Animal 411

Mountain Lion Seen on Briscoe Road

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A Briscoe Road woman on Monday saw a mountain lion while walking her dog, in what New Canaan Police are classifying as a credible cougar sighting, the third of 2018. 

Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section, called for residents in the area of Briscoe and North Wilton Roads to check surveillance video for images of the animal. “We have had enough sightings that we believe are credible and people just need to always be alert,” Halm said. “We do live in the woods. Everyone needs to be prepared to see a bear, to see a mountain lion, always. We can’t let our guard down.

Animal 411

Police: Mountain Lion Sighting Reported on Marvin Ridge Road

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Police on Thursday received a credible report of a mountain lion sighting on Marvin Ridge Road, officials say. The 7:30 a.m. sighting of the cougar crossing a backyard comes about three months after the last one and just a few houses away, according to Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section. Halm is calling for all homeowners in the area of 250 Marvin Ridge Road above Nursery Road to check surveillance cameras so that police can get at least one visual confirmation. The sighting checks out, as the man who spotted the animal without prodding described a tawny- or beige-colored feline about as large as a golden retriever and with a long tail, Halm said. Both sightings occurred in the area of the Fivemile River watershed.

Allyson Halm

Mountain Lion Seen on Nursery Road in New Canaan

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[Editor: Please note that this article is from 2018. For unknown reasons, enough people began re-reading the story in January 2020 that it resurfaced in our ‘Most Popular’ widget. Also there’s been a lot of idiots submitting comments on this article in recent weeks, so we are disabling the comment thread.]

Town officials said on Monday that they received a credible report of a mountain lion sighting in New Canaan earlier this month. The Jan. 16 sighting on the eastern end of Nursery Road (near the Merritt Parkway) came in from a man who described a tail three feet long—a physical characteristic that distinguishes the cougar from smaller felines, such as bobcats—and saw the animal directly in front of his car, walking under a streetlight, in a well-lit area, according to Officer Allyson Halm, head of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section.

Animal 411

State Wildlife Experts: Purported Mountain Lion Tracks in New Canaan Inconclusive

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State officials say they’re unable to conclude definitively what animal left large paw prints in a New Canaan backyard after a woman who saw the animal that made them claimed it was a mountain lion. According to Dennis Schain, communications director for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, wildlife experts examined the photos from Fox Run Road and would “consider further photos or other evidence—scat, fur—if anyone is able to provide that.”

In fact, residents of a property nearby on Valley Lane told local officials that they also had photographs of similar-looking paw prints and those have been forwarded to the state, according to Officer Allyson Halm of the New Canaan Police Department’s Animal Control section. It wasn’t immediately clear whether those photos would help the DEEP Wildlife Division reach a conclusion or what direction the animal in question appeared to be traveling, if it’s the same one. Halm said that while it’s not “panic mode” at this point for New Canaanites, they should be aware. Residents should absolutely avoid the big cat if they see it, and report sightings to Animal Control, Halm said—as they should with any bear sightings, which she’s expecting soon.

Animal 411

Mountain Lion Sighting Reported in New Canaan [PHOTOS of Paw Prints]

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State wildlife experts are assessing photos of paw prints taken last week in New Canaan to determine whether they show clear evidence of a mountain lion, as reported by one town resident who claims to have seen the animal. At about 6:17 p.m. on March 30, a Fox Run Road resident contacted police, saying she’d seen a mountain lion slink through her neighbor’s backyard, according to Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm. Officials snapped pictures of paw prints at the scene and “our wildlife experts are assessing these photos to see if they can determine the source of them,” Dennis Schain, communications director for the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, told NewCanaanite.com. Also known as ‘cougars’ or ‘pumas,’ mountain lions are reclusive creatures that feed mainly on deer, raccoons, rodents and various small mammals, experts say. Five summers ago, a mountain lion made regional headlines after it was photographed in Greenwich and later struck and killed by a motor vehicle on the parkway in Milford—a young male that DEEP officials determined through DNA evidence had traveled east all the way from South Dakota.