Home6Apr/1344
Posts from MA,VT,NH welcomed!
Reports from other areas are welcomed. They will be routed to the appropriate people that will investigate them as needed. Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire have Mountain Lion sightings quite often as well.
May 2nd, 2013 - 07:25
Three weeks ago, I saw a large black cat in our yard at the edge of some woods. At first the animal was sitting with its back towards me, but then it got up and turned sideways and started walking away. I realized it was some sort of wild cat. I would estimate it weighed about 70 pounds and had a very long tail (about 3 feet) and long legs. It looked like a panther except that the tip of its tail was white. I watched it for at least 45 seconds before it went into a ravine. It definitely wasn’t a dog or coyote, and it wasn’t a fisher cat. I reported it to Vermont Fish & Wildlife but was told there are no wild animals in Vermont like that.
May 2nd, 2013 - 07:28
My sighting was in Essex Junction, Vermont, adjacent to the Winooski River.
May 2nd, 2013 - 07:51
Well the VT wildlife people have admitted to me they don’t dispute there are mountain lions in VT, only that there is “no breeding population”. One local game warden however scoffed. I brought up the Milford, CT cat hit on the highway and he stated “oh that was an escaped pet”. This was in late 2012!. So some of the wardens are either misinformed, covering up, or both. I think everyone is aware it was proven the Milford CT cat was wild.
May 10th, 2013 - 08:43
I vrew up in Northwestern CT and have lived in Vermont for the past 25 years. I have spent much time out in the woods,etc in both areas. While I have seen coyotes, bears, moose, bobcats, fishers,etc I have never seen anything remotely resembling a catamount. I am not saying that there is no possibility that an occasional wanderer could be sighted that has come from eleswhere, don’t you think if there were a breeding population that there would be more tangible evidence by now? Almost everyone has an Iphone and many of us have trail cameras, yet I have not seen a picture of one. It would seem that somebody somwhere would have been able to grab a pic by now. Just skeptical I guess.
May 10th, 2013 - 09:18
Well I have spent my entire life in the woods in W MA, and only saw a moose once until recently when the population increased. But they have been there since the 1960’s. Cougars are elusive. There is a difference between a “breeding population”, and one thats being established. Where that sits now nobody really knows. But its a fact that they are here in some kind of small number, and that number is going to increas, just like the moose and bear have done already.
May 15th, 2013 - 15:34
By the way dating back to the 1960’s, numerous very credible hunters have reported seeing mountain lions in the Western Hills of Massachusetts. Not all, but a significant number. These people know what they are looking at. Tracks were also confirmed in several places back then. Suddenly now, nobody knows nothing of it. Whats the deal with that? I know the times, places, and people.
May 17th, 2013 - 07:33
Well I am just skeptical given that cell phone cameras are ubiquitous, it would seem somebody would have snapped at least one pic. Up here in VT there are many hunters who swear they have seen them, but I have yet to meet one I would call credible given that they were probably half in the bag as they usually are during deer season in VT. Anyway, I will remain skeptical until I see real evidence as most of these epeople would’nt know a mountain lion from a cow…
May 17th, 2013 - 07:41
I can understand that, but out in Michigan and others, it took them several years, with an army of
game cams and a lot of luck, to finally get a picture. As the population increases, the odds of
getting one increase. The sightings are usually brief, and it takes time to get a camera ready
and snap a picture. Lesson here, keep it ready!! I assure you, the hunters back in the 1960-1980
period were well versed in the outdoors. If they say they saw a mountain lion, you can be assured
they did. There was quite the controversy for years over them.
May 17th, 2013 - 08:08
PS Some of these sightings involve seeing cubs which would imply breeding, but I bet they are looking at bobcats
May 17th, 2013 - 08:14
The sighting above was a 45 second sighting. plenty of time to get a cellphone pic. We’ll see but I gotta see to beleive because I guess, having worked in medicine for all these years, you just cannot trust what people think they see or hear. Some yes, but most you just cannot. I just don’t know if alot of these suburbanites have a clue as to what they are looking at. I agree that growing up in Salisbury,CT and spending tons of time in the woods we never saw moose, but now it is not so unusual so populations do change. I am just waiting to see some proof.
May 17th, 2013 - 09:41
Im not so sure I could get my phone out, get to the app, and get it set up by then, but maybe.
Hang in there, many experts feel its just a matter of time for an established population, if there
isnt one already. The numbers are clearly spreading east and south from existing populations.
May 25th, 2013 - 10:59
Around 1:00 am , first or second week of april, 2013 I was heading west on route 4 near castleton( put 70 miles on my snowmobile up in shrewsbury that night) driving about 50mph ( conserving fuel) and half asleep. this animal crossed my lane and was gone from view of my headlights. I relive the moment BOBCAT i thought too big
coyote but too fast didnt look like a dog running either, but i never saw a tail this long before. I went from a trance to full attention in milli-seconds there wasnt any snow so checking out a track would have been difficult.I wasnt sure where it crossed because i never even braked. I only told this to a coulpe of friends.
I was up in northern Maine ( Portage) about 4 years ago with my friend Bill, we crested the top of a log road in truck there was a good size animal running down the road about 50 yards ahead of us. it was bounding away from us ( travelling faster),Bill hollered for me to pull over, As i sped up the animal turned sideways and ( I can still see this in slow motion) lept from the road into the woods and was gone. we checked out the tracks in the snow. I started to follow the tracks and told bill i was going to get a better look. he replied “that cat will have you for supper”.
I never had enough time to even think about a pic. I
I held a newborn baby dear in my arms once, i thought it was a coyote when i almost stepped on it. scared the hellout of me, i yelled for my 5 yearold son to run. as he ran i watched this long nosed dog just lay there and realized it was a fawn. I ran to my son by the four wheeler worring about the mother”s location. we went back and held the fawn. as we were leaving we spotted the mother grazing at the edge of a nearby clearing. Am I a story teller A few years ago there was a fisher cat reported being in rutland city. the newspaper got a hold of this and said these cats are capable of snatching an infant from a crib if a window is left open. I wonder if parents of newborn babies even slept at night. I think the city even put out traps because THEY HAD TO DO SOMETHING. My dad always told me to PAY ATTENTION
I know specail moments are just that …. and they JUST HAPPEN
BE READY
January 31st, 2014 - 11:41
http://newhampshire.com/article/20120821/NEWHAMPSHIRE03/708219874
Picture of mountain lion in Alstead NH
January 31st, 2014 - 11:45
This picture has been around a few years. Experts say it appears to be a stuffed lion.
The picture taker has refused to be identified, and refuses to bring anyone to the spot to
authenticate it, aka very fishy!
November 10th, 2014 - 23:09
Hello,
I do not know if this is an active site still but I am in Vermont and I know I saw a mountain lion out back of my house today. Really freaked me out. I reported it to Department of Fish and Wildlife and was told the same thing.”No breeding population” But I know what I saw and I grabbed my binoculars in my kitchen. I have lived here for 30 years and have never seen one before but I am 100% sure of what I saw.
November 11th, 2014 - 10:10
Well they are using word games. A “breeding population” is a pretty high bar to hit. But they didn’t say they don’t exist, since they will likely have egg on their face in the next few years, like CT and RI did already.
July 23rd, 2013 - 21:00
I have also heard about 2 other sightings of mountain lions in that same area. I do believe that they are there. With the dense woods, lots of prey, and fresh water I am not surprised that there are mountain lions in the area. I just started my own blog and facebook page for people to report their mountain lion sighting in Vermont. I would LOVE it if you could post your sighting on those pages. I am very curious about your sighting and would LOVE to know more. Thank you so much!
https://www.facebook.com/VermontMountainLionSightings
http://annevermont.wordpress.com/2013/07/20/welcome-to-the-blog-dedicated-to-discussing-mountain-lion-sightings-in-vermont/
May 19th, 2013 - 08:19
I couldn’t get my phone into picture mode before a lion could disappear. Then the picture would be way to distant and crappy to be any good anyhow.
May 19th, 2013 - 20:55
Well just look and see how few pictures there are of fisher cats. They are relatively common, but how often does anyone see or photo one? We saw one at Robinson Park in Agawam, MA on a walk, but by the time anyone got a camera out, it was long gone. Its not easy.
May 31st, 2013 - 22:23
Why do you think so many sightings seem to be occurring in CT vs VT? You’d think it would be the opposite in that the population density is different. As I said before I grew up in Lakeville and now live in VT. I have had moose, fishers, bobcats,fox and bear in the yard. Neighbor swears his father has seen a cougar up here but he is a sketchy guy. The New Milford post you just posted this week has a credible ring to it. You would think cats would be more apt to be in less populated areas, although the areas described are fairly rural. Interested to theories as to why.
July 8th, 2013 - 19:14
i took photos today of a deer in my yard that has 3 large cuts on its neck. l belive they may be from a large cat. have a photo of a large bob cat in my yard last week. l belive this doe was attacked by a cat. its not barb wire cuts. this is in agawam ma.
July 9th, 2013 - 17:33
see if you can post those pics here
July 10th, 2013 - 12:57
We have made contact and will be checking this. There were in the past confirmed tracks in Agawam, and an attack on pets that was determined to be a cougar. Both were in the 1980’s. Yes we know, they are not listed, but the tracks were examined and confirmed, and a two large dogs were attacked. One was carried off, and the other seriously injured. The vet, Dr. Shouse, examined the wounds and determined the bite marks were consistant with a cougar bite.
July 23rd, 2013 - 21:05
I just started my own facebook page and blog called Vermont Mountain Lions sightings. I would LOVE it if you could report some of your sightings on my page also. I am very interested in your sightings and I want to know more. Please check my sites out! Thank you so much!
http://annevermont.wordpress.com/2013/07/20/welcome-to-the-blog-dedicated-to-discussing-mountain-lion-sightings-in-vermont/
https://www.facebook.com/VermontMountainLionSightings
July 30th, 2013 - 20:47
There seem to be more and more sightings of large black cats in New England. Has there ever been any proof? On a show about mountain lions that I watched many years ago it said that there have never been any black mountain lions. The large black cats are actually black jaguars.
Are the sightings of black cats around here actually just people seeing other animals. Maybe people mistake fishers and foxes for cats? To the person who said that they saw a black cat with a white tipped tale is Essex, maybe what you saw was a dark colored fox. Foxes can be black and they do have white tipped tales.
I want to believe that there are black jaguars roaming the northeast, but is it really possible? And what ever happened with the story about the couple who shot a young jaguar in their backyard in Indiana? Was it a wild cat or a released pet?
Thank you!
August 17th, 2013 - 23:32
While heading back from the Adirondacks at around 11:45 AM on Saturday, August 17, we were just west of Exit 4 along Route 4 heading toward Rutland, VT when a large cat ran in front of our car. The cat was about 5 feet long, sort of a medium to dark brown, with a white chest. We immediately thought this was a bobcat, but it had a long tail and looked like it weighed upwards of 75 to 100 lbs. It bounded across our lane of travel in just a few strides and disappeared into the woods.
September 1st, 2013 - 13:33
There was a picture taken of two mountain lions recently.
I live at the end of a dead end road in Hartland, VT. Very remote and wooded area with no houses past mine, only woods. When I first moved here 20 years ago I was home alone and working up stairs. I went out a back window to rest on top of a back porch. I noticed a large cat in the mowed back yard. As I watched, it seemed to be hunting for mice. Little by little it got closer to the house. I had heard of the possible return of the Mountain Lion & wanted to believe this one of them. It had a long ringed tail and was very wide with large round eyes & ears. It wasn’t the right color to be a mountain Lion, more like a Bob Cat. The ringed tail really through me off. I have always been in the woods my whole life and thought I had seen pretty much all the wild life Vermont had to offer me until this.
Many years later I learned the Mountain lion as a young adolescence has a ringed tail. I now know what I saw was a mountain lion. This cat was alone and I believe too young not to have been born it this area (VT/NH).
My biggest regret was not getting a picture. I watched the cat for at least 1/2 hour and wanted to get back to work on the house. I made a noise so the lion would look at me before going back into the house. When the cat looked at me there was no fear for him, only for me and I realized he would have no problem jumping up onto the porch roof. That’s was instant fear for me and I quickly went in. I went down stairs and looked out to see the cat was gone.
I believe with Vermont’s #1 industry being tourism the state doesn’t want to admit this because of fear people will stop coming to the state.
September 1st, 2013 - 14:19
Do you know where this picture is? A link to it or anything? Thanks
September 3rd, 2013 - 21:20
Last Thursday on my morning walk along my dirt road I saw a large paw print in the dirt, which my companion and I stopped to look at, commenting that we knew of no dogs that large in the neighborhood, and speculating that it must be from a bear. It was about four inches wide and about three inches front of the foot to back. It had four toes and no claw marks. I looked it up when I got home and found that it was not a bear print, but likely of a big cat. It seems unreasonable to carry casting supplies on a walk, but I am carrying a camera from now on, in case there are more prints. Then today I read in a weekend Caledonian Record that a horse was recently attacked by an unknown animal, and so severely injured it had to be put down. The story said that by the time wildlife officials came to investigate, the horse had already been buried.
September 15th, 2013 - 17:44
Had a cat cross the road right in front of us this morning (9/15) about 9:00 am, route 100, just south of Stowe, VT. Absolutely AMAZING!
October 30th, 2013 - 19:37
I saw a road kill mountain lion last summer 2012 on route 89 north in the Grafton area. It was definitely a mountain lion! It was very long , with long tail, sandy colored . It was beautiful and looked very muscular .
I should have turned around and taken a photograph! But it was a busy weekend ( Father’s Day weekend ) and I figured I would here about it on the news. I didn’t know there was such a controversy regarding the issue. I did report it to the fish and game, they of course didn’t believe me. I regret not getting a pic !
December 1st, 2013 - 21:16
Catamount sighted near Weathersfield Center Road, Weathersfield, VT on Saturday, Nov 30.
December 3rd, 2013 - 17:41
I saw a very large black cat with a very long , hairy tail in Middlebury , Vermont yesterday. It was walking behind the hospital on the employee path and then marked his territory before heading back into the woods.
December 28th, 2013 - 16:18
About 15 years ago while traveling from Vermont on the NY state thruway down to Kinston NY I spotted a mountain lion on the rocky hills along the thruway. I couldn’t believe it. I told the Harriman toll booth collected when we went thru the toll. I wondered if maybe there was a zoo near by where the escaped. Really cool because I still remember it as clear as day.
February 6th, 2014 - 15:23
ANOTHER claim of pics………and no pics…..does that BOTHER ANYONE??????
February 6th, 2014 - 16:05
Don’t see any claim and why does it bother YOU?
February 12th, 2014 - 11:00
WEATHER
Come on…look, the claims are here and on other sites.
Why does it bother me? Really? Because PICS are the closest piece of evidence to the real thing………..come on.
February 13th, 2014 - 10:46
Well I know some very good outdoor people that have seen one and not been able to get a picture, including me. Pics are not easy, we know that. If it bothers you, get out with game cams and get one! that’s what the serious people are doing, like the other areas of the US that the same game is going on.
March 20th, 2014 - 18:30
I just heard on the news that a mountain lion sighting has not been confirmed in Massachusetts since 1885. I wish I had known this when I saw one in Stockbridge, MA in the early Spring of 1997. It was at the intersection of 183 and 102, right near the Norman Rockwell Museum. I was driving slowly on 183 because there was a light snow falling and the road was slick. I was about 1/4 mile from 102 when something caught my eye near the side of the road, just at the start of the tree line. Because of the pure white fresh snow covering the ground and a lack of leaves on the trees and no underbrush it was easy to see a brown mountain lion. I watched it as it slinked down and headed for deeper woods. It turned and looked at me a couple of times as I had stopped my car to watch it.
March 20th, 2014 - 18:39
That is a trick with words, “A sighting” has not. BUT, DNA and tracks have been confirmed multiple times in the last 30 years. DNA at quabbin in 1997, tracks again in 2010, and Virginia FiField from the US fish and wildlife cast tracks at Goshen in 1983. They were confirmed out west. There were others they have ignored, including tracks in places like Blandford, Agawam, and others. Now to get a “confirmation”, I guess you have to have one hit by a car. These are the most elusive animals on the planet. In 2009, DNR in Michigan, and hunters, proclaimed “there cannot be any in Michigan”. The hunters said they never ran into them, even being all over the woods with dogs. Well one year later, the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy started a program like we have here. Now they have dozens of confirmations, and DNA from over 20 animals. They hide REALLY well.
March 27th, 2014 - 08:45
On or around 2/4/2014 my husband saw a very big black cat in our back yard on the wooded property line around 7:30 ish…then on 3/24/2014 I was looking out my kitchen window around 7:30 am and saw a very big all black cat pounce out of a tree an run into the woods this cas was approx. 120 pds it was the same cat my husband saw the month before…we called fish and game in new Hampshire and the said they could not. Speculate with out a picture but it has been sighted throughout litchfield nh but with no picture they could not say what it is…only that there has been no. Reports of it attacking anyone…definitely not a fisher cat too big ,coyotes do not climb trees,my gut is telling me definitely looked like a black panther…
November 21st, 2014 - 01:25
I saw one tonight on my bike ride home from my mothers house. It’s really cold right now and had never seen one in real life. After I googled pictures of them the “catamount” was a true sighting. It darted across the road on a deer run in a small residential neighborhood. Then disappeared behind some houses and was gone. It was tan, rather large, fast, skiddish, and very muscular. Caledonia street, power line crossing, saint johnsbury, vermont 05819. This is a high traffic deer crossing. IF anyone has any other ideas as to what this may have been please let me know
January 12th, 2015 - 20:21
This past weekend we were out snowmobiling coming back from Groton State Forest heading towards Calais, it was about 10:00pm or so, I was second in line about 40ft - 50ft back from the lead sled when a Catamount leapt across the trail as soon as the first sled past, about 20ft in front of me.
At the time I wasn’t sure what it was. It was too big and the wrong color to be a coyote, definitely wasn’t a dog, way too big to be a bobcat, slightly resembled a bear when it was stretched out as it leapt across the trail (it’s tail must of been along-side it’s legs because I did not see it). When we got back to the cabin we we’re discussing what it might possibly be. Someone said there were sightings of Catamounts in VT and maybe that’s what I saw. So, when I returned back to CT I googled to see exactly what a Catamount looks like - I was floored because thats exactly what jumped across the trail in front of me.
August 5th, 2015 - 15:47
I saw a lion on my front deck last Tuesday. It was no more than ten feet from me. I tried to get a pix of it and it ran away as I grabbed for my phone. It was not a lynx or a bobcat. About 80 pounds, tan, and spotted in East Dorset.