Posted on 10/24/2011 10:42:33 PM PDT by Daffynition
Cougar Rewilding
October 26 6:30-8PM FREE Downstairs at North Cove Outfitters, Main St., Old Saybrook, CT
Bringing Back the Legend: Cougar Recovery in Eastern North America
The search for the eastern cougar is one of the great riddles in North American natural history. Despite thousands of sightings from Maine to Mississippi, only a dozen confirmations have emerged east of Chicago during the past generation. Members of the Cougar Rewilding Foundation have conducted sanctioned remote camera surveys in seven eastern states while investigating a decade of field evidence and cougar reports.
Christopher Spatz has run remote camera surveys at High Point State Park, NJ and in the Shawangunks at Minnewaska State Park and the Mohonk Preserve. Reviewing his survey findings with cougar biology, behavior and their current range, Chris will explain why sightings don’t produce evidence, and how restorations of this magnificent predator are imperative for the recovery of critically declining eastern forests.
Call 860-388-6585 ext. 321 to reserve your seat or sign up in Paddlesports.
Well done
I live in the far northeastern corner of Connecticut pretty far out in the woods. About mid July I saw a mountain lion cross the road I live in about 50-60 yards ahead of me. We have bear, lots of deer and wild turkeys and coyote. I walk the dogs twice a day because if I let them roam they won’t bd back.
I hope you're carrying!
Warning - this has nothing to do with Cougars.... just reminded me of a wild animal incident in CT.
After a date one evening, my girlfriend called me and frantically described some bizarre looking creature that had crossed in front of her headlights - “hopping” like a kangaroo. She’d only gotten a glimpse, but was adamant that whatever it was hopping - not running.
The incident occurred on Hebron Rd(Rte 316) - between Coventry and Colchester in CT. It’s pretty rural there, lots of farms and woods. Of course, it became a great joke for me, and for a couple months I teased her relentlessly about her alcohol addiction, giant rabbits, kangaroos, aliens, mutant politicians, and anything else that might be living in the woods around us.
As we’re listening to a news report one morning, the reporter relates a human interest story about a family whose pet Wallaby had run off and had not been seen for weeks. The wallaby had been found and returned to their farm. Luckily, I ducked the egg she threw at me.
We’re married now, but we still get a chuckle out of the Connecticut kangaroo sighting.
What better way is there to “nudge” people out of the rural areas and back to the city than to release Mountain Lions and wolves in their backyard and take away their fire arms?
>>About mid July I saw a mountain lion cross the road<<
Impossible. We’ve been told they are extinct! ;)
My brother lives in the Plymouth/Terryville area and saw a lion at dusk on Mondayt cross in front of his car. He says he sees them all the time.
http://www.damnedct.com/mountain-lions-litchfield-hills/
**A few years back while leaving a restaurant on Rte. 66 near Portland — I do NOT drink alcohol — I looked to my left and saw, what I thought, was a baby KANGAROO! I called the DEP on Monday and they thought I was totally out of my mind. No amount of convincing them would change their thinking. About 3 days after I called, a poor Wallaby, (relative of the Kangaroo), was struck on Rte. 66 a few miles from where I had seen it. Turns out it was the pet of someone – his name was “Wally”. The point being, the DEP will never believe anyone unless they have hard evidence — it this case a carcass.**
You wanna see a backwoods West Virginian instantly get bitter and angry? Just mention coyotes, mountain lions or Eastern Diamondback rattlesnakes. The state DNR has been covertly releasing them on both government and private land. They have been caught in the act as well and fired upon. Mountaineers ain’t subtle! Lately, the coyotes have been looking more like wolves.
“Remember use Sabot rounds so they can’t trace the slug’s back to your rifle.”
And don’t bury it anywhere near your property... Radio tracking devices. Best to follow a friend’s advice and toss it on a passing coal train. Lol!
“Hi Daffy, didn’t someone post that after the local government told him he was nuts and there were no cougars in his area”
The DNR routinely says that there are none in WV, even though nearly everybody has seen them. They say that any sightings are domestic pets that got loose.
They change their tune and get threatening and confrontational when you look at them and say “Must have been a really big wild dog that I saw then. Next time I’ll shoot it.”
I live in north central Massachusetts and saw a mountain lion walk across my driveway Christmas eve morning last year. It snowed a few inches the evening before, and to be sure I wasn’t seeing Pete Puma in my mind’s eye, I went outside to look at the tracks, and sure enough, large cat tracks. They weren’t a bobcat’s - too large and spaced too far apart.
The cougars are there because the deer population is adequate to allow them to thrive.
Usually I carry s .357 for the bears but the coyotes seem more of a threat now so perhaps a .40S&W with more capacity would make sense. I’ll never see a cat coming so it would be better if someone with me were carrying.
Any Cougar Rewilding Foundation members been killed and eaten by cougars yet?
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