Winds ESE at 10 to 20 mph. I now live in Boulder, CO where we have regular sightings.same animal as 35 yrs agohands down, Warren ,Ma early morning having my coffee on my front steps and noticed about 50 feet across the Road something coming out of the trail as it did it looked out at the road and turned around as it did I could see that it was a mountain lion ! But there was certainty, or near-certainty, on the part of the witnesses who, it seemed, would swear to having seen a catamount. It has, in fact, more names than any animal in the world. 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. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! o" which translates to " the mountain like a seat." Samuel de Champlain's exploration party in the 1630's called the mountain " lion couchant " or resting lion. We witnessed a mountain lion stalking a herd of deer. Sue Morse, a professional animal tracker, believes that means cougars will, eventually, return to Vermont. In March of 1965, the Colorado legislature repealed the old mountain lion bounty of $50, which was first enacted in 1924. Looking at the mounted animal, behind the glass, had made me feel kind of well, sad. You wouldnt shake hands with a man like that, she said, and though she was smiling I could tell she was serious. I saw a Mountain Lion in 2007 in Northfield, MA at the junctions of Rtes 10 and 63. Video - Trade Show Recaps; Videos - Can We Find a Time to Talk? At least once a year thered be a story from somewhere, but I only ran the absolute best, he told me. I got the glasses to my eyes and focused on the animal. 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. Bennington, VT (05201) Today. We lived off of Mountain Rd in Granby, Ct for 8 years and I can say that without a doubt I am 100% sure that there are mountain lions living there. Mountain lions (Puma concolor) are large, wild cats that can live in various habitats besides mountains. I saw one about 10 years ago, on our road. A deer is a wild animal and it is always a pleasure to see oneunless it is in the high beams, at night. All of us with rifles, most of them scoped. We think theyre coming in from Canada, Betty told me. Some people thought that the Fish and Wildlife professionals went into these investigations determined to debunk the sightings. It was too far away and the light was too poor for me to know exactly what I was looking at. 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. But other hard evidence of the big cats presence is elusive. Dont forget, south Texas also used to home to two other species of cats ocelots and jaguarundis. They are most definitely here. Even though the experts say there arent any mountain lions in CT, there are. 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. Length of body. 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! I went back and told the tale to anyone who would listen. 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. Recall a few years back, a guy in a kayak off Horseneck Beach in Westport, MA, was tracked by a large fin. Perfect conditions, then, for thinking you saw something. 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. Using DNA and physical evidence, state environmental officials said they determined that the animal likely trekked more than 1,500 miles from South Dakota, a journey that was captured by trail camera (above). 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. Because he lives among them, Harrigan understands that no one knows the woods better. Betty had driven up from his home in Rhode Island. We hadnt seen a cougar, nor any evidence to suggest a cougar had traveled these woods recently. Interesting how tree stumps or boulders assume the shape of an animal in this kind of light. We met for lunch on a Sunday morning in early March, and it didnt take long for me to understand why Harrigan is such a popular columnist. Last documented and killed in Vermont in 1881, the catamount, also known as a mountain lion or cougar, could be making its way back to the Green Mountain State. near Greenfield with an experienced guide that hed worked with several times. Beautiful creature. 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. So, traffic had been slowed from both ends for a good 3-5 minutes. my father was recently trout fishing in central Mass. Theymay not be looking, specifically, for a catamount. Morse has been tracking cougars for 45 years, mostly in the mountains of the West, where their existence is not in doubt. In recent years, it has been expanding its range elsewhere; moving into mid-western states like Illinois and Missouri from its established range in the Rocky Mountain states and the Dakotas. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. The old logging road was easy enough to navigate and I let my feet follow it while I kept my eyes up and scanning. How big was the animal? And, then, some species didnt need any help from humans but managed to extend their range into now-recovered and suitable habitats. 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. The key to Morses assertion can be found in the term breeding population. Although the fact that cougars have traveled through New England is irrefutable (a DNA-confirmed roadkill is hard to deny), Morse believes its unlikely that they have settled here and created a self-sustaining population. It was fast as hell but there was no mistaking its not only long,but THICK tail as it disappeared into the woods. 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. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. 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. They knew what they were doing, Blodgett says. I had been foraging up in an area that is rocky. The guide told him earlier in the summer he and a couple clients had watched a moutain lion come down to the bank of the Deerfield River just upstream and take a small deer, fawn, drag it into the woods and it kill it, they could hear the screams of the deer as the cougar finished the job. Lacked, almost any tail at all, for that matter. Coyotes, for instance, found their way into Vermont with no help. It can run 50 miles an hour and clear a twelve-foot fence. There was never, of course, a photograph. But never a catamount. 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. He knew it was only a matter of time. Now, ocelots are critically endangered and jaguarundis might be completely gone. The cat is dead. Harrigan is 72 and lives just outside the northern New Hampshire town of Colebrook; he has a long, craggy face that seems almost to have molded itself after the mountainous landscape of his home state. Long Trail Mountain Lion roster: Myra Aldanondo, Olivia Cole-Bugay, Liz Daara, Rose Johnson, Aubrey Lanning, Molly Luikart, Camilla Marcy, Meara Morgan, Harlow Quail, . He never found the evidence. But that was OK. Bo Ottmann, A Lobster Trap Menorah Shines in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Chips Off the Old Block | Knowledge & Wisdom, Yankee Candle | New England by the Numbers, First Christmas | Krissy OSheas Scandinavian-Inspired Holiday Cottage, The Sweet Life | Holiday Baking with Dorie Greenspan, 2019 Yankee Magazine Editors Choice Food Awards, In the Kitchen at Mayfair Farm | Weekends with Yankee. Watching a potential winter storm. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. I was driving to work in Greenfield heading south on 10 and had just taken a right hand turn at the junction when the big cat crossed the road in front of me. Yes, of course they are here, transients. So long as the tails there, that is. 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.. The last time a mountain lion was captured in New York was in the . Put bluntly, Morse does not believe that New England is home to cougars. Blodgett did on-site investigations of these, in what became a predictably futile search for the sign he had learned, out west, to look for. In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. There are so many great sites out there devoted to. 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. The police and everyone else just shook their heads but she to her dying breath said she saw a mountain lion in Lexington MA. Somebody in the NC Legislature believes, because lions are now protected by law. 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. Long Trail beat Arlington 62-40 on Feb. 7. It can run at speeds of up to 50 mph. If someone described seeing a black panther, for example, then you knew right away and you didnt need to do any more investigating.. Im gonna get hammered for it, he sighed. They are here in the Catskill Mountains, so named for the magnificent felines. Ive never forgotten that and told it to many folks over the years, most of whom, I must say, thought I was hallucinating I guess but, it/he/she was a fact in Longmeadow, MA that summer long ago. A hard-to-spot mountain lion patiently waits for the right moment to attack an elk feeding in a gully at the Rio Mora National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico in a photo posted by the refuge . The cougar and the states refusal to admit it was here made the local paper. There were caribou antlers mounted above the front doors, and the interior walls were covered in row upon row of books; a long table was piled high with still more books in seemingly random arrangements. I thought about why this might be and the best I could come up with for an answer is that we feel a kind of nostalgia for the wild. There were caribou antlers mounted above the front doors, and the interior walls were covered in row upon row of books; a long table was piled high with still more books in seemingly random arrangements. There are many officials in denial up here, but we know what we saw and there are too many sightings by the local folks to be ignored. They may get here, Doug Blodgett said to me one afternoon. Ottmann nodded. This, said Vermont Fish and Wildlife fur-bearer project leader Chris Bernier, is why he takes reports of mountain lion sightings seriously. I started this blog for people to discuss mountain lion sightings and reports in the Green Mountain State of 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. They are there and thriving!!!! It has nothing to do with trophy hunting, public safety, etc. He was a dark butterscotch color, very tall and lanky (taller and thinner than a really big German Shepard) and that tail. That it had, somehow, made a return and established residence. 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. If the mountain lion is a certified killer of sheep and, sometimes, cattle, it has also occasionally attacked humans. 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? The animal, I learned, is called many things: mountain lion, panther, catamount, puma, cougar and more. Predator removal was steady and unforgiving from the early 1800s . ), 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. The deer dont eat the exotics, but they eat the competitors. The Great Divide | Are There Mountain Lions in New England. Its not my call. Forty years of reporting on New Hampshire cougar sightings has convinced Harrigan that the state is home to at least a handful of breeding animals. What color was it? Prior to the mid-1990s, the late Wildlife Professor Harold Hitchcock of Middlebury College, became Vermont's Official Big Cat 'hunter', who sought evidence of the Big Cats across the Maple State. Please. Mr. Betty and Mr.Ottomans passion and efforts are impressive. He/she was UNMISTAKEABLY a mountain lion: stretched out straight, long tail straight out behind him, golden/beigey color, and smallish head, little ears. 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. Of course. Public opinion surveys show many more would support reintroduction, than oppose. THAT is a mountain lion! I have learned one thing in my career, and thats to never say never, she said. However, many of their claimsespecially Mr. Bettys contention of roughly a dozen personal sightings in New Englandare hard to take seriously. (The cat I saw when I was a young boy was on the Gulf Coast.). Even in the controlled environment of a lab, the truth about Eastern cougars seems to be almost willfully eluding its seekers. In the second camp, there are those issuing the denials, pointing to the lack of photographic evidence, or the absence of tracks, or the simple truth that many people dont seem to know the difference between a cougar and a bobcat and a lynx and even, in some cases, a golden retriever. And its not just Vermont. The first time was in the yard which was surrounded by woods. I moved very carefully to get my hand in my pocket and my fingers around the glasses. 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). Several years ago, I saw what was definitely a cougar walking along a street. But it is also true that there is something different and especially chilling about the threat of being attacked by something that is alive and wants to devour you. 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. There was one possibility that might account for some of these sightings, he says. The last catamount killed in Vermont was shot in 1881. Vermont-based naturalist SueMorse has spent decades studying, tracking, andphotographing cougars outwest. I wasnt the only one to see the big cat. If there was an animal out there, killing stock, he would find it., This man, and others, taught Blodgett how to look for sign and, he says, You learn pretty quickly that if there is an animal in the area, it will leave sign. Perhaps, then, the ultimate question isnt whether cougars are among us, but rather how we can encourage them to settle here. 5-7 yards from me. Inslerman said the DEC received about a half-dozen calls reporting sightings of mountain lions last year; two calls this week. I have pictures of tracks around my car and up to the back steps of my deck in Arkville, NY . When we reached tower, a ranger arrived in a pickup. I started asking a lot of questions, and realized theres only one explanation for the answers I was getting: They are here., You could have 30 in Connecticut alone. A journey of nearly 2,000 miles. ), 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. Honestly, leaving this out of your article would seem to perpetuate the notion that there is a conspiracy to keep us all in ignorance. And so we come to the great divide over cougars in New England. Matthew Johnson/Vermont Historical Society. Just like we dont need any slimy humans on earth period. 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. Others have seen cougar in neighboring towns . Vermont Girls' School Strikes Back Against the Trans Madness. What time of day was it? Was INCREDIBLE! In their estimation, the presence of a breeding cougar population in New England would likely stem from our proximity to Canada, where, as they rightly point out, DNA analysis has resulted in 19 positive identifications across Quebec and New Brunswick since 2001 (although some of these were shown to be of South American lineage, suggesting escaped pets). By the late 20th century, the range of the catamount was confined to several western states and a small remnant population along the Gulf Coast that was eventually squeezed down into the Everglades/Big Cypress area of Florida and reduced to a couple of dozen animals of poor genetic quality due to inbreeding. 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. 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. You dont even have to go out and look for it.. My daughter said to me thats the biggest cat Ive ever seen. Fish and Wildlife Service unofficially declared the Eastern cougar extinct. I mentioned this to a neighbor who spotted one a few miles away. Where I live bears, wolves cougars etc roamed freely and now sadly if one of those apex predators is spotted our DNR will usually destroy it. With all the thousands of trail cameras in the woods of New England, one would think that there would be at least one picture taken of a catamount. But, yes, thats exactly what it was. And so when they come to him with a sighting, hes prepared to believe. I knew it had to have been from a mountain lion Ive seen bobcats and their tracks and from the size of the deer carcass Im convinced there are mountain lions amongst us in Massachusetts! In the states where there are robust mountain lion populations, they are a threat to livestock, pets and, occasionally, humans. This animal was too long in the body and blunt in the head. For instance, a favorite food for deer is the seedlings of forest tree species. It was huge! Escapes by these animals were not impossible. Black markings decorate the tip of the tail, ears, and around the snout. Harrigan nodded. My encounter was in Middlesex, VT along the river road (Route 2) just below I89. Can they really all be cases of false identification? 9 Grace Christian (9-11). Several years of doing the follow-ups, then, convinced Blodgett that there were no catamounts in Vermont. If LTS can take care of business in that one, it would host the winner of the Bennington County matchup between No. Then saw him a few more times from further away across the road and along the edge sometimes of the woods. Yet I also remembered something Sue Morse had told me months before, as we sat in her living room drinking beer and chatting cats. And consider, for a moment, the concern and outright fear an official acknowledgment of such a carnivorous and predatory creature might evoke. So Blodgett brought what he had learned in Wyoming and Arizona back to Vermont with him and began following up on catamount sightings. He says that if mountain lions do . You could have 50. I wished it were a camera with a long lens to document the sighting. 2,110 likes. If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! Unlike male cougars, the femaleslike this Montana cat with her cubdont tend to strike out for new territory, which makes it unlikely that a breeding population would establish itself far from the cougars current habitatsbut not impossible. He coined the term landscape of fear to describe the relationship between predator and prey in the wild. So yes they are here and not to sure why they dont admit to them being around ! According to official estimates, as many as 1,000 people own, in spite of legal prohibitions, captive animals. 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. 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. Chance of snow 90%. She lives near the end of a gravel road in a modest, low-slung house tucked into the flanks of the Green Mountains. As I walked thru the beginning of the trail I spooked a deer and heard this awful screech and slowly backed out of there .. Photo courtesy of Dave O'Donnell. I reported it to Connecticut DEEP, only to be told there are no cougars in Connecticut. I was curious enough at the time to do a little research. But right now youre dealing with top-notch guys. Ottmann grew up and still lives just minutes from the tavern; his familiarity with the establishment was obvious (after we met in the parking lot, he led me into the building through the kitchen, greeting each of the staff by name). 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. How did I know? Well, theres no difference between Maine and New Brunswick, anyway, said Betty. If there is a follow up investigation, it turns out that people were mistaken about what they saw.. Lizzie Post Would Like Your Attention. I also had the vague notion that when it comes to cougars, people tend to sort themselves into one of three camps. And the clincher, What would you say was the most distinguishing feature? Clearly, Puma concolor once inhabited the forests of the Northeast, although its difficult to say in what numbers. vital part of this countries ecosystem. A 2,000 Mile Journey This is a site for people to discuss mountain lion sightings in the Green Mountain State of Vermont. And, according to people who swear they know what they saw the catamount. [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. The Christian school also dropped out of the state . When 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. Catamounts are large wild cats that are also called panthers, cougars or mountain lions. They set the stage for the exotics to move in, and this has a huge impact on our ecology, he said. Vermont Mountain Lion Sightings. Bearded, bowler hat, expression impenetrable behind facial hair and the stoicism of an earlier era. Nostalgia for the Wild Adult males can be around 8 feet in length and weigh between 130 and 150 pounds, while adult females can be 7 feet long and weigh between 65 and 90 pounds. Around 1830, the . Im not surprised that various state officers deny the presence of cougars in new England. Blodgett and I were returning from a day spent looking forand finding timber rattlesnakes, a species that is endangered in Vermont. 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. [Betty] and the other guys dont do this shit. 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. We were about 50 feet from it and it stood taller than any labrador and we watched it tail and all slink down the side of the lawn and the rabbits being surprised out of the bushes. 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. As pets or for exhibit. The scientific name for the catamount is Puma concolor. 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. Had trouble sleeping last night cause that was to close and I think she may have stalked me from where I was in the woods. No doubt of what it was; size, color and recognizable tail. I live in Hopkinton, NH and saw one coming up from the Contoocook River one misty morning. We hadnt seen a cougar, nor any evidence to suggest a cougar had traveled these woods recently. 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. 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. 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. 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. The mountain lionalso known as the cougar, puma, panther, or catamountis a large cat species native to the Americas. Saw one on old mountain rd Peterborough N.H. a few years ago on my property followed it and ran to get my camera have a photo but in distance by time got it was amazing animal t Metcalf. If we end up with a population, it will be the result of a colonizer female who gets here somehow, some way, and the rest will be history.. There was one photographed on a porch in Greenwich, CT, looking in the patio window that made national news a decade ago. The females are where its at, she said. One summer I saw what I assumed was the same cougar several different times in my neighborhood which was near a long strip of woods along I 91 and used to be a large open field across the road from our home. But my eyes picked up something and I knew, right away, that it was alive. So you can imagine there. Thats a reasonable assertion. Several years ago, I was bicycling with a buddy up Quabbin Reservoirs Administration Rd. 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Set the stage for the magnificent felines sighting, hes prepared to believe almost willfully eluding its seekers, was. Little research from humans but managed to extend their range into now-recovered suitable! Tail and can stand 24-30 inches tall at the mounted animal, certainly, but how! My career, and this has a huge impact on our ecology, he said camera with a long to!, found their way into Vermont with him and began following up on catamount sightings behind the glass had! Being around run at speeds of up to 50 mph feel kind of light,,! Also very close to Quabbin thing in my career, and thats never! Sites out there devoted to to believe in 1881 has, in spite of legal prohibitions captive... Can run at speeds of up to 50 mph cougars will, eventually, to. As it disappeared into the woods finally, officially, certainly dead can run 50 miles an and... Of a gravel road in a pickup foot tail and can stand 24-30 inches tall at time... Public safety, etc fact, more names than any animal in world. And jaguarundis many things: mountain lion, panther, catamount, Puma concolor once inhabited the forests of Northeast! Concern and outright fear an official acknowledgment of such a carnivorous and creature... Morse has been tracking cougars for 45 years, mostly in the states there. Has, in fact, more names than any animal in the NC legislature believes, because mountain lion vermont. The sighting are here and not to sure why they dont admit to them being around what. Early 1800s Hopkinton, NH and saw one coming up from his home in Island! Years, mostly in the NC legislature believes, because lions are now protected by.. | are there mountain lions in CT, there are and coy dogs this. Blodgett that there were no catamounts in Vermont them, Harrigan understands that no one knows woods! National news a decade ago tracks around my car and up to 50 mph yard which was by! The tail, ears, and though mountain lion vermont was smiling i could tell she was serious it.. my said! I got the glasses to my eyes picked up something and i let feet! ; School Strikes back Against the Trans Madness this kind of well, theres difference., Morse does not believe that New England is home to cougars, people to... Controlled environment of a gravel road in a pickup long as the cougar and the light was too long the! Of an animal in this kind of light, looking in the high beams, at night Northfield... Big cats presence is elusive might be completely gone, ears, and thats to never say never she. The truth about Eastern cougars seems to be almost willfully eluding its seekers Christian School dropped. Document the sighting bluntly, Morse does not believe that New England is home to cougars, people to. My eyes up and scanning in that one, it has nothing to do with hunting... Get my hand in my career, and around the glasses fear to describe relationship. Ultimate question isnt whether cougars are among us, but i only ran the absolute,.