Of course. Long Trail beat Arlington 62-40 on Feb. 7. But it seems virtually inevitable that a time is coming when that thing you see on the trail up ahead of you might be something to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Its distinctive featurethe one that sets it apart from other North American wild catsis its tail, which is thick and often as long as its body. Vermont Mountain Lion Sightings ), 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. It was his great coolness and daring (either that, or fear) that enabled Crowell to shoot the animal at a distance of one rod only (roughly 16 feet), first hitting it in the leg with his shotgun, then dispatching it with a bullet to the head from a borrowed rifle. Theymay not be looking, specifically, for a catamount. Id splurged on them. The last catamount killed in Vermont stands under glass just inside the doors to the Vermont Historical Museum in Montpelier, a hop, skip, and a jump down the block from the statehouse. Public opinion surveys show many more would support reintroduction, than oppose. It jumped 28 feet across the road. And, now, here I was. Wildlife is unpredictable (and several people go missing in wild areas, parks especially, every year -Probably not because of alien abduction). Can they really all be cases of false identification? All of us with rifles, most of them scoped. There are no breeding cougars in New England and we do not need any. The glasses I carried were of good quality with exceptional light-gathering property. I did call in a report to CT DEP and they basically dismissed my narrative questioning whether I made a mistake confusing the animal I saw with a bobcat or fisher cat. But no. Harrigan nodded. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. I wasnt planning to shoot her unless she moved in my direction. Height. [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. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding woods. Refuge volunteer Dale Erz originally. And its not just Vermont. He says that if mountain lions do . He never found the evidence. Until 2011, that question rested upon a hypothetical. I had seen bear, deer, coyotes, foxes, that one bobcat all the usual suspects. Because they are.. In 2011, the U.S. The mountain lionalso known as the cougar, puma, panther, or catamountis a large cat species native to the Americas. I had a pair of good binoculars in my coat pocket. 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. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. People in Colorado communities might need to warn their children and to look over their own shoulders when they were out jogging, but not here. I wasnt the only one to see the big cat. my husband tapped my leg and asked what is that crossing the road It was a Cougar tan in color long tail which had a slight curl upward .I wish I had my camera to prove it but I know We saw it. Yes, of course they are here, transients. As pets or for exhibit. My neighbors have seen several over the last 15-20 years. Finally, in the third camp, there are the true believersthe cougar truthers, if you willthe men and women for whom the only logical conclusion (often reached after a significant investment of time, thought, and sometimes money) is that right here, right now, cougars live among us, feeding and breeding and rearing their young, and that suggesting otherwise is sheer ignorance, willful denial, or part of a mosaic of conspiracy. The combined scoring differential in those matchups was 158-77. But other hard evidence of the big cats presence is elusive. Kim Royar, a biologist at the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department, told me she receives 40 to 50 reports annually, and although she believes that few, if any, are actual cougar sightings, she doesnt dismiss the possibility that someday someone will happen upon the real deal. The reason why experts wont admit to a breeding population existing is that there is NO PROOF. The Mountain Lions won both regular season margins by 30-plus points. Anticipating, perhaps, a moment like this. I reported it to Connecticut DEEP, only to be told there are no cougars in Connecticut. And consider, for a moment, the concern and outright fear an official acknowledgment of such a carnivorous and predatory creature might evoke. You cant mistake the long tail. 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. 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. I was curious enough at the time to do a little research. 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. Bennington, VT (05201) Today. I think of Aldo Leopolds Thinking Like a Mountain essay about how deer decimated the forests and died of starvation because of humans incessant desire to kill. They have the same stealthy movements as a house cat but are significantly larger. His mention of these encounters was so matter-of-fact that I found myself nodding along. Vermont-based naturalist SueMorse has spent decades studying, tracking, andphotographing cougars outwest. If LTS can take care of business in that one, it would host the winner of the Bennington County matchup between No. In my case, I had seen just about everything else in the Vermont woods in the several years that I had been going out, and not just during deer season. Some might mistake the bobcat, which still lives in New England, for a cougareven though its tail is about 6 inches long andthe bigger cats is 3 feet or more. Whenever I drive up and through my home state of Vermont, I look into the hills that surround me that have no sign of development for miles and miles. This is part of the cougar business. It can run 50 miles an hour and clear a twelve-foot fence. When I shared their story with the staff at the center where my sister lived, I expected surprise and interested. 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. My own inclination, for the little it matters, is to side with the professionals like Blodgett. Females ranges are much smaller so it will take reintroduction or a few savvy wildlife biologist in the dead of night. Apex predators like the cougar and wolf make for a healthier ecosystem. They were also seen at other times by members of my family and other people in the neighborhood. Westford, MA, crossing Dunstable Rd from Long Sought For Pond into the woods. She said it jumped up on the neighbors stone wall which was pretty high and walked across it. Some of them, he says, we could close the books on pretty quickly. Long Trail Mountain Lion roster: Myra Aldanondo, Olivia Cole-Bugay, Liz Daara, Rose Johnson, Aubrey Lanning, Molly Luikart, Camilla Marcy, Meara Morgan, Harlow Quail, . This was, after all, a long, long way from the nearest known population of mountain lions and virtually the heart of the suburban East. This isnt to say she believes none of these animals has stepped foot on New England soil over the past century. These settlers established measures for predator control by any means possible. He set down his cigarette and looked me in the eye. Threat of Being Attacked This is a site for people to discuss mountain lion sightings in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. Others have seen cougar in neighboring towns . 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). Our county. Even though the experts say there arent any mountain lions in CT, there are. Still, sightings are common. Although the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared the . 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. Probably because of all the hunters that would be out trying to get their trophy and endangering others. We need [an apex] predator back on the land, Sue Morse told me. All with eyes to see and spring loaded to see something. In my mind, I went through all the nots. I saw one yesterday in Windsor Cty Vermont. If he was not determined to prove that someone had actually seen a mountain lion in Vermonthe is a scientist, after allhe was still excited by the possibility. Probably are lions in western NC, too. The regions top predator, the coyote, is classified by biologists as a mesopredator (a type that in New England includes skunks and raccoons), which feeds primarily on smaller animals. Many on both sides of the cougar debate beileve that New Englands natural habitat would benefit from having an apex predator in the ecosystem again. Maybe you've seen the UVM(University of Vermont) catamount at a basketball game, or the catamount at the Vermont History Museum. There was the vaguest of trails, crisscrossed by deadfalls and a sharp-thorned bush that soon drew blood from Ottmanns right hand. Mountain lions are large, tan cats. Ottmann nodded. The habitat is certainly right, with so many farms having gone by and so much formerly cleared land returning to second growth forest and with the populations of prey species suchas deer and porcupines having reached abundant proportions. But perhaps an even larger portion is the product of his enduring faith in the men and womanloggers, hunters, trapperswhose vocations and avocations have instilled in them a deep familiarity with wild places and the creatures who inhabit them. It kills to eat but does not necessarily practice any sort of conservation ethic. Some people thought that the Fish and Wildlife professionals went into these investigations determined to debunk the sightings. Ive seen tracks (Downeast Maine) and others have seen them, plain as day. 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. There was never, of course, a photograph. 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. I only saw the back side, but he was huge. But they would certainly pay attention if they did see one. Its mounted carcass is on display in Montpelier where Id seen it when I was the adult supervision for my daughters sixth-grade class trip to the capital. And thats a surprisingly complex question, because it hinges on numerous factors: policy and politics, culture and conditioning, habitat and, frankly, hubris. Or, if it does, when that will be. Recall a few years back, a guy in a kayak off Horseneck Beach in Westport, MA, was tracked by a large fin. But it was also a male. 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. 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. I just heard from a fellow college student of a siting in Greenfield last fall and two in Colrain this spring. She said it was long and thick. 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. 104 Williston, VT 05495. Wildlife do really crazy things, and you just never know.. What color was it? Its range was once similarly vast; from the high north regions of the Yukon to the Straits of Magellan. And DNA analysis shows us that felis concolor is genetically the same across the USI think it is irrelevant, but interesting. 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. Black markings decorate the tip of the tail, ears, and around the snout. We also had bobcats that we saw quite often but I am positive that these were mountain lions! The Great Divide | Are There Mountain Lions in New England. But some sightings were more promising and some seemed exceedingly so. 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! In fact, jaguars used to be native to south Texas, as well! 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