What to know about unconfirmed mountain lion sightings in CT

Here’s what to know about mountain lions (and other substantial cats) in Connecticut.

How lots of mountain lion sightings does Connecticut have every single yr?

In accordance to Jason Hawley, a wildlife biologist for the Connecticut Section of Electrical power and Environmental Protection’s Wildlife Division, the department receives all over 100 sighting studies of mountain lions every calendar year, but on further investigation, a “good proportion” of the sightings conclude up being bobcats.

When was the very last confirmed mountain lion sighting in Connecticut?

Hawley said the final confirmed mountain lion sighting in the state was a person that was killed on the Merritt Parkway in 2011 when a car struck the animal close to Exit 55. 

And the past verified sighting prior to the 2011 instance would be “a pair hundred years” ago, according to Hawley.

What is the big difference concerning a mountain lion and a bobcat?

Also identified as cougars, panthers or pumas, mountain lions selection in color from tan to gray, according to the U.S. Office of Agriculture’s Forest Services. Grownup males can be all-around 8 ft in length and weigh among 130 and 150 pounds, although adult females can be 7 toes very long and weigh in between 65 and 90 lbs. Mountain lions also have tails that can develop up to 3 toes.

According to the Smithsonian’s National Zoo, bobcats are component of the lynx genus, which means they are similar to other cats like the Canadian lynx, Iberian lynx and Eurasian lynx. Bobcats ordinarily have brown fur with a reddish tinge that is marked with black or brown places or stripes, in accordance to the National Zoo. They also have “facial ruffs” and “ear tufts” on the ideas of their ears, as very well as shorter tails.

Nonetheless, Hawley observed that Jap bobcats “tend to have pretty few spots compared to bobcats that are out west or even in the Midwest.” If they have places, they are typically in the white, underside element of the bodies or on the insides of their legs.

“We get a good deal of images despatched to us, and folks say, ‘I took this image of a mountain lion in my yard.’ And I’ll seem at it, and to me, it’s clearly a bobcat,” Hawley reported. “They’ll say, ‘Hey, you can see in the photo that it has a prolonged tail,’ and when I search at the photo, I say, ‘I see how you would see that since they way these cats walk, they’ll variety of stand and trail their rear leg. In particular when photos are blurry — which occurs a large amount in trail cameras or you will get photos taken at night or some thing on Ring cameras — that hind leg definitely does often look like a tail kind of curling up behind the animal.”

Are mountain lions native to Connecticut?

In accordance to the Connecticut Division of Vitality and Environmental Defense, mountain lions grew to become extinct in Connecticut in the 1800s, and bobcats are the only substantial wild cats uncovered in the condition. 

Having said that, the National Wildlife Federation notes that the mountain lion’s range “spreads all throughout the Americas, from the Canadian Yukon to The Strait of Magellan,” making it the “greatest assortment of any living mammal in the Americas.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service experiences that mountain lions’ typical habitat is “steep, rocky canyons or mountainous terrain,” but they usually can be identified wherever deer are present.

Hawley mentioned that the regular assortment of cougars like mountain lions is from west of the South Dakota region. 

“If a young male Cougar disperses East, rather of West, they are heading to preserve going for walks for the reason that they are likely to keep hunting for an area where by they can obtain a mate,” he stated. “And they are not going to find a single, because the women really don’t disperse like that. They usually possibly you should not disperse at all or they’ll kind of overlap their mother’s residence assortment, or they will disperse really quick distances.”

What sorts of wild cats are indigenous to Connecticut?

According to the Connecticut DEEP, the bobcat is the only wild cat found in Connecticut. It is also the most typical wild cat found in North The usa.

What do I do if I see a mountain lion?

Although recent mountain lion sightings in Connecticut have not been verified, if someone suspects they encountered a mountain lion, they should really not run absent, as it might spur a chase. In its place, folks need to stay struggling with the cat and not convert their back again on it, make noise and make by themselves seem as massive as probable by elevating their arms more than their heads with a jacket. 

Normally, Hawley stated cats like bobcats “want practically nothing to do with persons,” and they will normally prey on chickens, modest canines or cats. Usually, they will “slink out of there as swiftly as they can” to get absent from humans.