"The question is not whether they are here, but where they came from." --J. Harrigan
Closer to home (for me), here's John Harrigan's column in today's North Country NH newspapers concerning his experience collecting cougar stories over the last 20 years. This is subscription only, so I can't link; I've edited out the middle section with Harrigan's list of older sightings. If you're interested I'll PM it to you.
[start quote]
North Country Notebook
Another tale on the trail of the elusive cougar
by John Harrigan
02/22/2006 - On a July day this past summer, Bob Elwell and a neighbor had just finished mowing a field in East Lancaster, and Bob was picking up various stray bits of debris while his dog scouted around.
Something caught the dog's attention, and it made straight for the edge of the woods and then stopped dead and sat down, still as a statue.
Bob looked over and saw himself staring straight into the eyes of a mountain lion. "I thought at first that my mind was playing tricks with my body," he said. "I couldn't believe what I was seeing."
Bob's sighting was a classic, one of the best I've heard over more than decades of reporting and writing about cougars. I have a standard list of questions and criteria intended to weed out the best of the best. His occurrence passes with flying colors.
The cat was about 30 yards away. It had a black muzzle and its ears were flat. It was tawny in color and the size of a good-sized German shepherd. "But it was the tail that removed any doubt," Bob said, "a good three feet long."
The cougar appeared to have no concern at all for the dog. It held its gaze for 15 to 20 seconds and moved off into the woods, in no particular hurry.
Like many North Country residents, particularly outdoor people and farmers, Bob had heard about cougar sightings, including one by a neighbor, but never thought he'd see one himself. "I just couldn't believe how lucky I was," he said.
So I've added Bob's experience to my list of the best of the best. Here are some others. . . .[edited out for brevity]
Along with a host of hunters, loggers, farmers and other people who spend a lot of time in the outdoors, I have no doubts at all that there are several big cats cruising the northern New England region or even calling it home (there have been several reports of adults with kittens). And I think it's only a matter of time before solid evidence is collected (scat, hair, a good photograph or video) or one gets hit in the road.
Canadian officials have verified four cougars, two in southern Quebec and two in the Maritimes, via DNA analysis on hair collected at artificially scented scraping posts. Mountain lions, like wolves, acknowledge no boundaries.
To me, the question is not whether cougars are here, but where they came from. I prefer to think they're resurgents from the remnants of the original Eastern cougar, pushed to the limits of extinction after the turn of the last century but somehow managing to hang on. Eventually, over time, the DNA will tell the story. [end quote]
