Otherwise, Hawley said cats like bobcats want nothing to do with people, and they will generally prey on chickens, small dogs or cats. THAT is a mountain lion! Hey, I know what I saw. She favors plaid shirts, green Dickies work pants, and hiking boots, and she chided me for shaking her hand too gently. Its fur is a light, tawny brown color which can appear gray or almost black, depending on light conditions. Early spring 2019 I caught a glimpse of one entering over grown brush on the side of the road very very early in the morning. my father was recently trout fishing in central Mass. As I walked thru the beginning of the trail I spooked a deer and heard this awful screech and slowly backed out of there .. 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. Advocates of the proposed Aid in Dying bill made an emotional plea to state legislators in Hartford on Wednesday to approve the legislation, introduced 15 separate times in Connecticut since 1994. Its a cool story with how far that animal walked. on route to stone tower on Quabbin Hill. He drove me out to the spot. 5-7 yards from me. And there are different schools of thought about that. And yet there I was, on a Saturday in early November, crammed into a booth with Bo Ottmann, 48, and Bill Betty, 72, of Cougars of the Valley, the organization that Ottmann founded in 2007 to gather evidence of and alert the public to the big cats living among us. I had been the first vehicle in a line held up by one lane traffic on a bridge reconstruction. The restrictions/regulations surrounding management of an endangered species is incredibly cumbersome, and would be difficult to manage. Bobcats are most frequently misidentified by the public as mountain lions, but theyre not the only animals mislabeled. Bobcats are plentiful across Connecticut and are between 18 and 35 pounds. are larger and heavier than females (60 to 100 lbs.). 1 After three deer were killed on his property in March, Matunuck resident Abel Collins found what he suspected might be a mountain lion track nearby. It was huge! building a betterand more civilConnecticut to live, work, and play. Officially, the last mountain lions were hunted to extinction here in the late 1800s. What color was it? 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. Dismissing most of the sightings as probable bobcats, Morse asserted that the scientific evidence has not been proven. It lowers the population in a way thats not going to affect the long-term population. Genetic testing placed the animal in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and the cat had been sighted at several different points during its long journey east. Hes spent this winter hoping for colder temperatures so he can use it. 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. Bobcats: They are about two to three times larger than their distant relative. Thats only a fraction of the supposed sightings. Massachusetts and several other New England states have bear hunting, or harvest, seasons, which proponents say help control populations. Mountain Lions:100 all the way up to 200 pounds, Mountain Lions:Can grow up to 6 feet long. 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. But other hard evidence of the big cats presence is elusive. He can be reached by phone at 860-275-7297 or by email: pskahill@ctpublic.org. What to know about unconfirmed mountain lion sightings in CT. Nicole Funaro was formerly a statewide trending reporter for Hearst Connecticut Media Group, covering everything from the most fascinating properties for sale in the Nutmeg State to the latest movie filming in the state. The sighting on Gerdes Road is the third in the past month and very close to the most recent one, on . There is also something appealing about the idea that there is an animal out there so cunning that it has escaped our notice and the eyes of our cameras. N.H.'s Fish and Game Mountain lions have traveled through Fairfield County in the past. Jason Hawley says his office gets lots of calls about mountain lions each year. Wildlife do really crazy things, and you just never know.. Mountain Lions in New York. Rego has many reasons why a conspiracy to conceal mountain lions by his colleagues at DEEP is impossible. After all, if one mountain lion had wandered here, didnt that mean that others could have? Apex predators like the cougar and wolf make for a healthier ecosystem. So its this gathering storm. 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. But further inspection revealed it was a very large coyote. This article appeared in theNovember 2019issue ofConnecticut Magazine. Were getting more and more home entries every year. There have been several sightings of mountain lions in New Hampshire recently. Still more confusion ensued when a lab technician said she might have gotten some samples confused, and thus the canid result was thrown into doubt. Learn More . They are here in the Catskill Mountains, so named for the magnificent felines. And follow us on Facebook and Instagram @connecticutmagazine and Twitter @connecticutmag. On the idea of bear hunting in Connecticut. My wife is not a wildlife expert, but is not prone to flights of fancy. 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. If you believe you have seen a mountain lion and want to report it to NH Fish and Game, please contact the Wildlife Division at (603) 271-2461 or wildlife@wildlife.nh.gov to request an observation report form. Morse introduced me to her cat, Allister, whom she referred to as her portable puma. Then she fetched me a beer. I was deer hunting with my father, it was in the fall about 7 years ago, in Barre Ma towards the Templeton Ma lines. The official word is that mountain lions were declared extinct in Connecticut back in the late 1800s but sightings have become much more prevalent. Megafauna mania: our obsession with mountain lions and other large predators., Megafauna mania: our obsession with mountain lions and other large predators. In my mind, I went through all the nots. There are no breeding cougars in New England and we do not need any. Im not an expert on human psychology, but if youre looking for something, you have a greater chance of actually seeing it. We need cougars and we need wolves back in the Northeast, because a landscape of fear is a well-balanced landscape.. Perhaps, then, the ultimate question isnt whether cougars are among us, but rather how we can encourage them to settle here. A bobcats tail is short and bob-like, while mountain lions have long, curving tails that can grow up to 3 feet. We also had bobcats that we saw quite often but I am positive that these were mountain lions! Obviously, this is the reason why the experts are loathe to admit that the species is here. In July 2019, the Center for Biological Diversity and the Mountain Lion Foundation petitioned the Fish and Game Commission to list mountain lions as a candidate species under the California Endangered Species Act ( CESA) within a proposed evolutionarily significant unit (ESU) located in Southern California and the central coast of California. Bill Betty of Matunuck, a mountain lion expert who spoke at the South Kingstown Land Trust barn Oct. 30, thinks there is ample evidence pointing to the existence of a mountain lion in Matunuck. But you are talking Pacquiao (Pit) vs. Tyson (Dogo) in their prime. Morse is a Vermont-based naturalist and the founder of Keeping Track, a nonprofit that trains people in the scientific protocols needed to detect, interpret, record, and monitor wildlife tracks and signs. 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. Of course. Beautiful creature. The second occasion was on the way to work when I saw the cougar/catamount crossing Route 44. According to the Smithsonians National Zoo, bobcats are part of the lynx genus, which means they are related to other cats like the Canadian lynx, Iberian lynx and Eurasian lynx. "Connecticut is cougar heaven . Im gonna get hammered for it, he sighed. Genetic testing placed the animal in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and the cat had been sighted at several different points during its long journey east. We hadnt seen a cougar, nor any evidence to suggest a cougar had traveled these woods recently. I live in Hopkinton, NH and saw one coming up from the Contoocook River one misty morning. It was a flooded area. 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. The U.S. Department of Agricultures Forest Service reports that mountain lions typical habitat is steep, rocky canyons or mountainous terrain, but they generally can be found wherever deer are present. Those are the two closest populations that we have here. The young typically remain with their mother for 2 years. For who but we humans can look across the landscape and not acknowledge our role in the diminishment of cougars and the myriad ways in which we have knocked the landscape out of balance? And the last confirmed sighting prior to the 2011 instance would be a couple hundred years ago, according to Hawley. Mountain Lions: cougars, pumas, panthers and catamounts. We need [an apex] predator back on the land, Sue Morse told me. You need to understand that every biologist that works for the state has a duty to deny mountain lions. What would motivate DEEP officials to do this isnt clear. 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. 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