by Guy Page 

Minutes after the Vermont Daily Chronicle news story  “Mountain Lions Wiped out 142 years ago” posted Friday morning, reader comments to the contrary began.

“I have twice seen a big cat and it did NOT have little tufts of hair on its ears nor was it only 30 pounds,” home schooling leader Retta Dunlap of Woodbury reported. “One was sitting on my driveway with my headlights on it wagging its tail. It was a standoff for a few short seconds. I have other family members who have seen them around the time I saw this one, whatever it was. So the mystery continues.”

Don’t believe what the government tells you, at least not about mountain lions, Jonathan Johnson said:

“Yeah, the official narrative is they’re gone, but nope, my wife and I have seen them twice, once in Panton and another time in Leicester. BIG cats (significantly larger than a bobcat) with long tails, tawny.”

Johnson went on to speculate about why the State is sticking to its story.

“It’s my belief that the biologists know it, but are keeping mum. It would create a whole federal protection burden element that is probably being avoided by not talking about it.”

Are game wardens being intentionally obtuse?

“A friend took a photo of one, long tail plainly visible, from his game camera to Fish and Game. They looked him straight in the face and said, ‘That’s a bobcat,’” Tyler Austin said. 

“I had one cross Route 121 in Windham in front of my car in summer of 2015. I stopped, seeing the tawny color, thought it was a deer, then seeing the pink face, not knowing WHAT I was looking at, then the loping stride across the road, then the tail,” Austin said. “It disappeared into the woods on the other side of the road before I figured out what it was, as I had no idea or expectation of a cat, let alone one that size.

“They’re in Vermont. Don’t tell the tourists. They might get triggered.”

“Saw one in the Rockingham, Grafton, Chester area several years ago,” Steve Hearne said. “Long J hook tail with a pug face and that tawny color. The hunting regulation manual used to say non-existent but now says no open season, last time I looked.”

Another reader said:

“At least 30 years ago our horses were startled by a mountain lion crossing Middle Rd. in Colchester. We were just as surprised as they were! Neighbors on north Middle Rd. confirmed they saw it as well.”

Prem Prekash wrote, “In Nov, 2001, near the Salisbury [Addison County] swamp, I saw a mountain lion. I knew right away what I was seeing as I’ve seen bobcats many times, and this animal was so much larger. I watched him for a good 15 mins, at one point getting close enough that I could literally see his eyes (I then backed away carefully because I realized I was too close to such a predator). I watched him run across a field for about 50 yards, and he was very much a lion, about five or six feet long, with a tail some three feet long. I later went back and found tracks in the snow. The were enormous, nothing like a bobcat, much larger than even a lynx would have been.

“When I walked back to my car, a fellow driving a cement truck was parked on the road. He also saw the panther. I called VT Fish & Wildlife. The guy I spoke with talked with me and later called the cement truck driver. He called me later and stated it was a confirmed sighting. His included the caveat that it could have been an escaped animal. I said, “Escaped? From where? Who could have housed such an animal?” He chuckled and admitted he didn’t know.”

I Don’t believe there are no mountain lions in VT because I saw one 4 or 5 years ago while driving on Rt. 116 a few miles north of Hinesburg,” Save L. wrote in his comment “I saw it cross a field, Rt. 116 and then it was gone into the woods. I had 2 or 3 minutes that I could see it at about 75 yrds at first and 25 yrds when it crossed the road in front of me. There is no doubt in my mind that it was a mountain lion and not a bobcat. It was way too big and not the mottled color of a bobcat. It was an even tan all over. It was for sure a mountain lion.”

His final word on the subject speaks for others as well: “Fish & Game can say what they want. I know what I saw.”