near Greenfield with an experienced guide that hed worked with several times. After 20 minutes or so, we turned and stumbled our way back to the parking lot. People like you are the problem and cause of extinctions. Blodgett did on-site investigations of these, in what became a predictably futile search for the sign he had learned, out west, to look for. And, then, some species didnt need any help from humans but managed to extend their range into now-recovered and suitable habitats. Of course no dash cam or accessible phone camera at the time! 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. But there was certainty, or near-certainty, on the part of the witnesses who, it seemed, would swear to having seen a catamount. 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. I had a clear look, through the glasses at a bobcat. Inslerman said the DEC received about a half-dozen calls reporting sightings of mountain lions last year; two calls this week. In the 37 years Ive been working, things have changed in ways Id never have predicted. It had moved a little and was standing unconcealed, now, in the middle of the logging road. Nowhere in New England is the matter definitively settled. Morse has been tracking cougars for 45 years, mostly in the mountains of the West, where their existence is not in doubt. Our wildlife biologists and enforcement agents are mostly political bureaucrats who dont often venture more than 100yards from the truck. Success stories being more fun to talk about than the other kind. 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. Dismissing most of the sightings as probable bobcats, Morse asserted that the scientific evidence has not been proven. She IS, perhaps, the most knowledgeable and experienced person in this arena and I listened intently to her presentation (Richmond, VT 2018). Until 2011, that question rested upon a hypothetical. We think theyre coming in from Canada, Betty told me. Put bluntly, Morse does not believe that New England is home to cougars. The evidence, he says, just wasnt there., Mountain Lions Revisit Kill Sites 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. The scientific name for the catamount is Puma concolor. Just like we dont need any slimy humans on earth period. Still, sightings are common. I just heard from a fellow college student of a siting in Greenfield last fall and two in Colrain this spring. Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. Escapes by these animals were not impossible. When that last catamount was killed by a deer hunter, the state was paying a $20 bounty for pelts or carcasses. He worked, in Wyoming and Arizona, with other professionals, some with government agencies, like the one he works for, and others who were hunters and trappers, often employed by ranchers who had lost stock to mountain lions. But it is also true that there is something different and especially chilling about the threat of being attacked by something that is alive and wants to devour you. 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. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. With the price off its head, the lion gained new stature, and in July 1965 . Then, a mountain lion was run over by an SUV on the outskirts of New Haven, Connecticut. I had been the first vehicle in a line held up by one lane traffic on a bridge reconstruction. 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. Still, there is no saying that it will not happen. 104 Williston, VT 05495. 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. 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. 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. Email: info@grnvt.com. The glasses I carried were of good quality with exceptional light-gathering property. 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.). The restrictions/regulations surrounding management of an endangered species is incredibly cumbersome, and would be difficult to manage. Big kitty. My parents friend in Deposit, NY, posted a young catamount sitting on the front porch on Facebook. Wildlife management programs succeeded in reintroducing species to areas where they had not been seen for years. And so when they come to him with a sighting, hes prepared to believe. I have no choice but to take this seriously, he told me. 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. Betty, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the process. They have a right to exist here and they contribute to healthier prey species. 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? 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. 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. The Great Divide | Are There Mountain Lions in New England. I met with Morse at her home in Jericho. Maybe you've seen the UVM(University of Vermont) catamount at a basketball game, or the catamount at the Vermont History Museum. Theymay not be looking, specifically, for a catamount. He and his clients were 100% sure of what they saw, and its very difficult to imagine any other animal being mistaken for a cougar in this case. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. 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. Vermont Girls' School Strikes Back Against the Trans Madness. Catamounts are large wild cats that are also called panthers, cougars or mountain lions. The animal was too small and it lacked the long, sinuous tail of the catamount. 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. You dont even have to go out and look for it.. 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. 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. Part of this belief is rooted in his journalistic experience, which across the decades has cultivated his nose for sincerity. Something I had not expected ever to experience. I started to get nervous so I was scanning the area low and high in the trees. I have pictures of tracks around my car and up to the back steps of my deck in Arkville, NY . 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). It has nothing to do with trophy hunting, public safety, etc. 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. All of which is to say that if Alexander Crowell wasnt afraid on that long-ago Thanksgiving Day, he probably should have been. An expert said it was probably a basking shark. We strolled across the tavern parking lot and ducked into the forest, where Ottmann maintains a portion of his $15,000 worth of wildlife recording equipment (hes had no luck capturing a cougar on camera, though, despite more than a decade of trying). Theyre here. Maybe, I thought, but the shape seemed wrong. He wore red suspenders and a baseball cap. In Vermont, in the late 19th century, this meant, especially, sheep. He soon developed a five-question litmus test: How far away were you? 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. and with my friend Chris Christinat who lives in hartsville we saw one stalking a rabbit on her lawn about autumn of 2009. He/she was UNMISTAKEABLY a mountain lion: stretched out straight, long tail straight out behind him, golden/beigey color, and smallish head, little ears. By the late 20th century, the range of the catamount was confined to several western states and a small remnant population along the Gulf Coast that was eventually squeezed down into the Everglades/Big Cypress area of Florida and reduced to a couple of dozen animals of poor genetic quality due to inbreeding. One one occasion she had two little ones with her so their den must have been sort of closeby. 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. 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. Defenders of Wildlife developed funding to support wolf predation on cattle which I believe worked. The reasons for this conspiracy vary depending upon whom you talk to, but they coalesce around the idea that wildlife agencies would be inconvenienced by the cougars presence, as theyd be forced to respond in ways that would tax their resources. Spring Loaded to See Something I saw an adult cougar/catamount twice within a two week period. on route to stone tower on Quabbin Hill. Spatz and Sue dont want to go where were going.. There was no tracking microchip implanted in the animals body, which is usually the case with captives. I was just amazed as I watched this scene in my own back yard. I could hear the steady rush of traffic on Route 315. 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. A far less likelyenvironment for finding a mountain lion than just about anywhere in Vermont. As land was cleared for farming and the cats prey species declined in number, it went after livestock. Face to face, maybe, with a sure enough catamount. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. These were old growth woods and the canopy had kept the ground cover down, so I could see three or four hundred yards ahead of me but not clearly, because of the gloom. 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. The animal, I learned, is called many things: mountain lion, panther, catamount, puma, cougar and more. It may not surprise you to learn that I was quite intrigued by this third group. So you can imagine there. If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! Still, I wanted to believe those sightings were real. 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. Distinguished by a boxy head, big paws and a VERY long tail. Those who believe the growth and expansion of mountain lion populations to be a good thing routinely make the old, you face a greater danger of being struck by lighting or drowned in the bathtub argument and it is no doubt accurate. Mid Vermont Christian School (MVCS) was set to play the Long Tail Mountain Lions last Tuesday before the former decided not to compete based on concerns for player safety and fairness. For instance, a favorite food for deer is the seedlings of forest tree species. [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. We were about 50 feet from it and it stood taller than any labrador and we watched it tail and all slink down the side of the lawn and the rabbits being surprised out of the bushes. And some people might decide to release them into the wild rather than keeping them in their possession. No doubt of what it was; size, color and recognizable tail. 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. In Vermont, for instance, a few dozen wild turkeys from Pennsylvania were released in 1969 and multiplied into the thousands we have here now. 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