more New England mountain lion rumors

I had an environmental extremist friend who said the sightings were genuine but what people were actually seeing were escaped pets. someone illegally orders or gets a south american cougar, or some such, and at a certain point after growing quite a bit it leaves.
when we were kids you used to be able to order alligators. my friend had one in the 60's and they used to let it loose in the tub. the thing got pretty big(maybe 3 or more feet long) and then they didn't have it anymore. I wonder where they let it loose..grins.

Video from 2006: "Eastern Cougars in Maine?"

I don't recall seeing this video mentioned in this thread or elsewhere on VFTT. It's a 2006 presentation by Keel Kemper, a Maine Inland Fisheries and Wildlife biologist charged with responding to mountain lion reports:

Eastern Cougars in Maine?

The video is long (57 minutes) and quite detailed. Good background for someone new to the subject. No real news in it for those who have followed the topic, but it's been interesting to look at nonetheless.

LOL.... I haven't seen Keel since about 1991 when I helped him with wood-duck banding on Swan Island in the Kennebec. Thanks for posting the video link!

This may be a legitimate way to attrack big cats to a motion sensative camera and get some pics; http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704513104575256452390636786.html?mod=wsj_india_main

And you may want to reconsider the cologne you wear in the woods.

Chip said:

And you may want to reconsider the cologne you wear in the woods.

Click to expand...

Thank goodness: eau de unwashed polypro is still safe.

jniehof said:

Thank goodness: eau de unwashed polypro is still safe.

Click to expand...

How do you know? Has it been tested on big cats?

(Just in the interest of accuracy, it is now "eau de unwashed polyester".)


Perhaps we should also request a study on wool clothing--does it remind predators of sheep? (Slurp!)

Doug

sardog1 said:

Eastern Cougars in Maine?

The video is long (57 minutes) and quite detailed. Good background for someone new to the subject. No real news in it for those who have followed the topic, but it's been interesting to look at nonetheless.

Click to expand...

Very interesting video, for those interested in the subject.

Interesting takeaways from the presentation;

- Kemper's .ppt presentation recognized no sitings in NH or VT, only in ME, NY, PQ.

- You can tell a cat print from a dog print because cat prints DO NOT leave claw marks. I never knew that.

- They have no mating schedule. Females can be in estrus at any time.


Good stuff. Thanks for posting it Sardog1.

'Tain't no Golden Retriever . . .

Trail cam spots one on Michigan's Upper Peninsula:

"State releases photo of cougar in Upper Peninsula"

sardog1 said:

Trail cam spots one on Michigan's Upper Peninsula:

"State releases photo of cougar in Upper Peninsula"

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We need trail cams (and trailhead parking lot cams) in the Whites.

Unfortunately, there's a booming market for stolen trail cams, and virtually everyone who deploys one eventually suffers a theft. Unless you're transmitting simultaneously to a distant receiver, you are unlikely to detect and identify the perpetrator. That's what has deterred me from starting a project at the trailheads.

sardog1 said:

Trail cam spots one on Michigan's Upper Peninsula:

"State releases photo of cougar in Upper Peninsula"

Click to expand...

Nice butt shot!

Coming to a neighborhood near you . . .

An excellent, interesting article: "Modelling potential dispersal corridors for cougars in midwestern North America using least-cost path methods"

In other words: Dem cats be comin'.

From today's Times Argus in Montpelier, VT:

http://www.timesargus.com/article/20100726/NEWS02/707269963

The picture in the photo from the Wallingford newspaper is a young bobcat. They are not here people!!! We have known a population to be in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for years now. This is as far as they've gotten. Random rumors are well-meaning people who see an animal for a few seconds and think they saw what they really didn't and/or people who desperately want to think state agencies are in on some kind of conspiracy.

Someday, mountain lions will return; the habitat is here, the prey is here, etc. But they aren't here yet. If they were we would damn well know for sure.

DrJJFate said:

From today's Times Argus in Montpelier, VT:

http://www.timesargus.com/article/20100726/NEWS02/707269963

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The description of the body/tail/weight is impressive.
3.5-4 feet in length
tail about same
weight ~ 125 lbs

We have a recovering bobcat where I work and he doesn't come close to these measurements. I have also encountered one when biking at the reservoir at dusk, and no way did he measure up to this description.
I hope we hear more about this from Wildlife. Very interesting.


http://www.amazon.com/Beast-Garden-...=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280149338&sr=8-1

Great read. Tragic ending!

gaiagirl said:

The picture in the photo from the Wallingford newspaper is a young bobcat. They are not here people!!! We have known a population to be in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan for years now. This is as far as they've gotten. Random rumors are well-meaning people who see an animal for a few seconds and think they saw what they really didn't and/or people who desperately want to think state agencies are in on some kind of conspiracy.

Someday, mountain lions will return; the habitat is here, the prey is here, etc. But they aren't here yet. If they were we would damn well know for sure.

Click to expand...

I encourage you to take a deeper look at the available evidence, including the presentation by the Maine IF&W biologist linked in one of my posts above. There's also the fact that DNA evidence confirmed the presence of one in the Ossipees back in the mid '90s. And the observation by a NH Fish and Game employee in Barnstead last fall.

Some of us do know they'e here. We don't claim that a breeding population exists (yet), or that none of the sightings are of escaped/released captive animals. But to dismiss their existence in New England entirely requires closing one's eye to some fairly reliable evidence.

sardog1 said:

I encourage you to take a deeper look at the available evidence, including the presentation by the Maine IF&W biologist linked in one of my posts above. There's also the fact that DNA evidence confirmed the presence of one in the Ossipees back in the mid '90s. And the observation by a NH Fish and Game employee in Barnstead last fall.

Some of us do know they'e here. We don't claim that a breeding population exists (yet), or that none of the sightings are of escaped/released captive animals. But to dismiss their existence in New England entirely requires closing one's eye to some fairly reliable evidence.

Click to expand...

Agreed!
This is one very important fact that I learned reading The Beast in the Garden. Many blind eyes were turned until the final rude awakening. "Suburbia" had an instant change of heart. They had encountered in a most personal and horrific way the "beast in the garden". Try as they might, they could no longer deny that cougars were living amongst them.

I sometimes wonder if we will one day be writing the sequel to this book.

Agree with Sardog.

Most of the "report - offical reply" conversations go like this:

Report: "I saw a ______."
Official Reply: "There is no breeding population of ______ here."

Obviously, this is cross talk. We're talking about two different things; both statements can easily be true. Let's not go calling people desperate rumor mongers because they report what they saw.

Could easily be that all sightings are escaped "exotic pets." More people than we realize like to have a "pet" like that to show off for their friends. Very sad for the animal; these critters are not domesticated. (Heck, house cats are barely domesticated. Only dogs, in the pet world, have been human companions long enough to be domesticated.) And if a "pet" mountain lion wants to escape, imagine how hard it would be to keep it captive...

TCD

That's just it; there is NO evidence. I know a biologist who goes out on these calls, and most of the time it's someone's golden retriever. Escaped "pets" are out there, Eastern Mountain lions are not, yet.