Do Mountain Lions Exist in the Berkshires?
I have had the pleasure of teaching the Art of Taxidermy at Westfield State University from 1980 to 2010! During my classes hunters have told stories of encounters with “The Ghost Cat” aka the Eastern Mountain Lion. About ten years ago, it was dropped from the List of Endangered Species because it was believed extinct! Therefore, people who had sighted a long-tailed cat the size of a deer were very reluctant to report what they had seen! One well known deer hunter that saw one in Granville with his partner and said that people would think him crazy (like seeing a space ship with little green men!). However, in 2015 a farmer, who lives on Beech Hill Rd told me that he saw a Mountain Lion walking across his pasture.
In a recent Mass Wildlife Magazine, Dr. Tom French had an excellent article on mountain lions. He mentioned sign, sightings, tracks and feces of mountain lions. Most were mistaken identifications, some were hoaxes and some were the real thing. He seems to believe that the few documented cougars, like the one killed by a car in Milford, Connecticut were travelling males. Other sightings may have been from cougars illegally released from captivity!
In the 1960s Cobble Mountain Reservoir was open to deer hunting and a number of deer hunters saw a Mountain Lion in the area between South St. and Cobble Mountain Rd.! In the 1990s a woman who went to my church saw a Mountain Lion walking slowly along a stone wall near Cobble Mountain Rd. There have been a number of sightings of a long-tailed cat, the size of a deer in Blandford, Russell, and Montgomery for over forty years!
A failed attempt to document the existence of Mountain Lions in our area was carried out by a biologist who asked for information on sightings! She also warned that chasing, harassing or killing a Mountain Lion was illegal and punishable with a $10,000 fine. Thus a teenaged driver, that killed a Mountain Lion cub on Route 23 was told by his father to bury it in the woods! Coon hunters were also prevented from telling of treeing a Mountain Lion out of fear of being prosecuted!
If biologists want to document that Mountain Lions exist in the Berkshires, they should ask hill town residents, who, where, when they saw a Mountain Lion, minus the $10,000 fine! Then find the location of the cats home range and bait the area and cover it with trail cameras!
Many of us can remember when moose, bear, coyotes, beaver, and fisher were rare or absent from the Berkshires! I believe that soon Mountain Lions will be the next to be discovered!
Bill Hardie
Rocky Brook Rd, Russell, MA
