Lol Here is a small glimpse at what these dogs were bred to do (if you got sensitive eyes, do not view): Weight: 70-170 lbs. Experts need to see the body to dismiss their prejudices. and with my friend Chris Christinat who lives in hartsville we saw one stalking a rabbit on her lawn about autumn of 2009. of Energy & Environmental Protection. Manchester, CT 06045 Phone: 800-237-3606 Email: service@journalinquirer.com. I have learned one thing in my career, and thats to never say never, she said. Length of body. Could UConn women's basketball be back to 'square one' with seven available players at Seton Hall? Its not my call. We have plenty of suitable habitat, he says. , located in the golf course community of Coyote Lakes. 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.. on the regular. Its quite an uphill challenge for us to manage that situation right now. Though promoted as a once in a lifetime event and offered at the dirt-cheap price of $15, only 395 Nebraskans applied for the chance to hunt a mountain lion. State lawmakers have entertained bills to establish a bear hunting season for years, but so far, none of those proposals has passed. 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). 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. But other hard evidence of the big cats presence is elusive. 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. Rego has many reasons why a conspiracy to conceal mountain lions by his colleagues at DEEP is impossible. Its definitely a problem thats only going to get worse. But it also sort of instills that fear, a healthy fear of humans and bears. Nowhere in New England is the matter definitively settled. Middlebury, Vermont | Could You Live Here? The range of a Mountain Lion may cover 25 to 785 square miles. 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. 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. So theres fresh mud. Within six weeks, he continued, I was getting off the plane in Jackson Hole for a national mountain lion conference. We dont have extra money to do secret projects, he says. Mountain lions (commonly called cougar or puma) vary in size and weight. 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. 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. Then saw him a few more times from further away across the road and along the edge sometimes of the woods. Bobcats are most frequently misidentified by the public as mountain lions, but theyre not the only animals mislabeled. Weight. Well, I KNOW there was at least one mountain lion in NE because years ago (maybe 35 or so) I lived in Longmeadow, MA. We also had bobcats that we saw quite often but I am positive that these were mountain lions! Lets learn to live alongside this very large animal is one of the schools of thought. October 12, 2020 10:47 pm ET. Of course no dash cam or accessible phone camera at the time! 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.. Updated . It lowers the population in a way thats not going to affect the long-term population. About Us; Wild Turkey Brood Survey There are an estimated 3,000 - 7,000 Mountain lions in Colorado. I think they never left, Ottmann piped in. Betsy started as an intern at WNPR in 2011 after earning a Master's Degree in American and Museum Studies from Trinity College. We need [an apex] predator back on the land, Sue Morse told me. Ottmann and I walked farther. Patrick Skahill is a reporter and digital editor at Connecticut Public. McEnroe: It is an uphill challenge. Action Alerts. Still, Spatz acknowledged that the word hope is very different from the word believe. In New Canaan, residents reported seeing mountain lions in 2016 and in 2018. Indeed, in 2011, a male cougar was hit and killed by a car in Milford, Connecticut; through its DNA, wildlife biologists were able to trace the cat back to South Dakotas Black Hills, some 2,000 miles distant. She still produces shows with Colin and the team when her schedule allows. Prior to becoming a reporter, he was the founding producer of Connecticut Public Radio's The Colin McEnroe Show, which began in 2009. But, yes, thats exactly what it was. And yet there I was, on a Saturday in early November, crammed into a booth with Bo Ottmann, 48, and Bill Betty, 72, of Cougars of the Valley, the organization that Ottmann founded in 2007 to gather evidence of and alert the public to the big cats living among us. Wed be seeing more carcasses of prey we would be seeing at least some carcasses of mountain lion prey. A trail camera was set up and confirmed the presence of a mountain lion on February 16, 2020. What we do not have is a secure predator corridor.. This is a carousel. 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 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. Males can reach up to two metres in length and weigh over 60 kilograms. I also had the vague notion that when it comes to cougars, people tend to sort themselves into one of three camps. I just heard from a fellow college student of a siting in Greenfield last fall and two in Colrain this spring. Mountain lions are solitary animals, traveling alone except during mating season or when a female is supporting young. Not long after, what was believed to be the same mountain lion was struck and killed on Route 15 in Milford. Pictured is an image shared earlier this month on Facebook of what was claimed to be a mountain lion sighting this past fall in Prairie du Rocher. Anyone can get fooled. Fish and Wildlife Service unofficially declared the Eastern cougar extinct. But right now youre dealing with top-notch guys. She said it was long and thick. Based on this blurry photo and pawprints, DEEP confirmed it was likely a mountain lion. They also generally have spots on their fur. The cougar and the states refusal to admit it was here made the local paper. 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? Yale New Haven Health Check; . Also known as cougars, panthers or pumas, mountain lions range in color from tan to grey, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service. A few years later, though, the scat was retested with DNA analysis and found to be canid, rather than feline, in origin. Hawley:Were sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. There was no mistake. 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. Lets learn to live alongside this very large animal is one of the schools of thought. Bobcats top out at about 40 pounds (most are much lighter than that) and are only. ALSO KNOWN AS Bobcats: Though technically a type of lynx, they are distinct from other species of lynx such as the Canadian lynx. Mountain lions have traveled through Fairfield County in the past. 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. Watch Live at 7:00 PM: The U.S. and the Holocaust, a film by Ken Burns | Screening & Panel Discussion . The catamount is a creature of stealth and concealment; it stalks its prey, which on the EasternSeaboard would likely be deer, moose, porcupines, beavers, and domestic livestock. . It also doesnt mean there wont be more sightings in the future, as these animals have been known to reclaim areas their species once roamed. Could UConn women's basketball be back to 'square one' with seven available players at Seton Hall? The MPD Animal Care and Control Unit's report includes a fact sheet about mountain lions, which has many common names, including "puma, catamount and panther.". McEnroe: Scientifically, this is a case where absence of evidence is kind of evidence of absence, right? Matthew Johnson/Vermont Historical Society. 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. But no. Weve got a growing bear population. You cansubscribe here, orfind the current issue on sale here. Hawley: That animal was documented. Sign up for our newsletter to get our latest and greatest content delivered right to your inbox. The history of this theory in Connecticut and New England goes back long before our current era of fake news. 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. It used to be that a bear would go into a house when someone wasnt home. (Attacks #12 and 13; death #6) 35-year-old Mark Jeffrey Reynolds, an amateur mountain bike racer, was reported as being killed by a mountain lion sometime after 1:25 p.m. at Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in southern Orange County. The young typically remain with their mother for 2 years. Connecticut Dept. 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.. - YouTube Multiple people in North Stonington claim they've spotted a mountain lion roaming around. Hey, I know what I saw. It was a bright sunny summer day. Patrick's reporting has appeared on NPR's Morning Edition, Here & Now, and All Things Considered. are received by 1:00 p.m. CT, June 9, 2020 by Sheri Henderson at the Lincoln . Adults are a uniform tan or tawny in color, with a white or cream-colored chin, undersides and inner legs. We hadnt seen a cougar, nor any evidence to suggest a cougar had traveled these woods recently. But honest misidentifications are more common. 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. His Tail was very long almost touching the ground and as thick as velvet rope. 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! Mountain lions usually retract their claws when walking. We even had a sighting someone here at DEEP, in my office, was convinced they saw a mountain lion. He can be reached by phone at 860-275-7297 or by email: pskahill@ctpublic.org. Morse, 70, comports herself in a friendly and no-nonsense manner. The official word is that mountain lions were declared extinct in Connecticut back in the late 1800s but sightings have become much more prevalent. You wouldnt shake hands with a man like that, she said, and though she was smiling I could tell she was serious. Mountain lion facts. She didnt claim to see the mountain lions long tail, but optical illusions can lead people to think theyve seen a tail. Mountain Lion Update - May 8, 2020, by Sam Wilson, Furbearer and Carnivore Program Manager. The Mountain Lion will return to feed on the prey for up to 10 days. It had rained previously. He soon developed a five-question litmus test: How far away were you? Sometimes referred to as the ghosts of the forest, mountain lions or cougars are stealthy hunters that are hard to spot, even in areas they are known to inhabit. The photos were time-stamped December 7, 2020. 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. You can subscribe to Connecticut Magazine here, or find the current issue on sale here. Betsy started as an intern at WNPR in 2011 after earning a Master's Degree in American and Museum Studies from Trinity College. The deer dont eat the exotics, but they eat the competitors. . Ask people who spend time outside Connecticut cities and you will hear firsthand or secondhand accounts of mountain lions. Much as I liked Ottmann and Betty, and much as I found some of their evidence compelling, I was struggling to reconcile their more provocative claims with the restraint expressed by the many other experts Id spoken with. Put bluntly, Morse does not believe that New England is home to cougars. Saw one on old mountain rd Peterborough N.H. a few years ago on my property followed it and ran to get my camera have a photo but in distance by time got it was amazing animal t Metcalf. In 2011, the U.S. Just like we dont need any slimy humans on earth period. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! 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. However, the captive lion theory was also wrong. There have been 40 confirmed mountain lion sightings since 2002 in the state, according to the Wildlife Department. Diana Marchibroda and her miniature schnauzer froze in their tracks when the mountain lion stepped out of the woods last May. The mountain lion is believed to have had an encounter with a family on their lawn. These sightings are so persistent that there is a conspiracy theory that says DEEP officials know mountain lions are in the state but cover up their existence. 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. Its a cool story with how far that animal walked. Mountain lions have been dispersing away from these population areas, and researchers recently mapped all confirmed mountain lion observations from 1990-2008 (LaRue et al. Betty, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the process. Here in southern Utah, lions have been known to occupy home ranges as large as 513 square miles. 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. Yes, of course they are here, transients. ), 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. However, because they are capable of traveling great distances, they have turned up in all parts of North Dakota. Bearded, bowler hat, expression impenetrable behind facial hair and the stoicism of an earlier era. It is hard for me to believe that the big cats havent found plenty of space to roam without regular detection. DEEP believes their numbers have increased in recent years. State lawmakers have entertained bills to establish a bear hunting season for years, but so far, none of those proposals has passed. A quick Google search reveals that the theory is not limited to Connecticut and similar tales are told throughout the Northeast. And so when they come to him with a sighting, hes prepared to believe. He/she was UNMISTAKEABLY a mountain lion: stretched out straight, long tail straight out behind him, golden/beigey color, and smallish head, little ears. The animal was shot in the town of Barnard on Thanksgiving Day 1881 by a man named Alexander Crowell. They were also reluctant to certify that turkey and moose had returned the Quabin reservoir lands for many years after locals reported seeing them. An Arkansas woman captured a big cat on her doorbell camera that she believes is a mountain lion or cougar. A month after the cat was struck and killed, researchers confirmed it had traveled more than 1,500 miles from the Black Hills of South Dakota. Rego says that if there were many other animals like the 2011 cat that died in Milford, there would be more visual or physical evidence. If you dont think cougars are coming to the East, think again, she said, leaning forward for emphasis. 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