Readers may recall a recent “On The Trail” column accompanied by trail-camera photos of an East Colrain doe with what appeared to be claw marks raked across both rib cages, as though it had escaped a large predator that had jumped on its back and tried unsuccessfully to pull it down.
My guess, and that of others who saw it, including camera owner Steven Curtiss, suspected the marks could have been made by a wayward cougar.
Well, that column drew some interesting responses by email and telephone, including one from former state Deer Project Leader John McDonald, who viewed the gouges and speculated that the deer may have tangled with a barbed-wire fence, not a living creature.
“Not sure what to make of the scars on that deer,” he wrote. “The only animal that would have that kind of spacing between the claws would be a bear, but I’m not willing to say that’s what did it. I’m more inclined to think it was a barbed-wire fence that made those marks.”
Meanwhile, Hawley forester Greg Cox emailed an entirely different take that suggested something else after he had attended a Massachusetts Foresters Council meeting and workshops in Westborough.
“Retired Department of Conservation and Recreation forester Rich Valcourt from Phillipston told me that he had heard about a horse found this summer with similar claw marks on its back,” he wrote. “More than one of the foresters at the meeting said they’d seen a large cat (larger than a bobcat) with a long tail when they were working in the woods in the past year. Foresters spend most of their time in the woods and see a lot of wildlife during their day.
“Valcourt said he saw a large cat stalking a deer recently but couldn’t see the tail to determine if it was a really big bobcat or what. An avid deer hunter, he noticed the cat because he was watching the deer.”
Hmmmmmm? The mystery and intrigue continue.
Barbed wire?
Well, I suppose we can’t rule it out.
Val Percuoco of Leominster landed the new Massachusetts record for white perch on Oct. 16. She caught the 3 lb. 8 oz. fish at Wachusett Reservoir, breaking the 1994 record by 3 oz. The fish was 18 inches long and had a girth of 13.5 inches. That’s some mighty good eating.
News from New Hampshire: Some beautiful deer have thus far been taken in the northern part of the Granite State. While collecting data at a biological check station at L.L. Cote in Errol, N.H., biologist Andrew Schafermeyer checked several huge deer over the opening muzzleloader weekend. Three of the deer were harvested in Wildlife Management Unit (WMU) A and had field-dressed body weights of 265, 246 and 209 pounds. Another buck weighing a whopping 266 pounds was harvested in WMU C2.The estimated deer kill through Oct. 30 was 3,154. That total is down 19 percent from last year at this point in the season, and is the sixth highest in the past nine years. Hillsborough, Rockingham, and Grafton counties are showing the highest registration totals to date. This includes results through the first weekend of the muzzleloader season. … According to state turkey biologist Ted Walski, semi-drought weather this past spring/summer contributed to good turkey hatching success and survival. Numerous turkey flocks were reported during the summer and fall months, but the abundant acorn crops make it harder for hunters to pattern turkey movements. Also, turkeys tend to stay in the woods and are thus less visible in the fields. Beginning this fall, the shotgun season was lengthened from five to seven days, with the addition of a weekend. It will be interesting to see how many turkeys were taken on the added weekend days. Preliminary numbers (as of November 3) show that a total of 862 turkey registration forms have been received by Fish and Game so far. Of these, 656 registration forms were entered from the seven-day shotgun turkey season that ran Oct. 10-16 and 206 from the archery season. The archery turkey season will continue through Dec. 15 in most of the state but closes on Dec. 8 in WMU-A. Last year, the total three-month archery season registered 338 turkeys and the then five-day fall shotgun season registered 704 for a combined fall 2015 total of 1,042. … A total of 52 hunters succeeded in taking moose during the 9-day season. With a total of 72 permits issued, this represents a statewide success rate of 72 percent. That compares favorably with last year’s overall success rate of 69 percent. The breakdown for the harvest this year was 45 bulls and 7 cows. … As of Oct. 16, a total of 732 bears (393 males, 339 females) had been reported to the bear project. Bait hunters harvested 479 bears (267 males, 212 females), still hunters/stalkers took 186 bears (92 males, 94 females) and hound hunters recorded 67 bears (34 males, 33 females). The current overall harvest sex ratio is 1.2 males per female. The bait harvest tally achieved this fall represents a new record, exceeding the previous record of 430 in 2012. On a regional basis, 148 bears have been taken in the North, 229 in the White Mountains, 210 in the Central, 75 in Southwest-1, 69 in Southwest-2 and 1 in the Southeast region. The harvest achieved this fall in the Southwest-2 region represents a new record level for that region, surpassing the previous highest harvest of 57 bears in 2012. Currently, this year’s bear take is 30 percent above the 5-year in-season average of 562 bears for this time period. The current harvest is 28 percent above the 2015 level at this point in the season.