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). Sometimes people feared fishers (erroneously attributing the blood-curdling screams of foxes to these hard-to-spot creatures), and in the late 1930s, after several animals were slain under strange circumstances in Glastonbury, the. Its important to stand your ground and not run or hide. Ive seen bobcats before, this wasnt a bobcat. And its a lose-lose situation, because theres really not a whole lot you can tell them in most cases thats going to change their mind.. Almost every state has some sort of legend of something thats hiding somewhere, he says. Were getting more and more home entries every year. McEnroe: Scientifically, this is a case where absence of evidence is kind of evidence of absence, right? Jan. 6, 2016 Updated: Jan. 6, . Massachusetts and several other New England states have bear hunting, or harvest, seasons, which proponents say help control populations. Weight: 70-170 lbs. When we lived in Suffield, we had MANY Mountain Lion sightings.probably 4-5 sightings (which qualifies as many to me) and they were definitely not Bobcats, @Craig, what town is Wtn? Icould hear the panic in my wifes voice. Join as a $8 per month sustainer and get our brand-new owl umbrella! Youll get the answer to this question in this article. Mountain lions weigh 105 to 140 pounds and can be up to eight feet long from the nose to the tip of the tail. Mountain lions also have tails that can grow up to 3 feet. A 140-pound male mountain lion was hit by a car and killed in 2011 in Milford, Connecticut. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection receives 50-100 reports of mountain lions each year, says Paul Rego, a wildlife biologist with the department. He published his first book in 1959, The Ghost of North America: The Story of the Eastern Panther. Theres something in human nature to overestimate the size of wild animals we see, especially if we get a brief glance and if the animal is moving. He adds, Bobcats can get pretty large and some people believe they should have pretty visible spots and very often theyre pretty uniform in color. This is especially true in the summer, when my wifes sighting occurred. But what about the sightings in Connecticut that are made by experienced outdoorsmen and women, people who know the difference between bobcats and mountain lions? A mountain lion is a wild cat ranging from two to three feet tall, with females weighing up to 120lbs and males up to 200lbs, making it the fourth largest cat in the world. It was found, though, that this particular big cat had traveled all the way from South Dakota a distance of 1,500 miles. We even had a sighting someone here at DEEP, in my office, was convinced they saw a mountain lion. Bobcats are most frequently misidentified by the public as mountain lions, but theyre not the only animals mislabeled. Now the bears, they dont even care if people are home, theyll go right in the house. Its documented through track surveys, aerial surveys, trapping and collaring surveys. Although mountain lions were part of Nebraska's native fauna, they were extirpated by the end of the 19th century. 1.Customize your maps Style your maps with custom markers, lines, colors, polygons, and images. 1 Last 365 Days. While there is currently not much safety training being done in the state for the extinct animal, Betty predicts that cougar safety will eventually be as common in New England as it is in California. On Friday July 8, 2022 there was a few reported Mountain Lion sightings the last few days one actually involving an encounter with one's family in their lawn. Colin McEnroe is a radio host, newspaper columnist, magazine writer, author, playwright, lecturer, moderator, college instructor and occasional singer. Roadkills can be reported to 860-424-3011. "We get calls about mountain lions all the time, but they turn out to be unprovable," Brown told the Independent in March. Okay, if thats what you say, what can I tell you. Bobcats dont shy away from human habitats, while mountain lions tend to only be found in very isolated areas. 2012). So theres fresh mud. The mountain lion is believed to have had an encounter with a family on their lawn. The last confirmed mountain lion sighting in Connecticut occurred in 2011. Im no wilderness expert, but it sure looked like a mountain lion to me, he said. 5. Five summers ago, a mountain lion made regional headlines after it was photographed in Greenwich and later struck and killed by a motor vehicle on the parkway in Milford a young male that DEEP officials determined through DNA evidence had traveled east all the way from South Dakota. More recently, unexplained animal sightings in Connecticut and other states became more and more associated with mountain lions. Mountain Lions can be found in Orange County throughout the Santa Ana Mountain Range down to the foothills and canyons directly connected to them. Im always amazed at the sheer volume of people who are interested in cougars, more even than wolves, she says. Even so, Abbott has heard of mountain lion sightings from what he deems reliable sources and believes its possible that other animals have made the difficult, some say almost miraculous trek, from the West to Connecticut. In yet another variant, DEEP is said to be helicoptering mountain lions in to help control the deer population. Sometimes people feared fishers (erroneously attributing the blood-curdling screams of foxes to these hard-to-spot creatures), and in the late 1930s, after several animals were slain under strange circumstances in Glastonbury, the Hartford Courant dubbed the lion-like creature supposedly responsible, the Glawackus. You really couldnt ask for a better place for mountain lions.. Bobcats, also, only hunt small prey. I feel a little bit like Roy Scheider in Jaws, you know, youve got to shut down the beaches, he said. Genetic testing placed the animal in Wisconsin and Minnesota, and the cat had been sighted at several different points during its long journey east. (My wife didnt get a look at the tail.) Betsy started as an intern at WNPR in 2011 after earning a Master's Degree in American and Museum Studies from Trinity College. I saw one cross the rd ( rt 63) in Wtn @ 5 yrs ago, @Craig, Woodbridge police shared tips for if you encounter a big cat: On Friday July 8, 2022 there was a few reported Mountain Lion sightings the last few days one actually involving an encounter with ones family in their lawn. Even though human persecution has driven them locally extinct in the eastern part of the state, Texas mountain lion hunting is allowed year-round with no bag limits. A month after the cat was struck and killed, researchers confirmed it had traveled more than 1,500 miles from the Black Hills of South Dakota. As a Patrick Skahill is a reporter and digital editor at Connecticut Public. Betty later showed maps covered with dots, each of which represented sightings of mountain lions in Connecticut and the rest of New England. Arms over your head, with a jacket or sweatshirt. We even had a sighting someone here at DEEP, in my office, was convinced they saw a mountain lion. I saw one, not mistaken with a bobcat I know what bobcats look like. The Department of Environmental. When it comes out that there are mountain lions in Connecticut where all these people who denied them apologize to the people who know they saw them? The upper mile is pretty overgrown in a pretty way. They usually either don't disperse at all or they'll kind of overlap their mother's home range, or they'll disperse very short distances.. She didnt claim to see the mountain lions long tail, but optical illusions can lead people to think theyve seen a tail. Grandson of an old swamp Yankee, trapped, hunted , fished my whole life. he recalls. Bobcats typically have brown fur with a reddish tinge that is marked with black or brown spots or stripes, according to the National Zoo. (https://wildlifeinformer.com/what-to-do-if-you-encounter-a-mountain-lion/). Betty, who has had a dozen personal sightings in Rhode Island, studies mountain lion evidence and attends national conventions. Colorado and California have the highest estimated populations of mountain lions in the United States. On the idea of bear hunting in Connecticut. Although common at the time of European settlement, the last known historical specimen in Missouri was killed in the Bootheel area in 1927. We have plenty of suitable habitat, he says. She had seen an animal on foot in broad daylight. She said the size made her do a double take and indeed she seen it had a very long tail, Bullsh** Mountain Lions: cougars, pumas, panthers and catamounts. Or at least theyre not supposed to be. More recently, unexplained animal sightings in Connecticut and other states became more and more associated with mountain lions. You can subscribe to Connecticut Magazine here, or find the current issue on sale here. Peter Yankowski is a breaking news reporter for Hearst Connecticut Media Group. Ive seen bobcats before, this wasnt a bobcat. And its a lose-lose situation, because theres really not a whole lot you can tell them in most cases thats going to change their mind.. 2 Last 5 Years. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate. According to wildlife biologist Jason Hawley, the lack of evidence of mountain lions in Connecticut is the evidence. community-supported public media service, Connecticut Public has relied on donor support for more than 50 years. As a scientist, lack of evidence is very good evidence. Sue Morse, the founder and science director of Keeping Track, a Vermont-based organization dedicated to protecting wildlife habitats, has studied mountain lions over her career as a naturalist, and says the majority of cougar sightings in the Northeast are misidentifications. 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. Mountain Lions:100 all the way up to 200 pounds, Mountain Lions:Can grow up to 6 feet long. 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. Mountain Lions: Large tan cats with a distinctive two to three-foot curving tail, that can almost touch the ground as they walk. Yet we see nothing about what is being planned except how to scare them away if one sees them. Habitat. Thats only a fraction of the supposed sightings. For more information on cougars in Connecticut, visit theCougars of the Valley siteor theConnecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection. Mountain lions are found in mountains, coniferous forests, grasslands, swamps, and dry scrublands. Wed be seeing more carcasses of prey we would be seeing at least some carcasses of mountain lion prey. For mountain lions in Connecticut, a lack of evidence is very good evidence. Wait a minute--there was a sighting in New London County a few years back, and my wife read an article about a mountain lion or cougar being struck by a vehicle in Milford a few years back. Canton and Simsbury have also had about 70 sightings. 4. Despite annual reports since the 1950s, no confirmed sighting was made in the state until the 1990s. Mountain lions are also great jumpers and swimmers. A harvest is kind of twofold. 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. The map below includes both confirmed and unverified puma sightings in the larger San Francisco Bay region (and beyond) since 2004. 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