The Eastern mountain lion was declared extinct in March by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, but it looks like one hardy cat may have been keeping his species alive in the wilds of Connecticut. Or maybe it was just a different subspecies of mountain lion that escaped or was released by some sick bastard illegally keeping him as a pet. Either way, the kitty was killed by an SUV Saturday morning. But are there more out there?
Residents of fancy Greenwich, Connecticut and other towns have been reporting sighting mountain lions for weeks, and despite the death of this one, Greenwich police continue to receive reports of the ferocious felines. But authorities are urging citizens to remain calm, and they've decided that this was the only mountain lion roaming around. "DEP continues to believe that the animal killed in Milford was indeed the one seen in Greenwich," DEP Deputy Commissioner Susan Frechette told reporters yesterday. "Until we have something that we can really go on — a fresh paw print, a photo — we will go on the assumption that there is only one."
The 140-pound cat may have escaped from domestic captivity (which is illegal), but maybe not—he was lean, not declawed, and not neutered. Scientists will conduct a necropsy to determine what kind of diet it had been surviving on, and also to figure out if it's a South American or North American mountain lion. (The Hartford Courant reports that most of the mountain lions in the pet trade come from South America.) Officials say the last confirmed sighting of a mountain lion in the area was in the 19th century; the eastern mountain lion was relentlessly hunted and trapped until it disappeared forever.
Still, the DEP advises Connecticut residents to "watch their children, watch their pets," and not leave any pet food outside. Two seniors citizens who regularly walk in Milford told Fox CT yesterday, "We decided to pick up a few sticks" for protection during their stroll. (A laser pointer couldn't hurt, either.) Locals swear there are more of them out there, and they don't trust the DEP one bit. But a government spokesman tells the Times, "We’ve never been presented with any credible evidence of a native population. There is a school of thought out there that we are knowingly denying it, but there is no reason the Department of Environmental Protection would do that." He then presumably cut the interview short and boarded a helicopter transporting him to his cougar-proof bunker deep under Greenwich Town Hall.
And here's another sad photo of a dead animal that could eat your children alive and still come after you for seconds:
Courtesy of Connecticut State Police
