Quote:
Originally Posted by Belkin
My wife and I were driving to the Merrimack dump in the winter way back in the early 90s. A very large and long cat slowly crossed the road about 50 feet in front of us on the dirt road near the dump. It was very dark grey, almost like charcoal. It had a somewhat bulbous head and a thick long tail, that was very much like one we saw at the MOS in Boston, though the one at the MOS was yawned. It was very cold and there was a hard layer of crusty snow, so there were no tracks left behind. I know they also found some droppings a number of years back in the Ossipee mountains in Moultonborough. When I hiked there I did see some large cat-like tracks in the mud, but I am no expert. I think there is clear evidence that there are mountain lions in the area occasionally. I think the official position is they are just transients and do not really live here.
|
To translate from "Boston talk"--like Boston directions...take the tunnel to the bridge and it'll take you right there.
MOS=Museum of Science?
Yawned=tawny?
Alternative names a-plenty:
Mountain Lion=Puma=Catamount=Cat-a-Mountain=Cougar=Panther...all are
Puma concolor to the people who study them.
There was a Mountain Lion roadkill in Connecticut--maybe ten years ago. I think it was a male, which is typical of New England's transient species.
Videos of Porch-prowling, too, but the state (CT) was in dispute.
Florida has a sub-species of Panther, but their numbers are fewer than 50 statewide. (Too few to maintain the species without interbreeding with its Western cousins).
There's a YouTube video of a Puma's successful attack on an alligator in a jungle pond.
