Mountain Lions
By Ray Bendici | Category: Cryptozoology
The Damned Story: Eastern mountain lions, or pumas or cougars, were last officially seen in Connecticut near the end of the 19th century. A threat to livestock, they were hunted out of the state and driven to parts more wild. With land cleared for farms and factories (nearly the entire state was deforested at the turn of the 20th century), there was no place for big cats to hide and nothing for them to feed on, so they disappeared not only from the Connecticut landscape, but from the Northeastern U.S. in general.
For nearly a century, there were no cats bigger than overfed tabbies in the region. But as farms disappeared and land reverted to forest, habitats for larger mammals grew. Deer (i.e. “food”) were among the first to come back, followed by the predators. According to the state Department of Environmental Protection, bobcats, coyotes and black bear now again roam the woods (and suburbs) of Connecticut, but mountain lions and cougars have yet to return.
Or have they?
In April 2005, Connecticut Magazine ran a story called “Seeing Ghosts,” written by Brigitte Ruthman. In the article, Ruthman, an avid hunter and outdoorswoman, claims that she has seen Eastern mountain lions in the woods of the Litchfield Hills, as have many others in the state. Since the story was posted online, it has generated a very busy comments section which has dozens of reported cougar sightings.
After maintaining for years that the majority of these reports were either misidentified bobcats or coyotes, and that there were absolutely no cougars in Connecticut (aside from those hanging out at the casinos looking for young boy toys), the DEP is coming around to the possiblity that there may be big cats again on the prowl here. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Northeast Region, has established a good website on the subject, welcoming eyewitness reports and other evidence to conclusively prove the return of these elusive creatures.
Of course, like with many mystery creatures, until an actual specimen is caught digging through garbage cans behind the Capitol in Hartford, the debate will continue. In the meantime, keep an eye out for the big cats!
For an interesting cougar story check out the articles from the Hartford Courant (iCONN) from 12/27/57 to 9/25/60. It tells the story of sitings of a blank panther in Granby, Simsbury, and Barhamsted. The sitings and nearly 30 news articles set off a general panic in the area, but no one mentions it today. Read the articles and decide for yourself - real or imaginary?
Thanks Shirley, i’m going to try to find this and get it on the page. Thanks for the iCONN listing, this is a great site that I was not aware of.
Steve
[...] there are many people who would beg to differ with the DEP. As I mention in our article about mountain lions, there have been many claims that these “ghosts of the forest” are back — over at [...]
It’s not that the DEP doesn’t know there here, we do. It’s just the fact they need proof of their residence through a dated photograph, trail cam pic, or even a carcass,before it can be made known to the public that they are around.
There are still mountain lions in Litchfeild county
Thanks Wayne.
Why is that fact so effin hard for people to understand? You want people and the dep to announce cougars are in connecticut,………bring in a pic at least!!
Look at Utube. Under cougar in connecticut. This is EXACTLY why the DEP doubts ALL accounts.
Pic, please. Body, maybe?? How about tracks? All these sightings and NOT ONE TRACK? NOT ONE????? What were all the sightings during a drought? How about the scat supposedly found by more than one poster? Uhhmmmmm maybe you scoop up a sample….MAYBE?
Me, I thing there are cougars here. But wanting the dep to believe it just because YOU’RE POSITIVE you saw one is just stupid.
KODAK.
I for one know the Granby Panther stories are true.
I lived in Granby from 1954 to 1966. I lived about 1000 feet from what we called “The big lake”
Lake Manatuck and my best friend Randy lived at the other end of the lake, across from waht was then Edgerton’s.
if I recall correctly, it was in 1960. Randy called me one morning, all excited. The police were at his house. Most likely Shariff Hotchkiss or it might have been Don Algren.
He was investigating an attempted break-in at Randy’s house.
Randy’s dad worked second shift. He had a habit of cooking his own dinner when he got home late, as was the case most nights. Being summer, his dad kept the door & windows open, not wanting to stink up the house with his cooking. Since the door and windows had screens he wasn’t concerned.His ususual dinner was bacon & eggs.
After eating he went to bed.
About an hour or so after going to bed, his collie dog “Duke” started whining & barking and then crawled under the bed. Randy’s dad got up, put his pants on, & got the 12 ga. double out of the closet.
As he walked into the kitchen he caugt site of a black animal with it’s head part way through the screen door to the kitchen. As he described it, it was more like a mountain lion than a dog, and was pretty sure it wasn’t no dog! Dad flipped on the lights as the animal was pulling out backward.
He went back to bed about an hour later, sure that whatever it was wasn’t coming back.
In the morning, Randy’s dad called the police.
They found long scratches on the wood frame of the screen door, and the screen had been torn all to hell.
They searched out in the back yard and found two cat-like prints about the size of a small person hand, in the mud right along side of the fence that separated the lawn from the tobacco fields.
Now, if Paul Johnson was still alive, you could ask him about the investigation. He said he had found a written report of the incident shortly after being hired as a police officer in Granby.
There hhhhheeeeeeerrrrrrrreeeeee!!!!!!!!!!! But i will not tell where cause i do not want the cat to be killed or taken away. If you think you see one the easy way to tell is the tremendous muscle structure they have compared to there cats and the tail is long They are fast and can hide 10ft away and will not see them
[...] of tearing things apart with sharp claws, people still report seeing mountain lions all over Connecticut, despite the continual assurances from the state’s department of [...]
I was living in Granby last year on Manitook Lake and one night in the middle of winter I was sitting in my car and saw something walking on the opposite side of the road, it looked like a really big cat. I mentioned it to my step-father thinking maybe there was something living in the area like fisher cats or something and he told me it was probably a coyote but I told him it was too big to be a coyote and the tail was wrong(it was too skinny) I was certain that it wasn’t a dog(the head wasn’t right and it didn’t move like any dog that I know of) and it wasn’t a bear. So maybe…? But I didn’t get out of my car for quite a while until I was sure that it was gone(a little freaked out seeing something possibly wild and large). I mentioned it to someone who had been living in the area and she said that she had seen mountain lions or large creatures(not bears and bigger than coyotes) before but I don’t know anymore about it. I know that there is a pack of coyotes living on the other side of the lake but they stay there(you can always hear them at night). Has anybody else ever seen anything like that?