You treat it as if it's a sincere situation. SYCAMORE, Ill. (AP) A mountain lion that was struck and killed last weekend along a northern Illinois highway will be analyzed by biologists seeking to uncover the rare animal's origins, state . Patrick Tate: Same here in New Hampshire too. Let's go now to to Kyle in Keene I believe Kyle is this Kyle Jarvis from the Keene Sentinel a former reporter and former reporter. Patrick Tate: Okay. More recently, in 2011, a mountain lion roamed Connecticut before being hit and killed by a car. And trying to figure out the little pieces to identify him so I bring up the names the differences but the appearances can be confusing for some. 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. This animal, IMHO, was probably live caught as an adult from the wild and brought to the . In Vermont, it was 1881. Author of The last woman in the forest on Saturday July 13th at 7 p.m. at Warner town hall Warner historical dawg. Have you heard stories do you have questions about the mountain line. She is renowned for tracking. So I hate the idea that there's some sort of upward you know downward pressure from the bosses saying Don't you know don't tell about the mountain lions because it'll scare away the tourists. And there are thousands of mountain lions killed every year legally through hunting, and there have been untold tens of thousands of mountain lions killed by hunters over the last hundred. And the cougar embodies that. Peter Biello: Ok weird question but do they make good pets. And what was really remarkable about the whole thing was I was maybe a half mile down on all buildings. 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. That's why we always go back to the physical evidence to support what they're reporting. Peter Biello: There have been several alleged sightings of mountain lions in New Hampshire recently. Because I mean as we've heard in the past 10 minutes like there's there's some disagreement or at least some some vagueness about what an actual mountain lion should appear like in the wild assuming we can even get close enough. So I know it's another unconfirmed report but you string enough of these together. Peter Biello: And that will make identification for a layperson rather difficult. New Hampshire Public Radio | They just end up in these places. So so do what you can get to do what you can to get proof. And I just said I saw I saw they from behind the shoulder all the way past the long tail. If youve got photo trap evidence of a Mountain Lion, send it in, and we'll send it along to the appropriate state or federal agency! They are the same thing. The species that once inhabited the Northeast, known as the eastern mountain lion, is now extinct. Caller: So I've been telling this story for five years or so and very few people believe me. Some argue that it's a leap of faith. They don't know the direction they're going. No evidence and other states where Mountain lights have turned up. Peter Biello: Rick I believe you did mention that that they do leave carcasses up in the tree from time to time but are there any other species known in New Hampshire to do this on a regular basis. The tail leave is a giveaway but not everybody gets to see the tail. Do you get a lot of these these these things that end up being hoaxes. Since then, there have been a handful of confirmed mountain. He was just walking along the river then went up into the woods . Are there other powers that be worried that scary mountain lions will scare off people from camping in New Hampshire. So I will just say this is a big reason why there have not been confirmed sightings I think is that the evidence required first. NHPR is nonprofit and independent. The evidence for the 1874 cougar is so hard that it's held in a display case in the State Museum of . The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. 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. The exchange is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio. You need you need either a really good photograph or you need you know fresh scat that can be sent to a lab out West that can they can be identified there. For me as a person who's handled many bobcats and looked at many pictures Bobcat the White chin Bobcat right off is what comes out to me and then the black the the roughs on our Bobcats we'll have sometimes have black fringes on them. Thank you. Peter Biello: So Rick seems like you agree that the tail is a big giveaway whether or not it's a mountain lion Absolutely. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. If it's just in the middle of a greenfield you can't prove anything. 8 9 2 6 4 7 7. They're just moving around freely. And when provoked no animal could stand before him elegantly put. Sam what's the incentive for the government to deny allegedly. And so a mountain lion is actually quite large right. And there are thousands of mountain lions killed every year legally through hunting, and there have been untold tens of thousands of mountain lions killed by hunters over the last hundred years, says Mark Elbroch, the Puma Program Director for Panthera, a global wild cat conservation organization, So even the folks who live with mountain lions still have a fancy and see something thats not there to me thats incredible.. Email exchange it an HP fraud org or give us a call 1 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7. Peter Biello: Yeah well what do you think Pat is. Let's talk to Mike in Webster. But on the other side of that coin there is this sense that there have been so many sightings locally and you guys Patrick you might recall the name the Wyndham McCracken she kind of turned herself into a local authority off authorities the right word but she was very dedicated to this. That's what we're seeing is dispersing mountain lions from the West who are just making their way through. So so in 2011 a mountain lion was killed in a car accident in Connecticut a car hit a mountain lion and killed it. Here it is. You need a permit to have that. My wife and I saw a mountain lion. Give today. Tonight, Sean McDonald . Sam Evans-Brown: And second the evidence required is is you know pretty pretty tough to gather. So for our scientists to do the lumping and whatnot. Peter Biello: Yeah some of what she was saying sounds like it would require getting pretty close or at least having a nice zoom lens right Sam like. Somewhere the way they travel the things they do they're going to leave evidence. Caller: Yeah I hadn't experienced blastoff fall so this was around September and I was driving from Webster into Concord on Horse Hill Road and anybody in the area would know I was right near the Red Barn and all of a sudden this animal jumps out of the woods and it bounded across the road in about two two giant leaps and stopped in the field just on the other side. I just stood there just a second and I came to a complete stop and then I ran away. But before I go any further I want to say we do not have sufficient game. I looked at the picture and asked me what do you see in the picture and I wrote back. So maybe a good pet for you but not for your neighbor if you just stop by unannounced. Thank you. Thank you very much for being here. So nowadays we think of this in the Northeast as crazy stuff that people have a mountain lion as a pet. Every other Friday on Morning Edition NHPRs Sam Evans-Brown tracks down answers to questions about the environment and outdoors for our listeners in a segment we call Ask Sam.. And those are not the same things. brings a lot of. We mentioned that one cat that was hit by a car where it has it that it was a male looking for me. Well they are the same. But you can continue the conversation on Facebook or at our Web site and HP Borg. And so far we have not had any positive mark lion scats or any DNA. Peter Biello: Well Mike thanks very much for sharing your story. Patrick Tate: And there's one other way to model that is the same animal. On a dirt road. 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. Rick van de Poll: Oh yeah absolutely. How far were you from this cat. Is this kind of a typical story. Theyve always said when we have verifiable evidence to say a mountain lion has been, is, or was in the state that wed acknowledge that and give that information out, says Pat Tate, the furbearer biologist with New Hampshire Fish and Game, who insists theres no conspiracy. And you know all that. The last wild mountain lion in New Hampshire may have been killed in the White Mountains in 1885. And those and that's how you can go from a story that Pat says I have nothing to say about that to a story that you know could be the first verified sighting in over 100 years. Peter Biello: Well Karl Jarvis a former reporter for The King's son Nile thank you very much for for calling in and sharing your perspective and to his point Patrick T. I mean yes we haven't met the scientific burden of proof here in New Hampshire as far as physical evidence is is concerned but is there room at Fish and Game For A kind of an informal nod to all of the people who have somehow convinced themselves and possibly some others that yeah there may be occasional sightings here. Tim Yeah. We're not in the woods. 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. 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. The views expressed in this program are those of the individuals and not those of an HP are its board of trustees or its underwriters. 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. About two years ago I was at the Laconia airport on the way home from the airport and there's a big lake on one side called Lily Pond. There have been several alleged sightings of mountain lions in New Hampshire recently. 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. Peter Biello: Let's go to Mike in Epping. You know perhaps poke around where you saw it and see if you can find a track. "There is a very low possibility of seeing them in the. On June 9 2021 I saw a Mountain Lion along the Connecticut river in Clarksville New Hampshire . What's interesting about Bobcats is here in the Northeast we have some very large bobcats. Really appreciate it. First off if the standard for an agency to go forward with the public and put out a press release that them outlines here their believers are going to say I told you they'd been here the whole time. State officials confirmed the presence of a mountain lion near the Quabbin Reservoir in the late 1990s. Peter Biello: So a little bit of nostalgia maybe for it for a better world embodied in the mountain lion. By, March 2023 Fund Drive Rules and Regulations, Persons with disabilities who need assistance accessing NHPR's FCC public files, please contact us at publicfile@nhpr.org. They sent it already. You know you have to have a license and it's hard to get that license a license to own a mountain lion. It was killed in Lee New Hampshire in 1853. So and so they so they do get pretty involved. And they were using all the habitat. Monday, December 5th: Mountain Lions in New Hampshire? Osga's group of volunteers sent hair samples. Caller: Oh hi. But Absence of Evidence Is Not Evidence of Absence, Right? The second one was not only fresh but when I actually put my hand on it it was you know smelled like cat and I it's there's no denying a fresh mountain lions get if you can tell it every story that KOAT. For all the men out there that don't realize it. Listeners give us a call if you'd like. Just. And I have to use that word allegedly because there is so much dispute about what people see and what they actually see. The sub-population in Florida is known as the Florida panther . There's just one subspecies of North American mountain lion. These were normal everyday folks. Sue Morse: The big cat really commands the utmost respect not so much fear but fascination. Mike you're on the air. So when we hear mountain lion there's also cougar there's wild cat there's Bobcat which is not a mountain lion maybe Patrick could you sort of spell out the different terms which are synonymous and which are completely different animals. Patrick Tate: It became a very interesting investigation over time because it started becoming. PublishedNovember 16, 2018 at 6:16 AM EST. The DNA the DNA that they were able to pull from the cat suggested that it was a dispersed mountain lion that came. 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 second story window through about 30 feet away from it. May 18, 2012 Mountain Lion Killed In Conn. So the whole media hype about how scary mountain lions are should should go away immediately and that would be that I think the major thrust of educating folks about these casualties vs.. Sam Evans-Brown: Sam go ahead. This is where things start breaking down when you so I get pictures with this great description and one of my favorite stories is a great description what the witness and then so I called the witness and wanted information from them and the person says What are you talking about. No that's a little bit outside the range. They reported seeing the big tail and everything everything. So for me as a person who's had the Bobcats right off my grits similar carries sticks to a bobcat The Long Tail obviously very different but those facial markings were overlapping for me. We had six copies printed out each. Ecosystem Management Consultants of New England, Ask Sam, and recently fielded question about mountain lions, In latest school funding trial, state attorneys argue NH districts' budgets are bloated, Lawmakers, advocates, families in NH react to Biden Admin's proposed Title IX change, Give Back NH: The New England Grassroots Environment Fund, NHs housing crisis is pushing more older adults to seek help, We also hear excerpts from an interview with, Read about the most recent cougar "sightings". But no proof was offered. A lot of times. Peter Biello: Hmm. So they're not afraid of humans and they'll show up like a regular housecat. And I can recall its information but I can't confirm or verify anything. Car Crash 65 Miles From Mass. Caller: Well I think Patrick I recognized your name. They absolutely do. lewis structure for ch2cl. Caller: I cannot recall or see the tail in my in my image of it. So I think in that story there's there's something for the believers and the nonbelievers and I and you know Mark L. Brock is who is a gentleman with the cougar Network told me this story is evidence that that if they were here we would know about it. That's the real story is they can't follow up on every one of these sightings. So when we talk about the threshold of evidence required to say for sure you have seen a mountain lion it is rather high. Peter Biello: And then it ran away okay. They're very loyal to what the handler which makes them very dangerous to everyone else. Incredible sighting and I called him the fish and game and they immediately sent me to a website to look at all the bobcat pictures. I just don't understand the mechanism for how that would happen. Caller: I do. So what a neat experience. I'm Peter Biello in for Laura NOI. He played a pivotal role and he battled for recognition. We're going to talk a little bit more about habitat first but then we'll get into sightings. Yeah I did. And it came out we could see it had and we could see its long swooping tail. I'm Peter Biello. I'll send it to you. So I don't understand really how how this this idea came to be but it is the main reason why folks believe that fishing game is is covering up the fact that there are mountain lions in the state again with no evidence. You could trace that was this same cat from point to point to point. And I was probably about a half a mile from downtown all village on the right. Now Bobcat is a completely different species. I hope she's listening and she had spoke to a lot of different people ended up having a couple of sightings of her alone without sort of by accident. As far as I could tell there was a positive DNA sequence coming from the scat sample Patrick. Patrick Tate: So it's interesting it's brought up. Peter Biello: Wow. 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. Have it reported down in the Keene area. The western mountain lion lives in a more of a grassland open area now so to blend in with a very lighted situation here in the Northeast we are very shadowy dark situation because of the forest and our cats wear a darker brownish reddish color than what they were and they were also smaller than what the western mountain lion is. Theres a project called the Cougar Network that tracks verified sightings, and they are all around us: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maine, New York and New Brunswick have all had verified sightings over the past 20 years or so. Give today. Well I can't tell you what you saw. We're gonna talk about sightings in this part of the program as well we'd love to hear your story. If youd like to submit a question (or send a mountain line photo) you can record it as a voice memo on your smart phone and send it tooustidein@nhpr.org, OR call our hotline, 1-844-GO-OTTER (1-844-466-8837) and leave a message. for some excitement. You saw what you saw. You know interactions are pretty unusual. John thanks. Patrick Tate: While a juvenile not a juvenile I guess if you want nodes to the base of the tail for juvenile that wouldn't be small at all. Had great trees behind it beautiful ferns on the ground so it brought me down on the site and the ferns on the ground matched. MicroBios. Mountain lions when they show up they leave evidence. It is also known as cougar, panther, mountain lion, and puma, though catamount is the preferred regional vernacular. When the federal Endangered Species Act came along, the Eastern Cougar (Puma concolor cougar), the subspecies of Mountain Lon ti hat orgi inally occurred Patrick Tate: Well I've never seen an Easter cougar so I can't say when I've handled these 10 cougars and whatnot. I have one that's more elaborate than that. Thank you. He said matter of fact I do. 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. 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 . I've collected scat samples I've got several in my collection. So try to take photographs if you see something like this. So what those ranges. 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. More than 450 Facebook users as of Thursday had shared a photo Marc Weir posted Wednesday showing the big cat and . The next week, on June 11, the cat was hit and killed by an SUV on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Milford. And it was unmistakable. Residents from Bedford to Berlin have been reporting sightings for years. Peter Biello: Mm hmm. There's never, ever, ever, ever been a documented case of a black mountain lion. I was at the Sentinel as a reporter there for about four years and during that time I probably wrote close to a half dozen stories or so on this topic including a lengthy feature at one point that in which I spoke to several people from around the banana region claimed to have seen mountain lions that at one time or another. #4. There's no logic for why they'd be listed as an endangered species. However, as far as I can tell theres no Deep State Conspiracy to cover up a breeding population of cougars in the Granite State. Your support makes this news available to everyone. So Pat you field a lot of calls about people seeing or reportedly seeing mountain lions. New York on Easter Sunday. A young male cougar weighing about 40 pounds was shot and killed this week near Whiteclay, Nebraska. Do we have native species that could have exhibited this type of behavior leaving leaving a deer carcass up in a tree. Almost all species disperse greater distances than females. It's not an emerging endangered species no work no there are there are populations in specific states so the Florida panther is is an endangered species that sub population is in fact listed under the Endangered Species Act. And there's there's no evidence of that cat's movement in that entire you know 12 hundred miles stretch of its journey. 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