So it's not completely unheard of for Mountain Lions to be spotted in Massachusetts. One was hit by a car and killed in Connecticut just a few years ago (it had been born in South Dakota!). But color me skeptical about the latest sightings. Even the eye witnesses claimed they just saw it for a minute and when biologist looked at the tracks (footprints) they were shaped like a dog track and not like a cat (a trained tracker can tell the difference and it has nothing to do with visible claws).
In my experience lots of people WANT to see a Mountain Lion. For the thrill, the fame, the excitement. But very few people actually have seen these elusive cats. I've heard lots of descriptions by hopeful eyewitnesses that convinced me that nope, that wasn't a Mountain Lion.
Mountain Lions do not regularly occur East of the Rocky Mountains (except in South Florida). They were hunted out of their native ranges in the Eastern US when the Europeans settled North America. With the passage of the Endangered Species Act and improved protections the western populations have been increasing and we have seen some individuals move out of their existing range into new habitats. A great site for information about these cases is the Cougar Network. This site requires hard evidence before adding a claim to their site - evidence in the form of scat, hair, verifiable photographs and dead animals.
It's exciting (and scary) to think that this apex predator could be returning to some of its earlier range. While Mountain Lions can kill people these events are rare. They are a greater risk to farm animals and pets. Fortunately they require large spaces to roam so that even where they occur in their highest densities the likelihood of encountering one is very, very low.
And maybe between them and the coyotes they'll be able to keep the deer from eating my garden!
Image thanks to Trisha M Shears and Wikimedia Commons
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