And were one of the most densely populated states as far as humans. It was a 140-pound male mountain lion, the first confirmed in Connecticut in more than 100 years. To obtain grouse distribution and harvest information, the Wildlife Division is asking grouse hunters to submit hunting reports through the Ruffed Grouse Hunter Log . More recently, unexplained animal sightings in Connecticut and other states became more and more associated with mountain lions. I only saw the back side, but he was huge. I was outdoor with my two pugs and quickly scooped them up and brought them in the house. Wed be seeing more carcasses of prey we would be seeing at least some carcasses of mountain lion prey. Mountain lions are carnivores (meat eaters) and prey mostly on deer. Please. Below are some of the first-hand. Thats only a fraction of the supposed sightings. Next to the jaguar, it is the largest North American cat. Weve done a lot of work over the years investigating sightings. Morse, 70, comports herself in a friendly and no-nonsense manner. . Patrick Skahill is a reporter and digital editor at Connecticut Public. 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. Jason Hawley says his office gets lots of calls about mountain lions each year. It jumped 28 feet across the road. It had rained previously. My daughter said to me thats the biggest cat Ive ever seen. We hadnt seen a cougar, nor any evidence to suggest a cougar had traveled these woods recently. There also should have been evidence of animals killed by the predators and roadkill. The expert opinion held up until a man was killed by a Great White not too far away. The last confirmed mountain lion sighting in Connecticut occurred in 2011. Massachusetts and several other New England states have bear hunting, or harvest, seasons, which proponents say help control populations. And there are different schools of thought about that. However, the National Wildlife Federation notes that the mountain lions range spreads all across the Americas, from the Canadian Yukon to The Strait of Magellan, making it the greatest range of any living mammal in the Americas.. 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: cougars, pumas, panthers and catamounts. 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. 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. Mountain lions weigh 105 to 140 pounds and can be up to eight feet long from the nose to the tip of the tail. listeners, viewers, and readers like you who value fact-based journalism and trustworthy information. Adult males can be around 8 feet in length and weigh between 130 and 150 pounds, while adult females can be 7 feet long and weigh between 65 and 90 pounds. Hes even had his own false sighting. What time of day was it? Initially, officials believed it had been released from a private handler. 60-108 inches. Up to several inches of snow expected for northern CT, NWS says, Passenger in car that nearly hit FBI agents in CT gets 3 years, Police: CT man hiding in back seat tried to rob female driver, Yale police investigating false report of active shooter, NY man charged with CT car theft extradited, state trooper says, CT advocates resume push for aid-in-dying bill, Wilton Police Chief John Lynch announces retirement, RTM narrowly votes to accept voting infrastructure grant, Milford changes rules on accessory dwellings, Termination upheld for CT fire lieutenant in drug scandal, several have reportedly been spotted around the Woodbridge area this month, one that was killed on the Merritt Parkway in 2011, U.S. Department of Agricultures Forest Service, mountain lions became extinct in Connecticut in the 1800s, UConn athletics operated at $53 million deficit following Kevin Ollie payment. 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. But what about the sightings in Connecticut that are made by experienced outdoorsmen and women, people who know the difference between bobcats and mountain lions? Morse founded Keeping Track in the belief that getting citizens interested and engaged in wildlife will have the knock-on effect of getting them interested and engaged in how land-use decisions affect wild populationsand might provide the impetus for conservation efforts. Continued investigation revealed mountain lion tracks, scat deposits and an additional cache of an elk calf. Nearby grocery stores include Food Lion, Star Food. We also had bobcats that we saw quite often but I am positive that these were mountain lions! 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. This is part of the cougar business. 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 was fast as hell but there was no mistaking its not only long,but THICK tail as it disappeared into the woods. 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. And even the home entries are kind of changing. I live in Hopkinton, NH and saw one coming up from the Contoocook River one misty morning. Rumors of their hidden presence persisted. Wildlife biologists, as professional scientists, require a higher level of documentation and proof. Weve had housecats misidentified as mountain lions and even deer, Rego says. 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.". . His mentor, Aldo Leopold, a prominent wildlife biologist, also believed this, but felt if people learned about these populations, they would be hunted to extinction. Lol Here is a small glimpse at what these dogs were bred to do (if you got sensitive eyes, do not view): What are the chances of wolves coming back to Vermont? With all the thousands of trail cameras in the woods of New England, one would think that there would be at least one picture taken of a catamount. There was no mistake. Ask people who spend time outside Connecticut cities and you will hear firsthand or secondhand accounts of mountain lions. 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. Bearded, bowler hat, expression impenetrable behind facial hair and the stoicism of an earlier era. Today, instead of focusing on cougar sightings in Eastern states, many cougar enthusiasts want to protect the animal from being hunted in the regions in which they are currently found. Weight. Now the bears, they dont even care if people are home, theyll go right in the house. The Department of Environmental . They can be found in several different ecosystems including mountains, forests, wetlands, and deserts. Theyll say, Hey, you can see in the picture that it has a long tail, and when I look at the picture, I say, I see how you would see that because they way these cats walk, theyll kind of stand and trail their rear leg. They also generally have spots on their fur. Mountain lions usually retract their claws when walking. They were also seen at other times by members of my family and other people in the neighborhood. There have been several sightings of mountain lions in New Hampshire recently. Learn More Who We Are & What We Do. Weve got a growing bear population. The police and everyone else just shook their heads but she to her dying breath said she saw a mountain lion in Lexington MA. he recalls. Police Chief. People often get very emotional about it, Hawley says. Hes even had his own false sighting. 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. It was a flooded area. September 16, 2020. in Bethlehem, Environment, News, Towns. Hawley: Yeah. Or at least theyre not supposed to be. McEnroe: Scientifically, this is a case where absence of evidence is kind of evidence of absence, right? But it also sort of instills that fear, a healthy fear of humans and bears. Officially, the last mountain lions were hunted to extinction here in the late 1800s. These powerful cats can weigh between 70-220 pounds, with males weighing more. In yet another variant, DEEP is said to be helicoptering mountain lions in to help control the deer population. But a high-profile sighting in 2011 stirred up renewed interest in the animals here, when a mountain lion from South Dakota was hit and killed by a car on a Connecticut highway. 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. On the idea of bear hunting in Connecticut. 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. Mountain Lions: They are officially extinct. March 20, 2022; Bob Dylan is Staying Busy in Isolation May 5, 2020; An Argument Against Gen Eds February 18, 2013; Forgive or Forsake: When an Artist Messes Up April 6, 2018; Computer Science and ESPN: An Interview with Christine Chung February 18, 2015; The Emperor Has No Clothes: Trump and COVID-19 April 22, 2020 However, many of their claimsespecially Mr. Bettys contention of roughly a dozen personal sightings in New Englandare hard to take seriously. Im gonna get hammered for it, he sighed. 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. It seems humans just cant resist destroying these animals and either dont realize or dont care what damage we have done to our natural environment over the centuries. So its this gathering storm. You cant mistake the long tail. What color was it? If its not, you just thank the person and say good-bye.. Its OK, he told me. They certainly have, you know, lower levels of conflicts and home entries than we do here in Connecticut. Those are the two closest populations that we have here. There was the vaguest of trails, crisscrossed by deadfalls and a sharp-thorned bush that soon drew blood from Ottmanns right hand. ), 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. I couldnt tell you how happy I would be if mountain lions were actually recolonizing the state of Connecticut, Hawley says, but its just not happening., Hawley spoke about bobcats, mountain lions and bears on The Colin McEnroe Show: Megafauna mania: our obsession with mountain lions and other large predators.. Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Guns n' Gear), whose first name is Mike, is a United States Air Force and Army Veteran who uses his "experience on a . Massachusetts and several other New England states have bear hunting, or harvest, seasons, which proponents say help control populations. Honestly, leaving this out of your article would seem to perpetuate the notion that there is a conspiracy to keep us all in ignorance. But further inspection revealed it was a very large coyote. State lawmakers have entertained bills to establish a bear hunting season for years, but so far, none of those proposals has passed. Connecticut Ive seen more field evidence in a couple of hours tracking out west than Ive seen in 100 years on the East Coast, he said. Today marks the date of our inception. He has also reported for the Marketplace Morning Report.
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