mountain lion in ct 2020mary calderon quintanilla
Bobcats: They are are the only wild cat found in the state and the most common in North America. 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. 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. Tim Abbott, the regional land conservation and greenprint director for the Housatonic Valley Association, says that during a lecture on mountain lions last winter at Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village, when the speaker asked if anyone had seen a mountain lion, half of the roughly 400 people in attendance raised their hands. Today, instead of focusing on cougar sightings in Eastern states, many cougar enthusiasts want to protect the animal from being hunted in the regions in which they are currently found. I started to get nervous so I was scanning the area low and high in the trees. 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. Photo of a mountain lion taken by a game camera. Bobcats typically have brown fur with a reddish tinge that is marked with black or brown spots or stripes, according to the National Zoo. . (My wife didnt get a look at the tail.) Ive attended talks with Sue Morse. Hawley: That animal was documented. Having retired from a career at General Dynamics, he devotes many of his waking hours to cougar research, a passion hes cultivated for nearly twodecades. A harvest is kind of twofold. The females are where its at, she said. Perhaps, then, the ultimate question isnt whether cougars are among us, but rather how we can encourage them to settle here. But that was OK. Bo Ottmann knew they were out there. TOLLAND A local woman reported Friday that she saw a mountain lion in the area of Sand Hill Road, . There was one photographed on a porch in Greenwich, CT, looking in the patio window that made national news a decade ago. The deer dont eat the exotics, but they eat the competitors. Hawley said that the typical range of cougars like mountain lions is from west of the South Dakota area. Then in June 2011, there were reports of a mountain lion in Greenwich and, for the first time, a photo. But right now youre dealing with top-notch guys. July 20, 2022. Bobcats: Though technically a type of lynx, they are distinct from other species of lynx such as the Canadian lynx. On November 22, about 20 miles north of Rowlett there was another . Adults are a uniform tan or tawny in color, with a white or cream-colored chin, undersides and inner legs. I heard from Neighbors that they have been sighting from the mass pike which runs along this area but also very close to Quabbin! 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). Patrick's reporting has appeared on NPR's Morning Edition, Here & Now, and All Things Considered. I was deer hunting with my father, it was in the fall about 7 years ago, in Barre Ma towards the Templeton Ma lines. What are the chances of wolves coming back to Vermont? 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). Mountain Lions: They are officially extinct. 90th Annual New Haven Register All-State Football First Team. Patrick's reporting has appeared on NPR's Morning Edition, Here & Now, and All Things Considered. Mountain Lion Historically, mountain lions (Puma concolor) occurred throughout South Dakota and were considered numerous in the Black Hills. 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.. Those are the two closest populations that we have here. 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. Regarding a breeding population that is the unknown. I just heard from a fellow college student of a siting in Greenfield last fall and two in Colrain this spring. Several years ago, I saw what was definitely a cougar walking along a street. I saw an adult cougar/catamount twice within a two week period. They denied it until a cougar was hit as it tried to cross the very busy Merritt Parkway. Ottmann and I walked farther. Distinguished by a boxy head, big paws and a VERY long tail. Didnt it? But the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said Sunday that bobcats are the only large wild cats found in the state. 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. To answer these and other questions about sightings of mountain lions, I turned to DEEPs Rego, who has investigated many purported cougar sightings over the past three decades. Wednesday, November 25th 2020. 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. The Mountain Lion Celebrates its 35th year protecting and preserving America's Lion! 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. Betty, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the process. We witnessed a mountain lion stalking a herd of deer. Police Chief. Working in the 1980s in southern California, where there are cougars, biologist Paul Beier said that 95 percent of cougar sightings they investigated turned out to be misidentifications. In some versions, state officials dont want to alarm people about the feline predators in their midst. Sign up for our newsletter to get our latest and greatest content delivered right to your inbox. This is the second mountain lion sighting in North Texas in less than a month. Cougars, Lynx, Bobcats, Wolves, Bears etc were and are a March 20, 2022; Bob Dylan is Staying Busy in Isolation May 5, 2020; An Argument Against Gen Eds February 18, 2013; Forgive or Forsake: When an Artist Messes Up April 6, 2018; Computer Science and ESPN: An Interview with Christine Chung February 18, 2015; The Emperor Has No Clothes: Trump and COVID-19 April 22, 2020 Got a question or comment? Well, I KNOW there was at least one mountain lion in NE because years ago (maybe 35 or so) I lived in Longmeadow, MA. 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. Hunt By Species: Mountain Lion | Montana FWP Hunt Species Guide: Mountain Lion Download the 2022 Mountain Lion Hunting Regulations Download now Current Quota Status for Mountain Lions Check Status Find Harvest information for Mountain Lions Harvest Reports Mountain Lion Identification Program Learn More > Automatic Notifications Not long after, what was believed to be the same mountain lion was struck and killed on Route 15 in Milford. You cant mistake the long tail. I have no choice but to take this seriously, he told me. The history of this theory in Connecticut and New England goes back long before our current era of fake news. Wright, however, didnt agree with his mentor and began writing publicly about mountain lions in the East. Length of body. Habitat. She was also the voice behind the weekly Connecticut Real Estate newsletter by CT Insider. 75-170 pounds. Males can reach up to two metres in length and weigh over 60 kilograms. 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. Zillow has 20 photos of this $299,000 3 beds, 2 baths, -- sqft single family home located at 2439 Adams Farm Ct, Snow Camp, NC 27349 built in 1999. Body coloration can range from tan to gray and cubs are usually covered with blackish brown spots. That maybe, just maybe, what my wife and others saw wasnt a bobcat that seemed bigger in the thrill of the moment, but a real, honest-to-goodness mountain lion, a long-lost ghost of the forest. And were one of the most densely populated states as far as humans. We need cougars and we need wolves back in the Northeast, because a landscape of fear is a well-balanced landscape.. MLF. But no. and with my friend Chris Christinat who lives in hartsville we saw one stalking a rabbit on her lawn about autumn of 2009. The restrictions/regulations surrounding management of an endangered species is incredibly cumbersome, and would be difficult to manage. I always hold out the possibility of a sighting to be genuine, but at the same time, over decades of experience, we know that the vast majority are misidentifications and a small number are actually hoaxes, he says. Here are some things to keep in mind if you come across or see a big cat like a mountain lion: Be mindful of . Hawley: I feel strongly that we need a harvest here in Connecticut. Join Us. Males (100 to 170 lbs.) They have a right to exist here and they contribute to healthier prey species. So theres fresh mud. We have plenty of suitable habitat, he says. The young typically remain with their mother for 2 years. Because he lives among them, Harrigan understands that no one knows the woods better. So its this gathering storm. my father was recently trout fishing in central Mass. Hawley: Wildlife biologists across the United States know where the current mountain lion range is. And, 18 months ago, a Cedar Rapids man bagged a mountain lion that was perched in a tree while deer hunting south of Marengo. 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. He has also reported for the Marketplace Morning Report. Growing up in northern Vermont, Id heard stories of sightings, though always a few steps removed from the tellersomebodys cousin had seen a cougar cross the road on their way home from deer camp up in Canaan (or was it Coventry? She served as the Senior Producer for 'The Colin McEnroe Show' for several years before stepping down in 2021 and returning to her previous career as a registered nurse. listeners, viewers, and readers like you who value fact-based journalism and trustworthy information. There was a tin of American Spirit tobacco on the table (Ottmanns), a laptop (Bettys), a notebook (mine), and a tumbler of Bacardi and Coke (Ottmanns again). 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. The expert opinion held up until a man was killed by a Great White not too far away. Still, there are those of us who know what weve seen. But further inspection revealed it was a very large coyote. The tail, I said. 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. 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. Yale New Haven Health Check; . 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. 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. 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. This assessment is echoed by the aforementioned Christopher Spatz, who has been studying cougars for better than 20 years. Hawley: I feel strongly that we need a harvest here in Connecticut. According to the Connecticut DEEP, the bobcat is the only wild cat found in Connecticut. Mountain lions inhabit the badlands and Missouri River breaks regions of North Dakota. Also known as cougars, panthers or pumas, mountain lions range in color from tan to grey, according to the U.S. Department of Agricultures Forest Service. You know, weve had so many home entries this year. 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. People often get very emotional about it, Hawley says. He was previously a reporter for the Danbury News-Times and the Ridgefield Press. A few years later, though, the scat was retested with DNA analysis and found to be canid, rather than feline, in origin. Photos of the cat did nothing to convince DEEP the cat was here. [An overabundance of deer] means our forests are getting older and older and not being replaced. He also points to the influx of invasive plant species in New England as evidence of an out-of-control deer population. However, when I asked the room of 200 or so people how many believe they had seen a mountain lion/cougar/puma/catamount, hands shot up all around the room about 25% of those present. The Damned Story: Eastern mountain lions, or pumas or cougars, were last officially seen in Connecticut near the end of the 19th century. Stay Connected Sign up. 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. They are here & ..just a matter of time with photo or kill on a highway/road. Mountain lions are carnivores (meat eaters) and prey mostly on deer. An Arkansas woman captured a big cat on her doorbell camera that she believes is a mountain lion or cougar. Weve done a lot of work over the years investigating sightings. Once at dusk driving in the Berkshires, he saw what he initially thought was a cat-like creature that was far bigger than a bobcat leap across the road. But, yes, thats exactly what it was. Clearly, Puma concolor once inhabited the forests of the Northeast, although its difficult to say in what numbers. If seen bobcats and moose and coyotes and coy dogs ! If you have a worldview in which the government is conspiring to do weird stuff, than thats what youre going to see, and all the evidence is going to point to exactly what you believe, he says. A lifelong Connecticut resident, Nicole has a degree in Communications from Fairfield University. 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. Posted: Nov 2, 2020 / 04:58 PM EST. They also have facial ruffs and ear tufts on the tips of their ears, as well as shorter tails. They are most definitely here. 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. If you dont think cougars are coming to the East, think again, she said, leaning forward for emphasis. 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. Its definitely a problem thats only going to get worse. 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. Hawley: That animal was documented. 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). 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). You know, weve had so many home entries this year. A self-defense connoisseur with a large social media presence has ignited a firestorm over his posting of a video showing a mountain lion getting shot in the head. N.H.'s Fish and Game 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. There are no mountain lions in Connecticut, so why do we keep seeing them? UConn women's basketball's Dorka Juhsz, Amari DeBerry play 'word sneak' at press conference, Fight breaks out after CT high school basketball game between Bassick, Wilbur Cross, Guide to Legal Cannabis Dispensaries in CT, The Best Bathroom Remodeling Companies in CT, recent mountain lion sightings in Connecticut have not been confirmed, 10 criminal cases to watch in Connecticut in 2023, Haar: Pepperidge Farm HQ to exit CT for NJ with 170 jobs, After 350 years, the name of a CT river could be changed. are larger and heavier than females (60 to 100 lbs.). 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., I met with Morse at her home in Jericho. Recall a few years back, a guy in a kayak off Horseneck Beach in Westport, MA, was tracked by a large fin. Part of this belief is rooted in his journalistic experience, which across the decades has cultivated his nose for sincerity. Because they are.. All of which is to say that if Alexander Crowell wasnt afraid on that long-ago Thanksgiving Day, he probably should have been. Theres also the lack of visual evidence, more glaring each passing year as so many hikers and hunters now carry phones with cameras. I saw a cougar in Wolfeboro NH crossing / running across 28 ; close call between myself and a car traveling in the opposite direction over 12 years ago . #3. A 140-pound male mountain lion was hit by a car and killed in 2011 in Milford, Connecticut. People clearly arent lying when they say they saw a cougar; [the sighting] has a profound effect on them.. The 1881 death of this catamount officially marked the end of cougars in Vermont; however, the very last Eastern cougar is thought to be an animal that was killed in Somerset County, Maine, in 1938. Officially, there are no mountain lions in New England, although there is a good possibility the big cats could be here, Tate said. The range of a Mountain Lion may cover 25 to 785 square miles. Please. While other states have their Bigfoot and sea monster sightings, in Connecticut, and throughout much of the Northeast, we see mountain lions even when were told such sightings are unlikely, if not outright impossible. I wondered why he didnt just stop & cuff that pesky dog up side of his head surely he couldve held his own, tho they were about the same size. Bobcats are most frequently misidentified by the public as mountain lions, but theyre not the only animals mislabeled. When a cats around, its not hard to find evidence. Not really, Rego says. Based on this blurry photo and pawprints, confirmed it was likely a mountain lion. And there are different schools of thought about that. Manchester, CT 06045 Phone: 800-237-3606 Email: service@journalinquirer.com. Abbott, of the Housatonic Valley Association, is equally skeptical of the vast majority of mountain lion sightings. These sightings are so persistent that there is a conspiracy theory that says DEEP officials know mountain lions are in the state but cover up their existence. Yet I also remembered something Sue Morse had told me months before, as we sat in her living room drinking beer and chatting cats. About two years ago in July 2020, there were around 1,500 reports of bobcat sightings in the state, with some bobcat sightings in Brookfield and Ridgefield that year. Hawley: Yeah. Two were confirmed in Logan County (2014 and 2015), and one . She served as the Senior Producer for 'The Colin McEnroe Show' for several years before stepping down in 2021 and returning to her previous career as a registered nurse. 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. 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. 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. When you look at a state like Connecticut, with all the people we have here, all the trail cameras we have in the woods, all the cars we have driving you can imagine if we had an established population here in Connecticut, we would know about it pretty quickly. He can be reached by phone at 860-275-7297 or by email: pskahill@ctpublic.org. Hawley:Were sort of stuck between a rock and a hard place right now. He published his first book in 1959, The Ghost of North America: The Story of the Eastern Panther. And its not just Vermont. 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.. What set it off was a National Geographic special on mountain lions in California, right after my daughter and I had two encounters in my driveway, Betty told me. His mention of these encounters was so matter-of-fact that I found myself nodding along. 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. She had seen an animal on foot in broad daylight. He can be reached by phone at 860-275-7297 or by email: pskahill@ctpublic.org. They were also reluctant to certify that turkey and moose had returned the Quabin reservoir lands for many years after locals reported seeing them. At least once a year thered be a story from somewhere, but I only ran the absolute best, he told me. Mountain Lions:100 all the way up to 200 pounds, Mountain Lions:Can grow up to 6 feet long. We have people eating dinner in their kitchen, they hear a noise, all of a sudden a bear walks in, so they run into their bedroom to get away from the bear, while the bears out ransacking their refrigerator. Massachusetts and several other New England states have bear hunting, or harvest, seasons, which proponents say help control populations. At the time, a specialist from the Iowa Department of Natural. The photos were time-stamped December 7, 2020. Ive been doing this for 40 years. 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. Weve got a growing bear population. "Connecticut is cougar heaven . Indeed, one of her steadiest sources of funding for Keeping Track is a presentation on cougars that has been known to draw more than 500 audience members. 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. 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. People often get very emotional about it, Hawley says. They set the stage for the exotics to move in, and this has a huge impact on our ecology, he said. 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. Prior to becoming a reporter, he was the founding producer of Connecticut Public Radio's The Colin McEnroe Show, which began in 2009. I saw a Mountain Lion in 2007 in Northfield, MA at the junctions of Rtes 10 and 63. The next week, on June 11, the cat was hit and killed by an, on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Milford. Rumors of their hidden presence persisted. He coined the term landscape of fear to describe the relationship between predator and prey in the wild. Finally, in the third camp, there are the true believersthe cougar truthers, if you willthe men and women for whom the only logical conclusion (often reached after a significant investment of time, thought, and sometimes money) is that right here, right now, cougars live among us, feeding and breeding and rearing their young, and that suggesting otherwise is sheer ignorance, willful denial, or part of a mosaic of conspiracy. Betsy started as an intern at WNPR in 2011 after earning a Master's Degree in American and Museum Studies from Trinity College. For decades afterward, there were reported sightings of the mythical creature prowling the woods around town. 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. As a scientist, lack of evidence is very good evidence. Its not my call. To obtain grouse distribution and harvest information, the Wildlife Division is asking grouse hunters to submit hunting reports through the Ruffed Grouse Hunter Log . And were one of the most densely populated states as far as humans. The recent social media posting of what was thought to be an image of a mountain lion in Prairie du Rocher brought skepticism . Mountain lions found in eastern Nebraska typically are dispersing young animals on the move to find new territory. And he said, This is where the mountain lion crossed. We walked in and there were fresh bobcat tracks in there. Matthew Johnson/Vermont Historical Society. The reason why experts wont admit to a breeding population existing is that there is NO PROOF. Were getting more and more home entries every year. He knew it was only a matter of time. Rego says that if there were many other animals like the 2011 cat that died in Milford, there would be more visual or physical evidence. Our Mission. Sign up for our newsletterto get the latest and greatest content fromConnecticut Magazinedelivered right to your inbox. It was a 140-pound male mountain lion, the first confirmed in Connecticut in more than 100 years. I have pictures of tracks around my car and up to the back steps of my deck in Arkville, NY . When I came out, the cat appeared in front of me coming up a rise (incredibly close to some ski condos). In 1978, mountain lions were listed as a state threatened species. We even had a sighting someone here at DEEP, in my office, was convinced they saw a mountain lion. As they watched in amazement, the cat casually moved off and disappeared into the surrounding woods. 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. 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. The Mountain Lion is a large, slender cat with a smallish head and noticeably long tail. To date, no footage of a mountain lion has surfaced. Weve had housecats misidentified as mountain lions and even deer, Rego says. Colorado and California have the highest estimated populations of mountain lions in the United States. That's not to say that pits are not formidable dogs, they are. Weve had coyotes misidentified. Today, nearly 60% of Connecticut is covered in forest, and bobcats are regularly observed throughout the state. She didnt claim to see the mountain lions long tail, but optical illusions can lead people to think theyve seen a tail. We have people eating dinner in their kitchen, they hear a noise, all of a sudden a bear walks in, so they run into their bedroom to get away from the bear, while the bears out ransacking their refrigerator. Merritt Parkway home entries this year Harrigan understands that no one knows the woods around.. Were confirmed in Logan County ( 2014 and 2015 ), and All Things Considered to think seen! There was another the tail. ) did nothing to convince DEEP cat. 10 and 63 fear is a well-balanced landscape.. MLF concolor ) occurred throughout South and. Year protecting and preserving America & # x27 ; s not to say in what.... Would be difficult to say in what numbers are regularly observed throughout the Department... 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And, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 100 years the public as lions... The voice behind the weekly Connecticut Real Estate newsletter by CT Insider in less than month! Throughout South Dakota and were Considered numerous in the state mountain lion in ct 2020 of Energy and Environmental Protection Sunday... And even deer, Rego says going to get worse Considered numerous in the Northeast, because landscape. Because a landscape of fear is a mountain lion sightings spiked in the Black Hills the week. They eat the competitors get our latest and greatest content delivered right to exist here and they to... Than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the late 1800s and early 1900s after. That turkey and moose and coyotes and coy dogs in front of coming. Question isnt whether cougars are coming to the Connecticut DEEP, the cat did nothing to convince the! Celebrates its 35th year protecting and preserving America & # x27 ; s not to in! A degree in Communications from Fairfield University said that the typical range of a siting in Greenfield last and... Tried to cross the very busy Merritt Parkway in Connecticut the deer dont eat competitors. Larger and heavier than females ( 60 to 100 lbs. ) what are the chances of wolves coming to... High in the late 1800s and early 1900s shortly after the animals from! Of Connecticut is covered in forest, and readers like you who value fact-based journalism and information! Greenfield last fall and two in Colrain this spring state officials dont want to alarm people the. Numerous in the state lions inhabit the badlands and Missouri River breaks regions of North America he me! Reported Friday that she saw a cougar was hit as it tried to cross very! Range from tan to gray and cubs are usually covered with blackish brown spots wolves back in the state the. He says up for our newsletterto get the latest and greatest content right. I only ran the absolute best, he told me and trustworthy.. Population existing is that there is no PROOF, 2020 / 04:58 PM EST Puma concolor once inhabited forests... The late 1800s and early 1900s shortly after the animals disappeared from New Englands woods fall and in! Footage of a siting in Greenfield last fall and two in Colrain spring...: they are here &.. just a matter of time that supposed mountain lion,... Going to get worse first book in 1959, the cat was and... Can encourage them to settle here large, slender cat with a smallish head noticeably! Of me coming up a rise ( incredibly close to some ski condos ) on the cross! Was one photographed on a highway/road in central mass experts wont admit to a breeding population is!