Join Susan Morse, nationally known wildlife ecologist and tracker, and The Nature Museum for “Coming Soon: The Cougar Returns to the East.” On Wednesday, January 20th, at 7 p.m. at the News Bank Conference Center in Chester, Sue Morse, one of the most experienced naturalists in the United States, will present her findings on cougars returning to the East. "We need our apex carnivores in a big way," Morse says. "We need them for the health of our forests.” In some areas of the east, the absence of apex predators has led to a surplus of deer, which have then ravaged the understory and ground levels of vegetation.
This indoor environmental education talk is geared for adults and children over 9. More information and early bird $7 tickets are available at www.nature-museum.org. Tickets at the door will be $10 until sold out. The News Bank Conference Center is located at 352 Main Street in Chester, VT. The snow date for this event is February 3.
Vermont's last known cougar, also known as a mountain lion or catamount, was killed in 1881 in Barnard. In 2011, a cougar was hit by a car and killed on a Connecticut highway. Subsequent DNA testing found that the animal was from South Dakota. There is no question about it: cougars are not only being seen in eastern North America, some are attempting to recolonize their former habitats. Where once it was flatly dismissed as impossibility in the so-called “developed” east, scientists have now documented cougar dispersals and occupancy of a growing list of eastern states and provinces. Join us for a magnificently illustrated introduction to cougar biology and ecology in the broad diversity of habitats where Sue has studied them, from Alberta to the Mexican border. We will also get the low-down regarding the latest confirmations of cougars in the east, including the recently documented suitability of a substantial amount of wild habitats from Manitoba to Louisiana and Maine to Georgia.
Sue Morse is a nationally recognized naturalist and habitat specialist with forty years of experience tracking and monitoring wildlife uses of habitat throughout North America. When not in the field conducting research, leading training programs or photographing wildlife, Sue can often be found presenting her findings and award-winning images to a wide range of audiences. Ms. Morse founded a non-profit organization called Keeping Track® in 1994, out of her concern that development in all its forms often unwittingly harms, isolates and even eliminates habitat critical to local biodiversity and broad-scale ecological health. Using data from Keeping Track teams, agency officials, land trusts, regional planners and local boards can put their limited conservation resources to their best use. To date, more than 40,000 acres of land in 12 states and Quebec have been conserved on the basis of evidence gathered by Keeping Track teams.
Information about this and other upcoming events can be found on The Nature Museum’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/naturemuseumatgrafton) and on their website (www.nature-museum.org).
Jan 31, 2025, 10 AM to 11 PM
Make Art for the Butterfield Library Children's Room!Feb 1, 2025, 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM
Perkinsville Music SeriesFeb 2, 2025, 4 to 5:30 PM