(Hartford, Connecticut) Last month, a 140-pound mountain lion was killed by a car on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Milford. It was the first confirmed sighting of a cougar in the state since the 1880s.
Genetic testing revealed that the big cat came from a wild breeding population of about 250 mountain lions in the southwest corner of South Dakota, the Black Hills area, results released Tuesday afternoon revealed.
No one knows why the animal — a lean, 140-pound male between 2 and 4 years old — undertook a journey across the continent. But its travels were documented through Minnesota and Wisconsin, and biologists speculate that the cat then wandered through southern Ontario and New York before reaching Connecticut.
Reportedly, recent mountain lion sightings in Minnesota and Wisconsin have been positively linked to the Connecticut animal and it's believed that the big cat traveled through Ontario and New York rather than going through the populated areas south of the Great Lakes on its way to the east coast. Frankly, I'm not convinced.
The passage from Wisconsin to Ontario would require crossing a bridge or swimming across Lake Huron and either is seemingly unlikely. Traveling into New York would require crossing either the Niagara River or the St. Lawrence Seaway and both are formidable obstacles.
Interestingly, if the cat went south of the Great Lakes, he likely traveled through or close to my area.
Companion posts at TJR & AWH
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