Posted on 03/12/2014 12:18:43 PM PDT by Theoria
A woman’s photograph of a big cat roaming the snowy woods near her mother’s home in a sleepy central Connecticut town has some convinced it’s a mountain lion — despite environmental officials’ assertion that cougars are extinct in the state.
Caitlin Handley posted the photograph on Durham-Middlefield Patch on March 6 under her mother Linda’s name, warning residents to keep their pets inside, and soon received a dozen comments from folks who surmised it was a bobcat.
“It was approximately 10 in the morning when I saw it,” Handley says. “I believe the animal was actually bigger than the picture shows. We have two fully grown Labrador retrievers and it was definitely bigger than they are. The dogs were barking like crazy when they first spotted it and I was shocked at first to see such a large strange animal in my backyard.
“I was also confused to exactly what it was. I immediately took a picture with my iPhone and ran to get my camera with a better zoom but by the time I made it back downstairs, the animal was running away.”
As it ran away, Handley says, she saw it was “very muscular” and although her iPhone photo doesn’t show it, the cat had a long tail.
She immediately went online to look at photographs of mountain lions to corroborate her gut feeling, Handley says.
“It definitely looked like the mountain lion pictures and not a bobcat or something similar.”
The day after Handley posted her photo on Patch, state Rep. Matthew Lesser, who used to represent Durham, Middlefield and Rockfall before redistricting, shared the post on his Facebook page asking wildlife experts what they thought.
(Excerpt) Read more at middletownpress.com ...
Bobcat
X2.
We have them here, and willing to swear to it, your looking at a mountain lion, not a bobcat, deal with both, and that is a lion.
Not if it was bigger than a full grown lab!
Now, I see the same facial tuffts as you, that would indicate bobcat....but again....size matters
Bobcat
I want one!
Clearly and obviously, it’s a mountain lion.
Chupacabra!!
Bobcat or lynx. Probably lynx.
Saber-toothed cat
It looks kinda strange with its head down. Bobcats usually go around with their heads up, on the watch for mountain lions.
Big Lynx.
Well, given your handle — you’d be an expert on the subject (I was going to go with Chupacabra - but someone already beat me to it)...
“Now, I see the same facial tuffts as you, that would indicate bobcat....but again....size matters”
I don’t think that’s a tuft. It seems to be a fork in the tree between the lens and the cougar.
http://ctmountainlion.org/category/sightings/
They're supposed not to be in Georgia either, yet I saw one crossing a road south of Columbus 10 or 12 years ago. Florida panther I imagine.
Large bobcat.
That looks like a bobcat to me. There have been a number of verified bobcat sightings in Massachusetts this winter. A mountain lion was killed in a traffic accident in CT in June 2011.
I saw a bobcat in Concord, MA about seven years ago. Scary looking creature. I don’t want anything to do with them.
That’s a cougar.
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