Probably because of all the hunters that would be out trying to get their trophy and endangering others. 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. 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). After all, if one mountain lion had wandered here, didnt that mean that others could have? 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). Even in the controlled environment of a lab, the truth about Eastern cougars seems to be almost willfully eluding its seekers. my father was recently trout fishing in central Mass. Listen & Learn. Time changes all and Im not going to shut the door on the future and say that a breeding population of cougars is not here because the day after tomorrow they could be here its just a matter of time., Though a deer hunter herself, Morse is opposed to the way mountain lions have been hunted in the western U.S., where they are found. But, I think with education and planning, we should reintroduce wolves and cougar in the Northeast. 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. Sign up for our newsletterto get the latest and greatest content fromConnecticut Magazinedelivered right to your inbox. If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! 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 ! He was previously a reporter for the Danbury News-Times and the Ridgefield Press. My daughter said to me thats the biggest cat Ive ever seen. Email editor@connecticutmag.com. The department has said it receives reports every year of. The cat is dead. Once at dusk driving in the Berkshires, he saw what he initially thought was a cat-like creature that was far bigger than a bobcat leap across the road. Betty, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the process. Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Mountain lions, also known as cougars or pumas, are a big cat species native to the Americas. 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. There is no shortage of deer for all apex predators whether they are canine, feline, or human. Hawley: That animal was documented. 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. State lawmakers have entertained bills to establish a bear hunting season for years, but so far, none of those proposals has passed. and with my friend Chris Christinat who lives in hartsville we saw one stalking a rabbit on her lawn about autumn of 2009. The young typically remain with their mother for 2 years. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! The tail, I said. People have been known to submit photos of real mountain lions taken in other states and claim they were taken in Connecticut. And theres another school of thought, Well, no, there just are too many of them probably we have to reduce that population somehow. Where do you fall in that whole continuum? He wore red suspenders and a baseball cap. We have people eating dinner in their kitchen, they hear a noise, all of a sudden a bear walks in, so they run into their bedroom to get away from the bear, while the bears out ransacking their refrigerator. Dogos have been DOCUMENTED killing mountain lion / wolf. These powerful cats can weigh between 70-220 pounds, with males weighing more. I could hear the steady rush of traffic on Route 315. [Betty] and the other guys dont do this shit. Uscinski, a Connecticut native, adds that the theory that the government is covering up the existence of mountain lions is likely motivated by a distrust of authority. My heart was saying, Maybe this is it,. Jason. Ask people who spend time outside Connecticut cities and you will hear firsthand or secondhand accounts of mountain lions. This is the second mountain lion sighting in North Texas in less than a month. Didnt it? It was a flooded area. Officially, the last mountain lions were hunted to extinction here in the late 1800s. It's rare to see an up-close look at mountain lion behavior out in the wild, let alone a whole family. People like you are the problem and cause of extinctions. The next week, on June 11, the cat was hit and killed by an, on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Milford. One one occasion she had two little ones with her so their den must have been sort of closeby. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This setting should only be used on your home or work computer. Mountain Lions: Large tan cats with a distinctive two to three-foot curving tail, that can almost touch the ground as they walk. I also had a coworker report a similar experience around the same time. For helpful information on identifying mountain lion tracks and more, visit the Missouri Department of . We need cougars and we need wolves back in the Northeast, because a landscape of fear is a well-balanced landscape.. For mountain lions in Connecticut, a lack of evidence is very good evidence. And theyre not going to find one, because the females don't disperse like that. Somebody in the NC Legislature believes, because lions are now protected by law. There have been several sightings of mountain lions in New Hampshire recently. Your donation today will allow us to continue this work on your behalf. Honestly, leaving this out of your article would seem to perpetuate the notion that there is a conspiracy to keep us all in ignorance. Hawley: I feel strongly that we need a harvest here in Connecticut. In Florida, where mountain lions are known as panthers, dozens are killed each year by cars. 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. According to the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, mountain lions became extinct in Connecticut in the 1800s, and bobcats are the only large wild cats found in the state. In 1978, mountain lions were listed as a state threatened species. Adults are a uniform tan or tawny in color, with a white or cream-colored chin, undersides and inner legs. This is part of the cougar business. They are there and thriving!!!! 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. She still produces shows with Colin and the team when her schedule allows. Peter Yankowski is a breaking news reporter for Hearst Connecticut Media Group. 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. Jason Hawley says his office gets lots of calls about mountain lions each year. Mountain lions in Eastern Connecticut? I saw one yesterday in Windsor Cty Vermont. And he said, This is where the mountain lion crossed. We walked in and there were fresh bobcat tracks in there. The history of this theory in Connecticut and New England goes back long before our current era of fake news. You cant mistake the long tail. As a carnivore biologist, Hawley says he would love it if mountain lions were here. Because they are.. I live in Hopkinton, NH and saw one coming up from the Contoocook River one misty morning. 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. Tim Abbott, the regional land conservation and greenprint director for the Housatonic Valley Association, says that during a lecture on mountain lions last winter at Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village, when the speaker asked if anyone had seen a mountain lion, half of the roughly 400 people in attendance raised their hands. The scientific name for the catamount is Puma concolor. 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. 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). 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. Broken Down: The National Society of Leadership and Success? Genetic testing placed the animal in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and the cat had been sighted at several different points during its long journey east. But further inspection revealed it was a very large coyote. Hey, I know what I saw. We have plenty of suitable habitat, he says. Updated . 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. 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. Wildlife is unpredictable (and several people go missing in wild areas, parks especially, every year -Probably not because of alien abduction). The first time was in the yard which was surrounded by woods. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding woods. 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. But that doesnt stop people from seeing them. Its quite an uphill challenge for us to manage that situation right now. 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. The one thing that jumped out at her the tail. We really must establish first that these beautiful animals SHOULD be in every state that was once THEIR habitat. 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. Eastern cougars (mountain lions) do not have a native, self sustaining population in New York State. For a solid four seconds, Marchibroda watched as a large, sleek cat standing about three feet tall with a long, curled tail crossed Skyline Drive near Gavel Springs Gap less than 100 feet in front of them. No need since so we guess it has moved on from the northeast corner of Connecticut. Jason Hawley says his office gets lots of calls about mountain lions each year. 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. Its a cool story with how far that animal walked. Hawley, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, says data dont support a breeding population of mountain lions in Connecticut. For decades, wildlife experts should have been seeing occasional scat and paw prints in the winter. Apex predators like the cougar and wolf make for a healthier ecosystem. 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