But the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said Sunday that bobcats are the only large wild cats found in the state. We need cougars and we need wolves back in the Northeast, because a landscape of fear is a well-balanced landscape.. Adult mountain lions can be 7-8 feet long, including their tails. We have plenty of suitable habitat, he says. Records suggest that cash bounties for cougar kills were relatively common in the late 1700s and early 1800s; in the Adirondacks, a trapper named Thomas Meacham was credited with 77 cougar kills. Hawley:Were sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. About Us; Were getting more and more home entries every year. In the 1930s, Bruce Wright, an influential wildlife manager from New Brunswick, Canada, began gathering reports of sightings of mountain lions in the East and searching for their tracks. Our wildlife biologists and enforcement agents are mostly political bureaucrats who dont often venture more than 100yards from the truck. Didnt it? The discussion of whether federal lands should be a place to subsidize cattle ranching is another question. Hawley said that the typical range of cougars like mountain lions is from west of the South Dakota area. It was huge! Today, nearly 60% of Connecticut is covered in forest, and bobcats are regularly observed throughout the state. State wildlife experts say those big cats have been extinct in Connecticut. Adults are a uniform tan or tawny in color, with a white or cream-colored chin, undersides and inner legs. The second occasion was on the way to work when I saw the cougar/catamount crossing Route 44. We need [an apex] predator back on the land, Sue Morse told me. The reasons for this conspiracy vary depending upon whom you talk to, but they coalesce around the idea that wildlife agencies would be inconvenienced by the cougars presence, as theyd be forced to respond in ways that would tax their resources. Because he lives among them, Harrigan understands that no one knows the woods better. Someone told New Canaan police that a mountain lion was spotted on Gerdes Road, just north of the Darien-New Canaan border, at about 6 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 14.. Even so, for decades, skeptics dismissed mountain lion sightings in Connecticut out of hand, pointing out that if the cats were here in anywhere close to the number of reported sightings, there would be DNA and physical evidence of their presence, not to mention photos and videos. If these animals are not in the habitat, what we see is an overabundance of herbivores., The ecologist John Laundre, who has spent 35 years studying cougars, concurs. Thats a reasonable assertion. Mountain Lions: Large tan cats with a distinctive two to three-foot curving tail, that can almost touch the ground as they walk. He published his first book in 1959, Joel Samberg: I-95 is the highway from hell CT loves to hate, A CT gadget guru offers tips on the latest devices, Non-alcoholic wines to try for Dry January, This Stamford home is a stylish, indoor-outdoor oasis, CT film professor's new book is an oral history of Hollywood, A CT novelist seeks to shed light on a centuries-old hanging, Nmade in Westport is a globe-wandering culinary adventure, Connecticut Magazine's 40 Under 40: Meet the Class of 2023, Longtime CT lawyer's passion project is music from the heart, UConn athletics operated at $53 million deficit following Kevin Ollie payment. Rumors of their hidden presence persisted. 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. Mountain lions are solitary animals, traveling alone except during mating season or when a female is supporting young. Betsy started as an intern at WNPR in 2011 after earning a Master's Degree in American and Museum Studies from Trinity College. After 20 minutes or so, we turned and stumbled our way back to the parking lot. An expert said it was probably a basking shark. This is part of the cougar business. Have a question or comment? With 18 native South American names, 25 Native American names, and 40 English names, this big cat has a big list of sobriquets that all boil down to the same thing: mountain lion. #3. They can be found in several different ecosystems including mountains, forests, wetlands, and deserts. According to the Connecticut DEEP, the bobcat is the only wild cat found in Connecticut. Please. And Im assuming whatever were doing right now, its not working. 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). The history of this theory in Connecticut and New England goes back long before our current era of fake news. 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. Size alone . One one occasion she had two little ones with her so their den must have been sort of closeby. A mountain lion was responsible for that too. People like you are the problem and cause of extinctions. Hes also unafraid to take unpopular positions when he deems it necessary: Shortly before our meeting, hed signed a petition in favor of keeping ATVs off public roads. Patrick Skahill is a reporter and digital editor at Connecticut Public. Its fur is a light, tawny brown color which can appear gray or almost black, depending on light conditions. 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. 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. May 12, 2021. Based on this blurry photo and pawprints, confirmed it was likely a mountain lion. Mountain Lions: cougars, pumas, panthers and catamounts. His bicycle was later found with the chain unbroken, but off the sprockets. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. Habitat. 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. Two mountain lion encounters in his driveway. Learn More Who We Are & What We Do. So yes they are here and not to sure why they dont admit to them being around ! And even the home entries are kind of changing. But that was OK. Bo Ottmann knew they were out there. Over the years, there even have been a few mountain lions documented in central Oklahoma. Our hunter friend was hunting in central NH when they came upon an adult deer carcass way up in a tree. Snow Camp Market. If theyre in one, theyre in the other.. Its documented through track surveys, aerial surveys, trapping and collaring surveys. Mr. Betty and Mr.Ottomans passion and efforts are impressive. Adult Cougars have short fur that is brown or greyish (sometimes reddish) over most of the body, with a white chest and belly. It lowers the population in a way thats not going to affect the long-term population. The mountain lion is also known as cougar, panther, or puma. Bill and I are full-throttle. Dismissing most of the sightings as probable bobcats, Morse asserted that the scientific evidence has not been proven. On the other side, there are those (as represented here by Bill Betty and Bo Ottmann, along with a number of others I spoke with) who say the overwhelming quantity of anecdotal evidence suggests otherwise. Morse, 70, comports herself in a friendly and no-nonsense manner. Many, many times, in many different ways along its travel up through Minnesota, Michigan and to Canada, down through New York, through hair samples, blood samples, trail camera photos. Could UConn women's basketball be back to 'square one' with seven available players at Seton Hall? When he suggested we retrace our route, past lion, to see a sow bear with cubs, we headed in the opposite direction. There is no shortage of deer for all apex predators whether they are canine, feline, or human. 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. It is hard for me to believe that the big cats havent found plenty of space to roam without regular detection. What would motivate DEEP officials to do this isnt clear. My parents friend in Deposit, NY, posted a young catamount sitting on the front porch on Facebook. They are here in the Catskill Mountains, so named for the magnificent felines. Verified Mountain Lion-Human Attacks. Hed encouraged me to keep my eyes open for deer carcasses cached in the trees (according to Ottmann, cougars are fantastic climbers and are known to stash their kills high in trees), but I saw only leaf-bare branches. 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. So all the other states in the Northeast that have bear populations have a harvest on their bears. In my mind, I went through all the nots. Harrigan nodded. So, traffic had been slowed from both ends for a good 3-5 minutes. And the last confirmed sighting prior to the 2011 instance would be a couple hundred years ago, according to Hawley. LINCOLN, Neb. At least once a year thered be a story from somewhere, but I only ran the absolute best, he told me. I have learned one thing in my career, and thats to never say never, she said. Nowhere in New England is the matter definitively settled. About six years ago, my mother and step-father were traveling some back roads down to New Boston, NH to visit my sister where she lived in an extended care facility. Those are the two closest populations that we have here. A harvest is kind of twofold. Massachusetts and several other New England states have bear hunting, or harvest, seasons, which proponents say help control populations. My husband and where riding our Motorcycle down Rte 110 near Milan NH If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! Sometimes people feared fishers (erroneously attributing the blood-curdling screams of foxes to these hard-to-spot creatures), and in the late 1930s, after several animals were slain under strange circumstances in Glastonbury, the Hartford Courant dubbed the lion-like creature supposedly responsible, the Glawackus. His Tail was very long almost touching the ground and as thick as velvet rope. 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. Wildlife is unpredictable (and several people go missing in wild areas, parks especially, every year -Probably not because of alien abduction). 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. Morse has been tracking cougars for 45 years, mostly in the mountains of the West, where their existence is not in doubt. Abbott believes it is possible that more mountain lions such as the one that was killed in Milford in 2011 could migrate here. Beautiful animal. Hear the full interview: Megafauna mania: our obsession with mountain lions and other large predators. It continues in Connecticut, where that South Dakota cat was killed in 2011, and in Massachusetts, despite two credible reports in the past quarter century (in one case, DNA-confirmed scat; in the other, verified tracks). Its not a bear, not a dog, not a deer, not a bobcat. Hey, I know what I saw. The map from that publication is shown below, with the current mountain lion range in green and confirmed mountain lion locations as black dots. Body length: 3-4 ft. Tail: 2.5-3 ft. Mountain lions found in eastern Nebraska typically are dispersing young animals on the move to find new territory. I think they never left, Ottmann piped in. 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. We even had a sighting someone here at DEEP, in my office, was convinced they saw a mountain lion. 75-170 pounds. Wed be seeing more carcasses of prey we would be seeing at least some carcasses of mountain lion prey. It was a flooded area. 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