. Eastern cougars (mountain lions) do not have a native, self sustaining population in New York State. Stephen Gencarella, professor of folklore studies at the University of Massachusetts and a Connecticut resident, says, The government coverup is only the latest version of something that could stretch back in the oral tradition to precolonial times. He notes that supposed mountain lion sightings spiked in the late 1800s and early 1900s shortly after the animals disappeared from New Englands woods. Mountain lions usually retract their claws when walking. Height at shoulder: 25-30 in. Photos of the cat did nothing to convince DEEP the cat was here. Have a question or comment? You wouldnt shake hands with a man like that, she said, and though she was smiling I could tell she was serious. But as Eastern cougar search efforts became more organized and still there were no concrete signs of the creatures, many became more skeptical. 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. Mountain Lions: They are officially extinct. If a young male Cougar disperses East, instead of West, they're going to keep walking because they're going tokeep looking for an area where they can find a mate, he said. And Im assuming whatever were doing right now, its not working. Peter Yankowski is a breaking news reporter for Hearst Connecticut Media Group. Adult females can be 7 feet long and weigh between . 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. The history of this theory in Connecticut and New England goes back long before our current era of fake news. Wright, however, didnt agree with his mentor and began writing publicly about mountain lions in the East. And DNA analysis shows us that felis concolor is genetically the same across the USI think it is irrelevant, but interesting. Now the bears, they dont even care if people are home, theyll go right in the house. Morse has been tracking cougars for 45 years, mostly in the mountains of the West, where their existence is not in doubt. 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. 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? Got a question or comment? Now the bears, they dont even care if people are home, theyll go right in the house. Wildlife do really crazy things, and you just never know.. There is also something appealing about the idea that there is an animal out there so cunning that it has escaped our notice and the eyes of our cameras. Patrick's reporting has appeared on NPR's Morning Edition, Here & Now, and All Things Considered. Just like we dont need any slimy humans on earth period. You could have 50. The big cat sighting is the third in the past month in New Canaan, and close to the previous one, Aug. 8, on White Oak Shade Lane.. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This setting should only be used on your home or work computer. , located in the golf course community of Coyote Lakes. What we do not have is a secure predator corridor.. 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. I wasnt planning to shoot her unless she moved in my direction. Bobcats: They are are the only wild cat found in the state and the most common in North America. Mountain lions are nocturnal hunters, mostly going after deer. Weight. Lets learn to live alongside this very large animal is one of the schools of thought. By Cameron Arcand October 3, 2021 at 2:07pm. It was a bright sunny summer day. Stay Connected Sign up. Massachusetts and several other New England states have bear hunting, or harvest, seasons, which proponents say help control populations. 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. 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., I met with Morse at her home in Jericho. 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? I also had a coworker report a similar experience around the same time. 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