mountain lion vermont

I was agnostic, I suppose, on these stories which the state wildlife biologists inevitably found impossible to substantiate and, often, easy to disprove. 9 Grace Christian (9-11). 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. Morse, 70, comports herself in a friendly and no-nonsense manner. There are so many great sites out there devoted to. 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. 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. He says that if mountain lions do . That was plain, right away. The first European settlers arrived in the Texas Hill country in the early 1800s and viewed mountain lions as a dangerous threat to their own survival as well as a predator threat to their livestock. We met for lunch on a Sunday morning in early March, and it didnt take long for me to understand why Harrigan is such a popular columnist. near Greenfield with an experienced guide that hed worked with several times. Ive attended talks with Sue Morse. Refuge volunteer Dale Erz originally. Its range was once similarly vast; from the high north regions of the Yukon to the Straits of Magellan. But there was not enough evidence to either prove or disprove that a mountain lion had done the killing. 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 Mountain Lions won both regular season margins by 30-plus points. It was definitely a cougar. By mid-19th century, forests made up only about 30 percent of New England (its notable that today that number stands at approximately 80 percent, nearer to what it was when cougars thrived here). As livestock farming came to dominate the landscape, pressure on the big cats slowly mounted on two fronts: The number of farmers wanting them dead was increasing, while the rapid transition from forest to farmland meant their habitat was shrinking. If the mountain lion is a certified killer of sheep and, sometimes, cattle, it has also occasionally attacked humans. He coined the term landscape of fear to describe the relationship between predator and prey in the wild. That it had, somehow, made a return and established residence. vital part of this countries ecosystem. Forty years of reporting on New Hampshire cougar sightings has convinced Harrigan that the state is home to at least a handful of breeding animals. We witnessed a mountain lion stalking a herd of deer. It has nothing to do with trophy hunting, public safety, etc. 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. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. I live in Vermont and have seen, in broad daylight, a mountain lion (catamount, cougar, puma). Not a bobcat or a coyote or a fisher or anything else that might be mistaken for a mountain lion. He soon developed a five-question litmus test: How far away were you? ), 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. Others have seen cougar in neighboring towns . Clearly, Puma concolor once inhabited the forests of the Northeast, although its difficult to say in what numbers. Probably are lions in western NC, too. Theyre here. Most of those sightings were misidentifications, Doug Blodgett says. Our county. It may not surprise you to learn that I was quite intrigued by this third group. Probably because of all the hunters that would be out trying to get their trophy and endangering others. Then saw him a few more times from further away across the road and along the edge sometimes of the woods. Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. 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. When a cats around, its not hard to find evidence. I came across a dead adult deer carcass high up in an oak tree. Until 2011, that question rested upon a hypothetical. The solitary animal seeks out new territory and eventually a new population will be established. o" which translates to " the mountain like a seat." Samuel de Champlain's exploration party in the 1630's called the mountain " lion couchant " or resting lion. We hadnt seen a cougar, nor any evidence to suggest a cougar had traveled these woods recently. Americans called the mountain " Tah-wak-be-dee-ee-wads. The one thing that jumped out at her the tail. Several years ago, I was bicycling with a buddy up Quabbin Reservoirs Administration Rd. Ottmann and I walked farther. They were also seen at other times by members of my family and other people in the neighborhood. If theyre in one, theyre in the other.. Indeed, one of her steadiest sources of funding for Keeping Track is a presentation on cougars that has been known to draw more than 500 audience members. There was no denying that the carcass, which was examined by experts, was that of a mountain lion. They knew what they were doing, Blodgett says. [Betty] and the other guys dont do this shit. She favors plaid shirts, green Dickies work pants, and hiking boots, and she chided me for shaking her hand too gently. 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. 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. Then, follow-up DNA researchmatching samples from the carcass with those from scat and hair collected in other locationsestablished that the animal had come to Connecticut from the Black Hills of North Dakota. If LTS can take care of business in that one, it would host the winner of the Bennington County matchup between No. Then, a mountain lion was run over by an SUV on the outskirts of New Haven, Connecticut. 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. 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). It looked real promising, Blodgett remembers. My husband and where riding our Motorcycle down Rte 110 near Milan NH 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). In the second camp, there are those issuing the denials, pointing to the lack of photographic evidence, or the absence of tracks, or the simple truth that many people dont seem to know the difference between a cougar and a bobcat and a lynx and even, in some cases, a golden retriever. And why not? 104 Williston, VT 05495. The mountain lion can weigh upwards of 200 pounds and it can move like well, like a cat. They especially come down from the mountains when there is a big water shortgage. Still, there is no saying that it will not happen. No An official form of the United States government. We also had bobcats that we saw quite often but I am positive that these were mountain lions! Length of body. 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. Thank you; Blog. Put bluntly, Morse does not believe that New England is home to cougars. The key to Morses assertion can be found in the term breeding population. Although the fact that cougars have traveled through New England is irrefutable (a DNA-confirmed roadkill is hard to deny), Morse believes its unlikely that they have settled here and created a self-sustaining population. I started asking a lot of questions, and realized theres only one explanation for the answers I was getting: They are here., You could have 30 in Connecticut alone. This was, after all, a long, long way from the nearest known population of mountain lions and virtually the heart of the suburban East. A journey of nearly 2,000 miles. 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. If there is a follow up investigation, it turns out that people were mistaken about what they saw.. She IS, perhaps, the most knowledgeable and experienced person in this arena and I listened intently to her presentation (Richmond, VT 2018). Mountain lions are large, tan cats. I have no choice but to take this seriously, he told me. Green Mountain Lion Corp #256 34 Blair Park Road Ste. I will never forget what I saw! Still, there are those of us who know what weve seen. But examination of the carcass raised suspicions. 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. 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 just heard from a fellow college student of a siting in Greenfield last fall and two in Colrain this spring. These settlers established measures for predator control by any means possible. 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. Part of this belief is rooted in his journalistic experience, which across the decades has cultivated his nose for sincerity. 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. Yet dozens of. Can they really all be cases of false identification? Was INCREDIBLE! But there was certainty, or near-certainty, on the part of the witnesses who, it seemed, would swear to having seen a catamount. But right now youre dealing with top-notch guys. Several years of doing the follow-ups, then, convinced Blodgett that there were no catamounts in Vermont. It can run 50 miles an hour and clear a twelve-foot fence. Herself in a friendly and no-nonsense manner to learn that i was intrigued. 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