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The Hartford Courant is reporting that the animal struck and killed by a car on the Wilbur Cross Parkway was a male mountain lion, a species declared extinct in New England earlier this year by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Officials speculate this is the same cat spotted in Greenwich, Conn., a week ago.
There have been occasional sightings throughout New England over the years, and a small band of believers say a population of the animals, also called catamount or eastern panther exist in the wild. Most wildlife officials dismiss reported sightings as mistakes, or in the case of irrefutable evidence, such as in the present case, that the animal must be one that escaped captivity or was released.
The eastern panther had been on the endangered species list until this past spring, when the USFWS decided, after a year of study, that it was extinct in the northeast. Further, their research suggested that the animal was extinct even before it was put on the list. This raises the question of why the agency would be so anxious to spend resources to take an extinct animal off the list.
Wouldn’t that money have been better spent studying populations that need protection?
Assuming that this animal had been kept captive by someone, then the questions would be who? And where? And just how many people would have these cats roaming around their property?
What’s missing from the story is just what are they doing to find out who might have had this cat as a pet, if indeed it had been domesticated.
I was saddened to read this week that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has declared the catamount – eastern panther – extinct. I always felt a flutter of excitement whenever I would hear of a possible sighting of this elusive big cat – so elusive in fact, it earned the nickname “ghost cat.” I have always held out hope that someone, someday would once and for all be able to show for a certainty that the big cats are out there.
Well they are, and as with all things governmental, this is not a simple story.
The eastern panther, not to be confused with the Florida panther, a slightly different species, was placed in the endangered species list in 1973. In its report outlining the reasons for declaring the catamount extinct, the wildlife service speculates that the eastern panther may have been extinct since the 1930s.
They readily concede that there have been plenty of reliable sightings of panther-like cats from Maryland to New England. Their explanation is that these are not eastern panthers, but a similar species that have either escaped from captivity or have otherwise made their way east from elsewhere. Their argument is that there is no evidence of a breeding population of eastern panthers.
That makes some sense at first glance.
But consider this.
There are dozens of reported sightings every year throughout the northeast. If a big cat – a dangerous animal – escapes from a zoo or a circus, one would think this might be big news. I can’t offhand think of reading about such an escape where such an animal was not fairly quickly recovered.
That would leave private owners, who don’t want to publicize the fact that their oversized kitty is gone. But would that account for all the sightings that have been recorded? Personally, I can be made to believe in ghosts.
Here are two links for information on both sides:
http://www.fws.gov/northeast/ecougar/
Perambulations & Ruminations 