June 28, 2009
Track of the Cat
The Morning Sentinel for June 28, 2009, has confirmed that a track has been found in conjunction with the Winslow, Maine sighting.
In an article that covered much of the same ground as the earlier report, no pun intended, the following new details about the track emerged. Scott Monroe penned the news item:
A state wildlife biologist has investigated the reported sighting of a mountain lion in Winslow.
The biologist, Kendall Marden, didn’t find any evidence such as hair or feces to scientifically confirm the presence of the animal.
But something else was discovered: what appears to be a large paw print in sand and dirt by the side of the road. It appears to measure 6 to 9 inches long and 5 inches wide.
* * *
Wally Jakubas, mammal-group leader for the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife and the agency’s point person on mountain lions, said [Lin] Stout’s description of the animal seemed to fit. Jakubas also said there had been another possible mountain-lion report last week in the north Augusta area, in which a feces sample (also known as scat) was recovered and is being analyzed.
Jakubas said Thursday that the scat had been found in the middle of a driveway and no tracks were found around it.
“I and a couple other biologists are going to take a closer look at it,” he said.
Late Tuesday, Marden inspected the scene in Winslow, Stout said. He found indentations that would indicate the spot where the animal had been laying, but no genetic evidence was recovered, Stout said.
Stout said Marden requested that she look up photos of fisher cats, which are commonly mistaken for mountain lions. Stout said she spent hours researching online and she and her sons looked at many pictures of fisher cats.
“It was not a fisher cat,” Stout said.
* * *
[After the earlier newspaper article,] Rob Winter said he and other co-workers, jokingly, thought they would look around the South Ridge Drive area. Winter, employed by Dunn Builders of Vassalboro, has been working at a house-construction site just down the road from Stout’s property.
“It’s definitely a large, cat-like print,” Winter said. “We have a couple of large dogs here on site and, compared with their prints, it’s colossal.”
Shown an image of the print, Jakubas said, “I cannot say what made it.”
“It looks like at least two tracks on top of one another — 9 inches of disturbed soil,” Jakubas said. “I cannot distinguish toe pads or even a general shape from the picture.”
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
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