The scientific name for the catamount is Puma concolor. Green Mountain Lion Corporation, Inc. Business Consulting and Services Williston, Vermont 5,563 followers Boutique management recruiting firm focusing on heavy equipment manufacturing & distribution. In the United States the animal could, at one time, be found in all the states but with civilization, came a decline, the Vermont experience being more or less typical. A far less likelyenvironment for finding a mountain lion than just about anywhere in Vermont. Bernier gets more than 50 reports of mountain lions a year. Camel's Hump (alternatively Camels Hump) is a mountain in the Green Mountains in the U.S. state of Vermont.The north slope of the mountain borders the Winooski River, which has carved through the Green Mountains over eons.At 4,083 ft (1,244 m), it is tied (with Mount Ellen) for the third-highest mountain in Vermont.Surrounded by 10 acres (4 ha) of alpine tundra, the mountain is the most . Mid Vermont Christian School Eagles forfeited their girls basketball playoff game on Tuesday against Long Trail School Mountain Lions. . Long Trail beat Arlington 62-40 on Feb. 7. Wildlife is unpredictable (and several people go missing in wild areas, parks especially, every year -Probably not because of alien abduction). Im gonna get hammered for it, he sighed. It is healthy to have respect and caution, but fear shouldnt drive ecological decision making. The discussion of whether federal lands should be a place to subsidize cattle ranching is another question. 9 Grace Christian (9-11). But right now youre dealing with top-notch guys. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding woods. Friends that go backcountry skiing in Vermont have reported seeing tracks to me many times and I have seen pictures of the pawprints myself that look overwheming like a mountain lion. There was one photographed on a porch in Greenwich, CT, looking in the patio window that made national news a decade ago. Id splurged on them. Newspaperman John Harrigan has long covered the New England outdoors, including writing the New Hampshire Sunday News column Woods, Water & Wildlife which ran for almost 40 years. Feb 28, 2023 4:00 am By Robert Spencer 1 Comment. All of us with rifles, most of them scoped. 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. And, more often than not, when I told it, the person listening would nod and tell me about someone who had definitely seen a mountain lion/catamount in the Vermont woods or crossing a highway or, even, in the back yard. A 140-pound male mountain lion was hit by a car and killed in 2011 in Milford, Connecticut. Put bluntly, Morse does not believe that New England is home to cougars. If LTS can take care of business in that one, it would host the winner of the Bennington County matchup between No. Middlebury, Vermont | Could You Live Here? I have heard several accounts from sober, sane, intelligent people who have seen them (especially a latre, good friend who was a very competent spokesman and hunter.). There was no mistake. The one thing that jumped out at her the tail. It kills to eat but does not necessarily practice any sort of conservation ethic. Big kitty. Stratton Magazine Celebrating Manchester and the Mountains. If the mountain lion is a certified killer of sheep and, sometimes, cattle, it has also occasionally attacked humans. Geoffrey Norman is a Dorset author and a frequent contributor to Stratton Magazine. Now that USFW has declared them extinct, why not formally reintroduce them. We need [an apex] predator back on the land, Sue Morse told me. Harrigan nodded. The tail, I said. My encounter was in Middlesex, VT along the river road (Route 2) just below I89. Its not a bear, not a dog, not a deer, not a bobcat. Height. I was aware, too, of how a certain mythology surrounding the animal had taken root in Vermonts culture and even its identity: The University of Vermonts athletic teams, for instance, are known as the Vermont Catamounts, and their logo features a snarling cat lunging through the cleft of a V.. Then, a mountain lion was run over by an SUV on the outskirts of New Haven, Connecticut. She favors plaid shirts, green Dickies work pants, and hiking boots, and she chided me for shaking her hand too gently. 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. 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. Until 2011, that question rested upon a hypothetical. Green Mountain Lion Corp. Home; Apply Now! Blodgett and I were returning from a day spent looking forand finding timber rattlesnakes, a species that is endangered in Vermont. Well, I KNOW there was at least one mountain lion in NE because years ago (maybe 35 or so) I lived in Longmeadow, MA. This assessment is echoed by the aforementioned Christopher Spatz, who has been studying cougars for better than 20 years. One wonders just how tolerant Vermonters would be of a healthy population of mountain lions after one attacked a child waiting for the school bus. First about the animal, itself, and then about the lore and the possibility that the catamount was not, in fact, extinct in Vermont. But, I think with education and planning, we should reintroduce wolves and cougar in the Northeast. But there was certainty, or near-certainty, on the part of the witnesses who, it seemed, would swear to having seen a catamount. A journey of nearly 2,000 miles. When I came out, the cat appeared in front of me coming up a rise (incredibly close to some ski condos). 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. But never a catamount. Jason. Theyre here. Others have seen cougar in neighboring towns . Its not my call. The animal was too small and it lacked the long, sinuous tail of the catamount. They were also seen at other times by members of my family and other people in the neighborhood. No need since so we guess it has moved on from the northeast corner of Connecticut. The second occasion was on the way to work when I saw the cougar/catamount crossing Route 44. 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. They denied it until a cougar was hit as it tried to cross the very busy Merritt Parkway. At least once a year thered be a story from somewhere, but I only ran the absolute best, he told me. Among the mountain lions typical behaviors is the way it will revisit, for several days, the carcass of an animal it has killed, moving it and cacheing it until there is nothing left to eat or the flesh has turned. We really must establish first that these beautiful animals SHOULD be in every state that was once THEIR habitat. (The cat I saw when I was a young boy was on the Gulf Coast.). 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. It does NOT surprise me, you would have seen a wild, free-roaming, native 'eastern' cougar, aka puma, mountain lion in Vermont. And so we come to the great divide over cougars in New England. They were inevitably fleeting. I lived in great Barrington mass and I took photos of tracks in a field in April of 2009 (and of course lost them). Dismissing most of the sightings as probable bobcats, Morse asserted that the scientific evidence has not been proven. But, yes, thats exactly what it was. Some of them, he says, we could close the books on pretty quickly. Although the US Fish and Wildlife Service declared the . The deer dont eat the exotics, but they eat the competitors. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. 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. I do this shit.. I had seen bear, deer, coyotes, foxes, that one bobcat all the usual suspects. Vermont offers plenty of habitat in which mountain lions could thrive. Concerned for people / pets and a school just down the street, stopped to report the sighting where dispatch told me that if I did not have proof they would not respond. Those who believe the growth and expansion of mountain lion populations to be a good thing routinely make the old, you face a greater danger of being struck by lighting or drowned in the bathtub argument and it is no doubt accurate. vital part of this countries ecosystem. On one side, there are those (as represented here by Sue Morse, Kim Royar, and Christopher Spatz, along with a number of others I spoke with) who contend that the lack of verifiable evidence is proof that the animals are not here. And it was this curiosity that led me to the Old Well Tavern in Simsbury, Connecticut, at a time of day (11:30 a.m.) that does not normally find me ensconced in the dim confines of a drinking establishment. In my mind, I went through all the nots. Just like we dont need any slimy humans on earth period. THAT is a mountain lion! Stupid me grabbed my camera and a stick as to protect myself ( yes stupid idea as I could stop this thing from attacking me lol. As cleared lands became reforested, many species that had been squeezed into small regions where there was still habitat,or hunted to near extinction, could be replanted in their former range. I kept trying to make it be something else because I was shocked that I was, indeed, watching a mountain lion pass in front of me. I had a clear look, through the glasses at a bobcat. Probably are lions in western NC, too. All those deer hunters represent a kind of ad hoc search party. When I shared their story with the staff at the center where my sister lived, I expected surprise and interested. Reported mountain lion sightings are popping up all over Vermont and convinced onlookers say the proof is in the pictures. Low 24F. These things happen suddenly and they are over quickly. Thank you; Blog. There was, in California last year, a case of a mountain lion seriously injuring a six-year old who was walking a trail in Silicon Valley country. But that was OK. Bo Ottmann knew they were out there. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. So it is possible that, on occasion, someone would catch a glimpse of one of these animals. Face to face, maybe, with a sure enough catamount. 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. These were old growth woods and the canopy had kept the ground cover down, so I could see three or four hundred yards ahead of me but not clearly, because of the gloom. 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. With the price off its head, the lion gained new stature, and in July 1965 . My parents friend in Deposit, NY, posted a young catamount sitting on the front porch on Facebook. Anticipating, perhaps, a moment like this. 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. 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. His Tail was very long almost touching the ground and as thick as velvet rope. Mountain lions (Puma concolor) are large, wild cats that can live in various habitats besides mountains. The name " Camel's Rump " was assigned on a historical map made by Ira Allen in 1798. Was INCREDIBLE! To date, Keeping Track has helped conserve 40,000 acres in 12 states and inQuebec. There was no denying that the carcass, which was examined by experts, was that of a mountain lion. 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: It is possible that cougars of unknown origin may be breeding to a limited extent in Vermont. Beautiful animal. The females are where its at, she said. Besides, Ottmann had revealed that hed been charged by a bear in this same piece of woods, and I felt conflicted about diverting my gaze from the underbrush. We have a lot of them here in N CA. I had a pair of good binoculars in my coat pocket. But some sightings were more promising and some seemed exceedingly so. 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. You cant mistake the long tail. But no. And some people might decide to release them into the wild rather than keeping them in their possession. Wildlife biologists, as professional scientists, require a higher level of documentation and proof. The truth is, I was by this point dubious. When a cats around, its not hard to find evidence. Inslerman said the DEC received about a half-dozen calls reporting sightings of mountain lions last year; two calls this week. People could have been looking at a catamount that was not, in fact, a wild animal. I dont ever say to people, Thats not what you saw. I say, I hope you saw one, Spatz told me when I called him at his home in upstate New York. There are also many unconfirmed sightings. So the initial assumption was that the animal was one of those captives that had either escaped or been released by its owner. After 20 minutes or so, we turned and stumbled our way back to the parking lot. Betty folded his arms across his chest, where they rose and fell and rose again with his breathing. 3 talking about this. Thats a reasonable assertion. This much was certain: it was a wild mountain lion and it was in an area where one had not been seen for more than 100 years. In this case, there was the carcass of a deer, recently killed in the area where a couple had reported seeing what looked like a mountain lion on land they owned. Several years ago, I saw what was definitely a cougar walking along a street. The solitary animal seeks out new territory and eventually a new population will be established. 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. I live in New Milford and I saw one crossing the road in front of me when I stopped to get my mail from my mailbox. 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 Life of a Predator and The African Lion. Of mountain lions a year those deer hunters represent a kind of ad hoc search party as! 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