It was a 140-pound male mountain lion, the first confirmed in Connecticut in more than 100 years. The next week, on June 11, the cat was hit and killed by an SUV on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Milford. Based on this blurry photo and pawprints, DEEP confirmed it was likely a mountain lion. Then in June 2011, there were reports of a mountain lion in Greenwich and, for the first time, a photo.

Even so, for decades, skeptics dismissed mountain lion sightings in Connecticut out of hand, pointing out that if the cats were here in anywhere close to the number of reported sightings, there would be DNA and physical evidence of their presence, not to mention photos and videos. Sometimes referred to as the ghosts of the forest, mountain lions or cougars are stealthy hunters that are hard to spot, even in areas they are known to inhabit. In yet another variant, DEEP is said to be helicoptering mountain lions in to help control the deer population. In another version, it’s about habitat protection and the onerous federal regulations the state would have to follow if we found a mountain lion within the state. In some versions, state officials don’t want to alarm people about the feline predators in their midst. What would motivate DEEP officials to do this isn’t clear. These sightings are so persistent that there is a conspiracy theory that says DEEP officials know mountain lions are in the state but cover up their existence. Tim Abbott, the regional land conservation and greenprint director for the Housatonic Valley Association, says that during a lecture on mountain lions last winter at Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village, when the speaker asked if anyone had seen a mountain lion, half of the roughly 400 people in attendance raised their hands. Ask people who spend time outside Connecticut cities and you will hear firsthand or secondhand accounts of mountain lions. That’s only a fraction of the supposed sightings. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection receives 50-100 reports of mountain lions each year, says Paul Rego, a wildlife biologist with the department. While other states have their Bigfoot and sea monster sightings, in Connecticut, and throughout much of the Northeast, we see mountain lions - even when we’re told such sightings are unlikely, if not outright impossible. But that doesn’t stop people from seeing them. Officially, the last mountain lions were hunted to extinction here in the late 1800s. (My wife didn’t get a look at the tail.) Another important difference: bobcats are found in Connecticut while mountain lions are not. A bobcat’s tail is short and bob-like, while mountain lions have long, curving tails that can grow up to 3 feet.

Heart of a lion by william stolzenburg