It looked ‘like a huge cat’
New Canaan resident recounts perceived cougar sighting
The Rizos gave up on gardening at their home on White Oak Shade Road in years past because of the plethora of small animals, rabbits and squirrels included, that have laid waste to their crops. But, this year, Soula Rizo said she has not been seeing those small animals.
When she saw a large animal, thought to be a cougar, in her backyard recently, she thought she may have an answer as to why.
“So, I don’t know if it is prowling at night,” Rizo speculated on Wednesday.
Animal Control Officer Allyson Halm said that the rarity of small animals could be due to other predators.
The animal the Rizos saw “looked very strong,” and “like a huge cat,” she told Hearst on Wednesday. Further descriptions included having a “flat face,” a beige and grayish color and strutted with “a long tail curled up.” She said that she sees coyotes and fox often, “but not an animal like this.”
The large tan cat — also known as a mountain lion, puma or panther — is native to the Americas, according to the National Wildlife Federation Website. The large cat is not considered native to the state of Connecticut.
Soula said her husband John saw the animal first and asked: “What is that? What is that?” As they looked out the backyard, they saw a large animal wandering around the side of the house, go into the back yard, and through the bushes onto a neighbor’s property, she said.
She called the New Canaan Police Department and was told to call Animal Control. The Rizos have no small pets, but alerted their neighbors who do.
Rizos reported their sighting a few days before other sightings were recorded, including a large cat that was seen on Hoyt Farm Road not far from Route 123 near the Norwalk and New Canaan border.
Halm said she is getting a “crash course” on cougars. “I would associate the drop in population of small mammals with the increased population of all our predators — fox, coyote and bobcat. Small mammals are their staple,” Halm said. “Mountain lions are transient,” she said, adding that the big cats “thrive on deer.”
Cougars eat almost anything “that they can catch, including deer, rabbits, rodents and even insects,” according to the Audubon Nature Institute.
Instead, “I believe they would drag their kill off into the woods, gorge, then partially bury the remains,” Halm said. “They may hang around until the kill is consumed.”
The large cats vary in body size depending on geographic location, but generally, males weigh between 115 and 220 pounds and females weigh between 64 and 141 pounds, according to the Wildlife Federation Website.
“With increased sightings of bear and now mountain lions, it's certainly plausible that these animals are becoming part of the ecosystem and its food web,” Land Trust Executive Director Aaron Lefland said Tuesday. “But it is important to remember that their population are fairly small, whereas other predators are much more abundant.”