The females are where its at, she said. My wife Linda and I, spent several days with the Hitchcocks at their Atlantic Ocean-front Cabin overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, from high up on a cliff, where you could hear the screams of at least 1 of Vermonts wild cougars, in both 1991 and again in 1993. If there are mountain lions skulking around Vermont, they wont stay hidden for long, Bernier said. Upon discussion I have found that Hartland residents report seeing mountain lions frequently-there are people that swear they come on their porch (one who works at ascutney hospital in windsor) and other older residents who have reported seeing them around the North Hartland Dam on an early morning walk. At first my husband thoughtwow huge dog and it turned its head and it was a cat. The tail, I said. You know, weve had so many home entries this year. Welcome to the blog dedicated to discussing mountain lion sightings in Vermont. 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. Hawley: Yeah. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. There were also people who spoke of seeing prints in a specific area in Hartland as well. Your email address will not be published. Yet dozens of. Lou: I am still awaiting your pictureit is now October 1st. In early 1980s I saw a large tawny colored cougar in Leyden, Massachusetts, crossing a dirt road with uninhabited woods with many deer and critters to eat and hills with cliffs and likely caves for dens. Bearded, bowler hat, expression impenetrable behind facial hair and the stoicism of an earlier era. Lets learn to live alongside this very large animal is one of the schools of thought. And, a couple of biologists I talked to when I was putting this exhibit together, said that it's. She still produces shows with Colin and the team when her schedule allows. I worked in wrj,VT. Since 1890 in the U.S. and Canada, there have been 100 attacks on humans at all, according to the research organization The Cougar Network. Bigger than my rottwieller/Lab cross. After registering, I can manage my newsletter subscriptions by visiting my Profile Settings page. Back in 2002 I saw a full grown mountain lion in Dummerston Vermont on east/west road. And if it is, it will be just a matter of time before someone gets a photo of it, he said. It was a beautiful golden red color (like a red squirrel), about the size of a medium dog (maybe 40lbs?) Responding to complaints about a predator eating a local farmers sheep, Crowell and a small group of fellow hunters had tracked the big cat through the snow. I told family and close friends as I was very excited about it .I have hunted deer my whole life and had seen bobcats and lynx but there was no mistaken this catamount! See more at:Here, Phone & Fax: Get up to speed on the news Vermont is talking about, delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. About 70 feet from the table, appeared to be a very large cat standing . Vermonts last known cougar, also known as a mountain lion or catamount, was killed in 1881 in Barnard. Occasionally 3 times a year, I send out news-letters telling of latest reportsby concerned persons collecting such data.. Its on the property that we own over there. Get started. my friend has agreat hunting camp in sandgate vt. he just sent me a photo from a trailcam on his property,and without a doubt he got a picture of a mountain lion I dont know how to transfer photos to here,but I can do it to an e-mail. So this is the best we could do for a photo. I doubt it but it could be a mountain lion. The Mountain Times is, and has always been, a family-owned independent newspaper located on Route 4. It has, in fact, more names than any animal in the world. After 20 minutes or so, we turned and stumbled our way back to the parking lot. These highlights have been edited and condensed for length and clarity. I did not run but walked briskly away looking back cat was following me and it did so untill i was half way to the house. Our county announced that they do not think they will be able to retain our county trapper due to our serious budget crisis. The worker was in his truck when the cats crossed the road in front of the dog-walker, Snow said. 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. Proctor to vote on what constitutes a public nu Hartland board appoints acting town manager, First spring flowers are in bloom in Rutland, Rutland Area Robotics receive 2016 challenge, EPA honors Efficiency Vermont as 2023 Energy Star Partner of the Year, We must have courage to address gun problem, Confused about Affordable Heat Bill? Hear the full interview: Megafauna mania: our obsession with mountain lions and other large predators, Connecticut Dept. I swear that is what I saw this morning at about 4 am in my drive. I could hear the steady rush of traffic on Route 315. Bobcat tails, though prominent when they walk, are only about six or seven inches long. The Vermont Department of Fish & Wildlife accepts reports of potential big cats using an online form here. The mountain lion is also known as cougar, panther, or puma. Those are the two closest populations that we have here. Mountain Lions Are Back in Vermont! In Vermont, the last known mountain lion was shot near Barnard in 1881, ending an era when the predators were such a nuisance that the state offered a $20 bounty per pelt. Put bluntly, Morse does not believe that New England is home to cougars. 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? Dashboard for displaying mountain lion reports to the public. 1 talking about this. Box, city, zip-code, so a copy can be sent in early April. We live pretty much in the midst of the Green Mountains in the town of Andover. There are also many unconfirmed sightings. I have learned one thing in my career, and thats to never say never, she said. It crossed the road and went into the woods. Its OK, he told me. And so we come to the great divide over cougars in New England. And somebody hollering. This assessment is echoed by the aforementioned Christopher Spatz, who has been studying cougars for better than 20 years. I'll tell you that.. CHESTER Susan Morse, nationally known wildlife ecologist and tracker, will present Coming Soon: The Cougar Returns to the East, on Wednesday, Jan. 20, at 7 p.m. at the News Bank Conference Center in Chester. 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. 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). 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.. Anyway, we are always aware that there could be mountain lions around and on this day I saw a huge beautiful mountain lion. I dont care if it was the western or eastern blah blah I just know that it was a mountain lion!!! The Network's interactive map also shows confirmed sightings in Quebec, Maine, Connecticut and New York State. TPWD Confirmed Mountain Lions. I hunt all over the country for big bucks. Massachusetts and several other New England states have bear hunting, or harvest, seasons, which proponents say help control populations. 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. I think the only reason the lion did not attack was because of the dogs. In 2011, a cougar was hit by a car and killed on a Connecticut highway. There is no question about it: cougars are not only being seen in eastern North America, some are attempting to recolonize their former habitats. Also the hotel keeper at top of Mt. Its tail was gigantic and it was swishing it back and forth. The Twitter user tweeted in surprise that they learned a bobcat and mountain lion are the same creature, which prompted several follow-up clarifications that the animals are, in fact, different . If you search vally news archives I believe its there-its clearly not a dog. [4] However, the 1946 taxonomy is now in question. ), 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 started this blog for people to discuss mountain lion sightings and reports in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. I have seen a bobcat as I had one that hung around one of the places I lived-I believe he may have been hurt because he hung around for about a month which is uncharacteristic of them if I remember correctly, and I also believe he same one was hit by Harpoon Brewery in Windsor and boy do they clean up wild cats fast. 2 Last 5 Years. PO Box 183 (Postal address) She favors plaid shirts, green Dickies work pants, and hiking boots, and she chided me for shaking her hand too gently. It had rained previously. Photo courtesy National Wildlife Federation. It was a few miles south of the Hanover exit. The cougar was so close I could smell it. Mountain Lions: cougars, pumas, panthers and catamounts. There, too, is Crowells photograph, grainy and old: the hunter leaning against a tree stump, his head propped casually on his left hand, elbow to stump, shotgun cradled in the crook of his right arm. I thought it was a deer and slowed in case it ran in front of me. In Vermont, it was 1881. In June 1991 and again in July 1993, my wife Linda and I, visited Prof. Harold & wife Martene at their Maine Cottage overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, where we had serious discussions on the WILD, NATIVE, FREE-ROAMING cougars-mountain lions and their ancestors who have inhabited the eastern U.S. for over the last 500 years. It wailed just one time but it woke me from a sound sleep. For mountain lions in Connecticut, a lack of evidence is very good evidence. Fish and Wildlife Service declared the eastern mountain lion extinct in 2011, sparking many calls to the Vermont Fish and Wildlife office about potential sightings. But its also a great story that lays out how an animal this large, at 150 pounds, traveling through even rural areas, leaves signs and is detected. People often get very emotional about it, Hawley says. Skip to content. 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. Required fields are marked *. Like Tate, he gets a lot of photos and . While on vacation last summer in the Sequoias we had a lion cross the road in front of us at about 11 at night one night. Whats happening in Waterbury? Morse introduced me to her cat, Allister, whom she referred to as her portable puma. Then she fetched me a beer. Though not native to Vermont, Canada lynx occasionally make their way down into Vermont. Fax: (802) 422-2395, Mailing address While the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks department hesitates to give solid numbers because they feel methods for tracking the population need to be improved, their estimate in 2019 was about 4,000 - 4,500 mountain lions. I am quite sure that I saw a mountain lion (a juvenile) yesterday afternoon north of the Dummerston Covered bridge along the West River. Because they are.. We watched it for nearly 10mins trying to figure out what it was (not thinking for a second that it could possibly be a mountain lion). Fish and Wildlife Service in 2011. Its not my call. Mountain Lions Not Just a Tall Tale in Adirondacks. Where once it was flatly dismissed as impossible in the so-called developed East, scientists have now documented cougar dispersals and reoccupation of a growing list of eastern states and provinces. Very Very fast. It may not surprise you to learn that I was quite intrigued by this third group. 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). [2] [3] The subspecies as described in 1946 was declared extinct by the U.S. The dogs did a 180 a pulled me away. In Massachusetts, three sightings between 1997 and 2016 have been confirmed by scat, DNA, or tracks, according to the Cougar Network, a nonprofit that studies the habitat and movements of the big cats. If you have a cell phone telephone number I can send photos to, I will send you photos of the prints in the snow around my porchside door. Mountain Lions Living Mountain Lion Sightings in Vermont in Vermont? He waves me over and shows me an animal lying in our driveway. Hawley: I feel strongly that we need a harvest here in Connecticut. And thats a surprisingly complex question, because it hinges on numerous factors: policy and politics, culture and conditioning, habitat and, frankly, hubris. 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. All of which is to say that if Alexander Crowell wasnt afraid on that long-ago Thanksgiving Day, he probably should have been. I encourage everyone who has seen a mountain lion or heard of a report to please leave a post here. 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. To find your loons, consult this interactive map of Common Loon sightings in the current year from Vermont eBird, a project of the Vermont Atlas of Life. Was getting ready to let the dog out but I thought it was a big dog that was loose. Indeed, in 2011, a male cougar was hit and killed by a car in Milford, Connecticut; through its DNA, wildlife biologists were able to trace the cat back to South Dakotas Black Hills, some 2,000 miles distant. Amazing sight. "Several sightings have occurred at the site of a known animal crossing in the park." Besides reviewing the sighting reports, Linzey seeks other evidence of mountain lions. 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. By C.L. dr bondra fremont, ohio obituary; is francis leo marcos related to ferdinand marcos Wile traveling north up 91 on Oct. 4 2015 with my family at about 3:30 pm We saw a dead mountain lion laying on the left hand side of the north bound side of the road. It stared at him for a few seconds and then took some steps towards him, eventually turning the other way and sliding into the undergrowth. Its documented through track surveys, aerial surveys, trapping and collaring surveys. Mountain lions are not likely to pass through Vermont, according to Fish & Wildlife biologist Chris Bernier. Mountain lion tails, however, are about three feet long, usually the length of the cats body. We watched it kill an animal (a woodchuck or something). Glad to hear that they're not gone. I could shoot my self in the rear for not taking a cast or picture. Monday Friday: 10 a.m. 3 p.m. Thank you for reading. In 2011, genetic testing confirmed that a mountain lion originated in South Dakota and traveled more than 1,500 miles before being struck by a car on the Merritt Parkway, according to Reuters. Finally, officially, certainly dead like Tate, he gets a lot of photos and documented track. 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