So I reached down to grab the camera and looked back and like a ghost it's gone. Is there a way we can learn more about these dispersing mountain lions that may travel through the Granite State and that I would ask you certainly part about whether or not a he's spending too much time chasing down these kind of false leads or B would rather be doing something else that is more informative to whether or not we actually have or can prove that we have dispersing mountain lions in the state. They absolutely do. The last known mountain lion killed in New Hampshire is displayed at the Woodman Museum in Dover. You know perhaps poke around where you saw it and see if you can find a track. You know I think it's there's a lady Holly Ernst out in California who has done a lot of the genotyping of mountain lions in Northern California the ones that are of course most people have heard about taking down hikers bikers etc. The tail leave is a giveaway but not everybody gets to see the tail. People were calling the New Hampshire Fish and Game director's office saying why are you dragging your feet on this. Sam Evans-Brown: I just want to say the bang and word you just heard I think to me exemplifies why it's really hard to come up with with positive you know 100 percent certain evidence that you've that what you've got is a mountain lions. So so they're just a very resilient species and they're pretty they're pretty neat. Can you tell us about that story. They lived perhaps elsewhere in New England and they were just passing through and happened to have an encounter of some sort. For evidence of a free-roaming, wild and native mountain lion, we must look back to 1874. Wes Siler. I saw the tail end of a literally from behind the shoulder The Long Tail mountain lion crossing the highway going from Password to often Village downtown. I really really enjoyed listening to this program so thank you all very much. Really appreciate it. Do we have native species that could have exhibited this type of behavior leaving leaving a deer carcass up in a tree. Peter Biello: Sam I wanted to ask you a little bit about that first and then turn to Patrick Tate efficient game. Patrick Tate: So I'm not sure what subspecies of cat they're using to differentiate by those markings but once she was describing the White other face in the black. Absolutely there are a lot of folks out there who for some reason need to create something that raises a stir and gets the attention of the media etc.. Peter Biello: From New Hampshire Public Radio I'm Peter Biello in for Lark Knoy and this is the exchange. We'll hear more about the mountain lions impact and the role it plays in the ecosystem. Wed love to be part of the first verified sighting. And you know all that. Almost all species disperse greater distances than females. Now again I don't know that there's anything to that. As I tried to get a picture of it so there was it was definitely we looked up all the pictures and it was definitely not a bobcat or anything else being it looked just like a mountain lion. So let's let's go to the phones. N.H.'s Fish and Game department says there's no proof mountain lions live in the state, yet residents from Bedford to Berlin have been reporting sightings for years. I've had a number of people call up and say I found a scout in the woods and I want it DNA identified. I just want to tell you a story that I read. Caller: It had to be a mountain lion convinced I was about 30. So this whole illegal pet trade black market pro trade thing does does exist in a situation like that can happen. Patrick Tate: In theory it's a passing ball of a court and it goes wherever the bottom Ball wants to go. Thank you very much for listening. That's why we always go back to the physical evidence to support what they're reporting. And still the the folks there did weren't able to come up with it with 100 percent certainty what deposited that scat. They are the same thing. So I did a bunch of research and all the documentation I found was there art are not any pieces of DNA of Eastern online. Let us know your story and share your photos. John you're on the air. So and so they so they do get pretty involved. OK. Rick van de Poll: Rick and I would add that if a mountain lion male takes up residence and successfully finds a female as pets there's gonna be a lot more evidence there will be like deer carcasses up in trees and territorial marking and claw marks and tracks and it you know dispersal is gonna be very tough to see or observed but residential parrots a totally different story. M from Tree Hill author series presenting Diane lay back. But if you were to get Western dispersing mountain lions just would just sort of expanding into New Hampshire. We want answers. That's pretty elaborate. Yes. Sam Evans-Brown: Well and I think and the last takeaway here is everyone I think probably agrees that any possible sightings that have been seen. Listeners give us a call if you'd like. PublishedNovember 16, 2018 at 6:16 AM EST. Patrick Tate: So Cougar Mountain Lion katama. But you can continue the conversation on Facebook or at our Web site and HP Borg. So what a neat experience. Author of The last woman in the forest on Saturday July 13th at 7 p.m. at Warner town hall Warner historical dawg. There'd be there'd be all sorts of you know basically a lot of hassle required if that were to happen. If you go on YouTube and search mount lion Pat you can see people patent their hundred pound kiddie like its regular mascot cat. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. Russ, from Sandwich (and Bedford) asks: In Sandwich New Hampshire, everybody has a story about seeing a mountain lion. John if you're still on the line here I was going to I don't. Mike thanks for your call. Second when I when they did forward it from Wyoming to to Michigan you know this was coming right from sample 18 and 19 had no remarkable differences from known mountain lions from Michigan or Wyoming. The second story window through about 30 feet away from it. So so do what you can get to do what you can to get proof. Caller: I got home to my wife that a gene that you should have seen the cat. Still, it's been over 100 years since the last mountain lion was killed east of the Mississippi, except for a patch of them down in Florida, where there are supposed to be 100 to 200 still living. Caller: Oh yeah. So Marty can you see what I'm getting at is the public sees different names and thinks that they're different animals but it's all the same animal. I can't tell you what you saw but it sounds like a mountain lion. I mean they're a survivor. John. I mean I that said I've lived out west for nine years. I mean it wasn't your idea. Part II. Caller: And the more I thought about it the color of it it was definitely not a bobcat. SUE Morse naturalist and science director for the organization keeping track. Peter Biello: And then it ran away okay. She was having a garden party on her back porch and everybody in the party saw this mountain lion across the field down below the porch. Join as a sustainer and support independent local news for your community. In Vermont, it was 1881. Have it reported down in the Keene area. Patrick Tate: So I just got to throw a little interesting side note in this. And here we're talking about in this situation we're talking about it migrated from the West. So before we get to the the the the stories of sightings we're getting a lot of calls. Early in the morning. So so it is possible in Maine to still to to to have one but you have to be sort of professional handler as it were. So. So for those reasons I don't believe the standards are too high the amount of game cameras out on the landscape to record images department alone through contracts had over 150 throughout the state biologists go through various deer yards throughout the year. He studied Politics and Spanish at Bates College, and before reporting was variously employed as a Spanish teacher, farmer, bicycle mechanic, ski coach, research assistant, a wilderness trip leader and a technical supporter. We'd love to have you in the queue. Mountain lion or cat running across. Thanks for your call. Phone number 1 800. Okay. So there's even debate about that very subject. But you've done some reporting on this. I actually been interviewed a couple of times by reporters and with all due respect for the media you know facts aren't always communicated correctly. I just saw the head and the tail that was leaving. We had six copies printed out each. But Absence of Evidence Is Not Evidence of Absence, Right? And then just up behind it you know at about 11 o'clock on one side and whatever that would be on the other side it's black. Patrick Tate: And there's one other way to model that is the same animal. It was not a bobcat. A lot of times. I looked at the picture and asked me what do you see in the picture and I wrote back. So so. There's no logic for why they'd be listed as an endangered species. And so a mountain lion is actually quite large right. Peter Biello: The number is 1 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7. And sometimes I've seen pictures of those where it's the question is What is that is that a bobcat. It's not a skinny rope like tail like a housecat. DNA from scat or from fur, a clear track that is confirmed by an expert, or a photo that clearly shows a mountain lion. What's going on. I just don't understand the mechanism for how that would happen. Sam Evans-Brown: But I mean the video I had been sent was you know a recording of a animal growling but it was in slow motion and when I asked the person why is this in slow motion the denied that it was so there's a lot of weird stuff that happens in regards to people claiming they've seen they've seen these things. Fear for others and those two polarizing opinions on the situation is what I believe brings out mystique and Sam you know I take kind of a long view on this. That's the real story is they can't follow up on every one of these sightings. And so I just wanted to share my share my experience with you guys and it was pretty awesome to see if you get to see one albeit it was in the brush. Rick van de Poll: 80 90. It doesn't make much sense because you know mountain lions are as we as we said before. The term is because mascots notwithstanding right that they're referred to with a lot of different terms and sometimes they can be confused with a lot of different terms. The evidence for the 1874 cougar is so hard that it's held in a display case in the State Museum of . No doubt in my mind it was. And I just said I saw I saw they from behind the shoulder all the way past the long tail. As recently as 2011 there was one young male mountain lion that cruised all the way from the black hills of South Dakota, up over the Great Lakes, down through New Yorkgetting spotted all along the waykilled a beaver near the Quabbin Reservoir in Central Massachusetts, left behind prints and DNA at that site, and then was hit by a car in Connecticut. lewis structure for ch2cl. The American Lion The Saber tooth Tiger and this was the one that survived. You're on the air. The species that once inhabited the Northeast, known as the eastern mountain lion, is now extinct. Thanks for taking my call. He shifted gears in 2016 and began producing Outside/In, a podcast and radio show about the natural world and how we use it. His work has won him several awards, including two regional Edward R. Murrow awards, one national Murrow, and the Overseas Press Club of America's award for best environmental reporting in any medium. Peter Biello: Well hey Rob. Sam Evans-Brown: Well this might be a good moment to talk about hoaxes. Get your tickets today and one for fifty dollars or six for 150 at NH PR and board. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. Give us a call if you have a question or comments or story about perhaps seeing a mountain lion here in New Hampshire. And they used to be this whole list of the different subspecies of mountain lion and it has since been reduced to just to the North American and the South American. To date most of the pictures that have been sent in have been bobcats and other species Ive received pictures of house cats. Now that to me seemed to indicate that they had done the secondary workup that in my opinion proved the existence of probably a disperse or possibly from South Dakota like the one in 2011. Rick van de Poll: Oh yeah absolutely. And they were using all the habitat. And just one more note about this danger question when even when you look at the states that have extended populations stable populations of mountain lions attacks are relatively rare. Let's talk to Mike in Webster. Listeners we'd love to hear some of your thoughts on this. Peter Biello: Well yeah. Really appreciate you guys being here as well. And listeners this has been a lively conversation we're sorry we didn't get to all the the e-mailed comments and the phone calls your stories are appreciated even if we didn't get a chance to hear them today. Rick van de Poll: Absolutely. I've actually had to walk in on one or two now and look at what was going on and figured out what was going on. More recently, in 2011, a mountain lion roamed Connecticut before being hit and killed by a car. Patrick Tate: It's wow interesting that you brought this up because I've had people report I saw cardamom. Do they travel. So you want identifiable backgrounds. I'll send it to you. Credit: Elizabeth Nichols via Storyful . Sam Evans-Brown: Certainly that is a thing I've heard but again you have to think of the incentives involved here. Which brings us to the next question, what are the odds that some of these reported sightings (which, when I posted about this on twitter, I immediately started to get as well) are actually people seeing a mountain lion? The last wild mountain lion in New Hampshire may have been killed in the White Mountains in 1885. I'm Peter B yellow. He played a pivotal role and he battled for recognition. And the cougar embodies that. The sightings have not been confirmed; in fact, there have been no confirmed mountain lion sightings in New Hampshire since one was shot and killed on the seacoast in the 1850s, said Patrick Tate . They reported seeing the big tail and everything everything. New Hampshire Fish and Game Department says there's no proof. Sam Evans-Brown: Well first I want to sort of explain why what the theory is but then also throw a bit of cold water on it because I don't think there's much much logic behind it but essentially is that if fish and game were to acknowledge that there was a population of Mount lions in the state there's a chance that something like a listing under the federal Endangered Species Act might happen and then there'd be you know some they'd have to put a plan in place to protect the species there'd be you know restrictions put on development. Rick van de Poll: Well a report that you know as John Harrigan up north has in co-ops County for about 15 years I kept track of reports and people would call me and tell me where they saw the mountain lion they thought they saw it and it varied right from you know downtown villages all the way to remote highlands of the North Country and and everywhere in between. Were there any differences between these two that we could have noticed right off. Join as a sustainer and support independent local news for your community. So if you were to ask me has a mountain lion ever passed through New Hampshire and been spotted by somebody who wasnt able to get hard evidence? Id personally be willing to say "probably, yes.". And as the biologist who's gonna stand on this and if I'm going to say this is a proven picture I need to be able to stand on it so soundly and have the evidence so I going to go through it with a fine tooth comb kept picking pieces apart trying to answer these pieces. So and so the idea that they can follow up on every individual sighting is just crazy right. Since then, there have been a handful of confirmed mountain lion sightings in the Northeast, although most have been thought to be escaped captive animals. State officials confirmed the presence of a mountain lion near the Quabbin Reservoir in the late 1990s. They're the generalists that made it through both the arrival of the Clovis people with their with their spears and then the Europeans with their guns. It was killed in Lee New Hampshire in 1853. They're very loyal to what the handler which makes them very dangerous to everyone else. So they're not afraid of humans and they'll show up like a regular housecat. Now Bobcat is a completely different species. We mentioned that one cat that was hit by a car where it has it that it was a male looking for me. Peter Biello: Oh okay. We have evidence and as biologists we would find it quite exciting to find that evidence of one in the state. Novartis sold $1.1 billion worth of Gilenya in the U.S. last year, a 19% drop from 2021 that was caused in part by generic competition, according to . As far as I could tell there was a positive DNA sequence coming from the scat sample Patrick. Love hearing these stories. But are there mountain lions living in New Hampshire? Someone's got to see one they're very secretive. And because you know things flow downhill and I was pushed to go investigate it more and met with the individual two or three times and there was a bunch of inconsistencies about the photograph. Peter Biello: So a little bit of nostalgia maybe for it for a better world embodied in the mountain lion. Information that weed family automotive dot com sunny for today high temperatures low to mid 80s clear tonight overnight lows in the 50s tomorrow sunny highs in the upper 80s. So I just throwing that out there it's interesting. Osga's group of volunteers sent hair samples. I tracked cats and all the western states. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. Mountain lions when they show up they leave evidence. The number 1 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7 so promised a discussion about conspiracy theories. I think that you probably are. Rick van de Poll: Well education is the real important thrust of of what all of us do as biologists and Game Managers and to make sure that a things like what Sam was saying that in spite of what you believe the mountain lions will not eat your children they will not steal your pets from your backyard and they will not necessarily be seen by you unless you're extremely lucky. Fish and Game looked into the labs to have them confirm the information in the reports which the labs did not. Ive received pictures of dogs at odd angles, says Tate. But but I've also seen it cited the opposite way that look they're very secretive. Patrick Tate: So the individuals can say that but for an agency that's based on science and what not to to go off with no evidence and then get into that giant debate and all these other issues and put credibility at risk I don't think that would be a great path to take. Tonight, Sean McDonald . We've met Fish and Game's BURDEN OF PROOF. Possible Mountain Lion Sighting in New Hampshire CONCORD, N.H. -- The New Hampshire Fish and Game Department today reported that one of its staff members, following up on a routine report of a mountain lion sighting, saw what is believed to be a mountain lion in a rural area of Barnstead, N.H. Peter Biello: This is the exchange on an HD PR fine Peter Biello and today we're talking with folks who can tell us about the mysterious elusive mountain line and whether or not it is actually here in New Hampshire. It was a 140-pound male mountain lion, the first confirmed in Connecticut in more than 100 years. 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