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Local game officials are saying that this is another one of those sightings where people claim to have seen a mountain lion. All of us with rifles, most of them scoped. These settlers established measures for predator control by any means possible. This could, of course, be projection on my part. Mr. Betty and Mr.Ottomans passion and efforts are impressive. Or, if it does, when that will be. 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. Feb 28, 2023 4:00 am By Robert Spencer 1 Comment. Periods of snow. 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? The glasses I carried were of good quality with exceptional light-gathering property. 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. He never found the evidence. This animal was too long in the body and blunt in the head. My parents friend in Deposit, NY, posted a young catamount sitting on the front porch on Facebook. But some sightings were more promising and some seemed exceedingly so. So the initial assumption was that the animal was one of those captives that had either escaped or been released by its owner. Camel's Hump (alternatively Camels Hump) is a mountain in the Green Mountains in the U.S. state of Vermont.The north slope of the mountain borders the Winooski River, which has carved through the Green Mountains over eons.At 4,083 ft (1,244 m), it is tied (with Mount Ellen) for the third-highest mountain in Vermont.Surrounded by 10 acres (4 ha) of alpine tundra, the mountain is the most . I noticed that there were many great websites, blogs, and discussion boards devoted to mountain lion sightings in other states of New England, but not one just for Vermont. 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. They were also reluctant to certify that turkey and moose had returned the Quabin reservoir lands for many years after locals reported seeing them. He was a dark butterscotch color, very tall and lanky (taller and thinner than a really big German Shepard) and that tail. 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. Scat, tracks, lays, scratch mounds youll see these things.. I saw an adult cougar/catamount twice within a two week period. Harrigans interest in cougars was sparked in the late 70s, after he took ownership of The Coos County Democrat and began noticing the steady influx of reported sightings. And some people might decide to release them into the wild rather than keeping them in their possession. He knew it was only a matter of time. In Vermont, in the late 19th century, this meant, especially, sheep. His mention of these encounters was so matter-of-fact that I found myself nodding along. (The cat I saw when I was a young boy was on the Gulf Coast.). Humans and wildlife MUST learn to live along side each other and we MUST learn to respect nature. I only saw the back side, but he was huge. Raised them carefully to my eyes. Long Trail beat Arlington 62-40 on Feb. 7. If someone described seeing a black panther, for example, then you knew right away and you didnt need to do any more investigating.. 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. Of course. There was no denying that the carcass, which was examined by experts, was that of a mountain lion. Betty had driven up from his home in Rhode Island. In Vermont, it was 1881. Some of them, he says, we could close the books on pretty quickly. Im gonna get hammered for it, he sighed. The evidence, he says, just wasnt there., Mountain Lions Revisit Kill Sites Americans called the mountain " Tah-wak-be-dee-ee-wads. Morse is a Vermont-based naturalist and the founder of Keeping Track, a nonprofit that trains people in the scientific protocols needed to detect, interpret, record, and monitor wildlife tracks and signs. Vermont Mountain Lion Sightings. The cat is dead. Can they really all be cases of false identification? Earlier in the year, Id attended one of these presentations, and even in the tiny village of Woodbury, Vermont, on a stiflingly hot summer evening, nearly 100 people showed up to hear her speak and see her photographs (Morse is a magnificent wildlife photographer). Fish and Wildlife Service unofficially declared the Eastern cougar extinct. on route to stone tower on Quabbin Hill. Around 1830, the . Beautiful animal. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This setting should only be used on your home or work computer. As cleared lands became reforested, many species that had been squeezed into small regions where there was still habitat,or hunted to near extinction, could be replanted in their former range. She said it was long and thick. All those deer hunters represent a kind of ad hoc search party. Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. Then saw him a few more times from further away across the road and along the edge sometimes of the woods. A 2,000 Mile Journey There was one photographed on a porch in Greenwich, CT, looking in the patio window that made national news a decade ago. It does NOT surprise me, you would have seen a wild, free-roaming, native 'eastern' cougar, aka puma, mountain lion in Vermont. Middlebury, Vermont | Could You Live Here? 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 is a reason that millions of people were afraid to go in the water after they saw the movie Jaws. Apex predators like the cougar and wolf make for a healthier ecosystem. The Great Divide | Are There Mountain Lions in New England. 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. Lacked, almost any tail at all, for that matter. Within six weeks, he continued, I was getting off the plane in Jackson Hole for a national mountain lion conference. I came across a dead adult deer carcass high up in an oak tree. Out & About | Best New England Holiday Events for 2019. Defenders of Wildlife developed funding to support wolf predation on cattle which I believe worked. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. For several years, Blodgett, a wildlife biologist with the Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife, conducted those follow up investigations. 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. Refuge volunteer Dale Erz originally. hen 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. At Green Mountain Lion Corp, we specialize in placing professionals in a variety of industries. I think I may have pissed her off since I was up in that area X2 this week. ), 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. Neither resemble a cougar! I do this shit.. And so when they come to him with a sighting, hes prepared to believe. So Blodgett brought what he had learned in Wyoming and Arizona back to Vermont with him and began following up on catamount sightings. There is no shortage of deer for all apex predators whether they are canine, feline, or human. Newspaperman John Harrigan has long covered the New England outdoors, including writing the New Hampshire Sunday News column Woods, Water & Wildlife which ran for almost 40 years. 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. Dismissing most of the sightings as probable bobcats, Morse asserted that the scientific evidence has not been proven. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! If its not, you just thank the person and say good-bye.. We also had bobcats that we saw quite often but I am positive that these were mountain lions! 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. 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. Having retired from a career at General Dynamics, he devotes many of his waking hours to cougar research, a passion hes cultivated for nearly twodecades. 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. Green Mountain Lion Corp #256 34 Blair Park Road Ste. If the mountain lion is a certified killer of sheep and, sometimes, cattle, it has also occasionally attacked humans. This is part of the cougar business. Anyway I got to see that set of eyes way closer than I ever wanted, by the time my hand got on my pistol she was gone. 104 Williston, VT 05495. 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 scientific name for the catamount is Puma concolor. I started to get nervous so I was scanning the area low and high in the trees. And, he says, if they were here, wouldnt one have been killed on one of the states highways where cars and trucks travel some 9 million miles every year? 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. He/she was UNMISTAKEABLY a mountain lion: stretched out straight, long tail straight out behind him, golden/beigey color, and smallish head, little ears. Vermont Girls' School Strikes Back Against the Trans Madness. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding woods. We need cougars and we need wolves back in the Northeast, because a landscape of fear is a well-balanced landscape.. 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. You wouldnt shake hands with a man like that, she said, and though she was smiling I could tell she was serious. Matthew Johnson/Vermont Historical Society. If there is a follow up investigation, it turns out that people were mistaken about what they saw.. 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 ! And, more often than not, when I told it, the person listening would nod and tell me about someone who had definitely seen a mountain lion/catamount in the Vermont woods or crossing a highway or, even, in the back yard. Provided by Touchpoints And, if those people who said they were seeing catamounts were wrong, and not just making it up, then what were they seeing? Well, I KNOW there was at least one mountain lion in NE because years ago (maybe 35 or so) I lived in Longmeadow, MA. Still, there is no saying that it will not happen. 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. They are here in the Catskill Mountains, so named for the magnificent felines. 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. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. I knew it had to have been from a mountain lion Ive seen bobcats and their tracks and from the size of the deer carcass Im convinced there are mountain lions amongst us in Massachusetts! . He didn't want to dispute what people are saying they saw, he simply says they need proof to substantiate it. And, now, here I was. But there was not enough evidence to either prove or disprove that a mountain lion had done the killing. You dont even have to go out and look for it.. He set down his cigarette and looked me in the eye. Videos. Morse introduced me to her cat, Allister, whom she referred to as her portable puma. Then she fetched me a beer. As pets or for exhibit. I moved very carefully to get my hand in my pocket and my fingers around the glasses. This much was certain: it was a wild mountain lion and it was in an area where one had not been seen for more than 100 years. It kills to eat but does not necessarily practice any sort of conservation ethic. Geoffrey Norman is a Dorset author and a frequent contributor to Stratton Magazine. 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. How did I know? 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. This, said Vermont Fish and Wildlife fur-bearer project leader Chris Bernier, is why he takes reports of mountain lion sightings seriously. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. When a cats around, its not hard to find evidence. At the head of the driveway is a flower sales table in front of a modest size greenhouse. The animal was too small and it lacked the long, sinuous tail of the catamount. 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. I will never forget what I saw! 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. Part of this belief is rooted in his journalistic experience, which across the decades has cultivated his nose for sincerity. Several years ago, I was bicycling with a buddy up Quabbin Reservoirs Administration Rd. Coyotes, for instance, found their way into Vermont with no help. When that last catamount was killed by a deer hunter, the state was paying a $20 bounty for pelts or carcasses. Several years ago, I saw what was definitely a cougar walking along a street. I was deer hunting with my father, it was in the fall about 7 years ago, in Barre Ma towards the Templeton Ma lines. 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. What color was it? I have heard several accounts from sober, sane, intelligent people who have seen them (especially a latre, good friend who was a very competent spokesman and hunter.). I have pictures of tracks around my car and up to the back steps of my deck in Arkville, NY . Then, a mountain lion was run over by an SUV on the outskirts of New Haven, Connecticut. Their bodies are mainly covered in tawny-beige fur, except for the whitish-gray belly and chest. 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. Until 2011, that question rested upon a hypothetical. 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. He says that if mountain lions do . Mid Vermont Christian School Eagles forfeited their girls basketball playoff game on Tuesday against Long Trail School Mountain Lions. Wildlife is unpredictable (and several people go missing in wild areas, parks especially, every year -Probably not because of alien abduction). When I shared their story with the staff at the center where my sister lived, I expected surprise and interested. One one occasion she had two little ones with her so their den must have been sort of closeby. 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. Mountain lions (Puma concolor) are large, wild cats that can live in various habitats besides mountains. [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. 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. Morse has been tracking cougars for 45 years, mostly in the mountains of the West, where their existence is not in doubt. ), 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. Clearly, Puma concolor once inhabited the forests of the Northeast, although its difficult to say in what numbers. 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. These sightings usually took place at night or in fading light, like that of my bobcat encounter. Public opinion surveys show many more would support reintroduction, than oppose. Theyre here. I saw one about 10 years ago, on our road. We lived off of Mountain Rd in Granby, Ct for 8 years and I can say that without a doubt I am 100% sure that there are mountain lions living there. Now, ocelots are critically endangered and jaguarundis might be completely gone. Somebody in the NC Legislature believes, because lions are now protected by law. So you can imagine there. But they would certainly pay attention if they did see one. After 20 minutes or so, we turned and stumbled our way back to the parking lot. I wasnt the only one to see the big cat. Most of those sightings were misidentifications, Doug Blodgett says. It may not surprise you to learn that I was quite intrigued by this third group. Even though the experts say there arent any mountain lions in CT, there are. They were inevitably fleeting. 3 talking about this. Low 24F. 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. The Christian school also dropped out of the state . The second occasion was on the way to work when I saw the cougar/catamount crossing Route 44. 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. No doubt of what it was; size, color and recognizable tail. But no. Bill and I are full-throttle. He soon developed a five-question litmus test: How far away were you? Stratton Magazine Celebrating Manchester and the Mountains. The animal, I learned, is called many things: mountain lion, panther, catamount, puma, cougar and more. Still, I wanted to believe those sightings were real. By now, I knew the answer to that one. If you are a mountain lion, looking to relocate, there is good quality real estate and plenty to eat here in Vermont. Sue Morse, a professional animal tracker, believes that means cougars will, eventually, return to Vermont. 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. In 2011, the U.S. Blodgett and I were returning from a day spent looking forand finding timber rattlesnakes, a species that is endangered in Vermont. I went back and told the tale to anyone who would listen. When he suggested we retrace our route, past lion, to see a sow bear with cubs, we headed in the opposite direction. 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. 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. Indeed! You cant mistake the long tail. 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. I had a pair of good binoculars in my coat pocket. 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. And older and older and not being replaced Dorset author and a frequent contributor Stratton! 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