Caller: Oh yeah. hen I accepted the assignment to write about my quest to uncover the truth regarding the existence of cougars in New England, I had little idea what I was agreeing to. A typical adult male will weigh up to. You're on the air. And I saw you cat about four feet long from nose to tail come across from the water across the road and just leap over a six foot perimeter fence in a single bound. You know you have to have a license and it's hard to get that license a license to own a mountain lion. MassWildlife receives dozens of reportsa year, most are simplyreportsor sightings with no evidence. Here she is talking about how to identify a mountain lion. You dont even have to go out and look for it.. I must have looked doubtfulwe were within spitting distance of a heavily traffickedroad and only 12 miles from downtown Hartfordbut both Ottmann and Betty told me that cougars actually prefer more populated areas, since thats where deer tend to congregate. Many people do not realize how large a grown Bobcat is. The big cat has been extinct here since the mid-1800s. And to anyone listening I would just say you know fishing game who wants proof right. Peter Biello: Well hey Rob. Is this kind of a typical story. Thanks for calling. It's one piece that he wrote, that I have used in discussing the possibility of hard-to-believe sightings and I quote, People are always hopeful that what they have seen is something unusual, rather than just common and mundane.. Part of this belief is rooted in his journalistic experience, which across the decades has cultivated his nose for sincerity. They absolutely do. It continues in Connecticut, where that South Dakota cat was killed in 2011, and in Massachusetts, despite two credible reports in the past quarter century (in one case, DNA-confirmed scat; in the other, verified tracks). I also had the vague notion that when it comes to cougars, people tend to sort themselves into one of three camps. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. Mountain lions live in the state. So theres fresh mud. Major news! But people in the region are posting like crazy online to the New England Mountain Lion Sighting Bulletin. Using DNA and physical evidence, state environmental officials said they determined that the animal likely trekked more than 1,500 miles from South Dakota, a journey that was captured by trail camera (above). I tracked cats and all the western states. In 2011, the U.S. Mike Guyton pressure was almost Greyhound like very muscular large back legs on it and the coloration on it was almost an orange brownish orange color and so I stop and I look at this thing in the field and as the animal looks at me the face was very chiseled definitely not a bobcat. The reasons for this conspiracy vary depending upon whom you talk to, but they coalesce around the idea that wildlife agencies would be inconvenienced by the cougars presence, as theyd be forced to respond in ways that would tax their resources. ghost. Well just that I have evidence and it was not it was denied by fishing game at the time and I you know there's I don't need to prove to anybody that I saw one just like some of your callers said okay. As livestock farming came to dominate the landscape, pressure on the big cats slowly mounted on two fronts: The number of farmers wanting them dead was increasing, while the rapid transition from forest to farmland meant their habitat was shrinking. This mountain lion was documented by DNA samples from Minnesota and Wisconsin between December 2009 and early 2010. The American Lion The Saber tooth Tiger and this was the one that survived. We're gonna cue you up and bring into the program listeners in just a moment but I want to ask about the role that Mountain Lions play in the ecosystem we've been talking a lot about mountain lions traveling and being sort of hard to track as they move. Any sense of of whether or not mountain lions are sort of wary of more population dense areas like like the one he was describing Rick. I really really enjoyed listening to this program so thank you all very much. You might think that it would be easy to tell the two cat species apart. What do you think that. So we're fixated on natural but there's other possibilities. We send out DNA samples to the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station. But before I go any further I want to say we do not have sufficient game. 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. Were getting more and more home entries every year. So and so they so they do get pretty involved. Patrick Tate: Well. and territorial animals are much more inclined to create a problem with passer bys than dispersing animals in fact I'd be totally shocked if a dispersal would encounter with a human purposefully unless they had already had some type of training to do so. Sighting: An animal is seen by the public and is . Three females confirmed well ahead of predictioins, Re(1): Major news! Still, sightings are common. He is a consummate storyteller, and he wears on his sleeve his affection for the region and the hard-working, commonsense people who inhabit it. But you've done some reporting on this. OK. 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. Were there any differences between these two that we could have noticed right off. These were normal everyday folks. 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. In Massachusetts Wildlife magazine (No. Robert Miller: So, you think you saw a mountain lion in CT? Peter Biello: Or send us an email exchange at an HP board. 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. And there's there's no evidence of that cat's movement in that entire you know 12 hundred miles stretch of its journey. Right. Betty folded his arms across his chest, where they rose and fell and rose again with his breathing. Caller: And then there's the Lily Pond Road and then there's a six foot tall fence. Here's why reports are so tough to prove mass.gov/doc/mountain-lions-in-massachusetts-distinguishing-fiction-from-the-facts/download, There are 69 invasive plant species in Massachusetts. And even the home entries are kind of changing. Is there something particularly hospitable about New Hampshire Forests that make them want to come here. So I certainly can't dispute anything that they said there's no evidence for me to go by to verify or say what my thoughts are on the situation. Thank you very much for being here. The next week, on June 11, the cat was hit and killed by an SUV on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Milford. In March 2011, DCR forester Steve Ward photographed a track trail in the snow near the Gate 8 boat launch area of Quabbin Reservoir. So let's let's go to the phones. Mountain lion or cat running across. Known to exist in the state for over well over a hundred years. Because they are.. In April 1997, experienced tracker John McCarter found scat near a beaver carcass at the Quabbin Reservation. I mean that so many of them are false sightings we. 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. I started asking a lot of questions, and realized theres only one explanation for the answers I was getting: They are here., You could have 30 in Connecticut alone. And he said, This is where the mountain lion crossed. We walked in and there were fresh bobcat tracks in there. Peter Biello: We at this e-mailed comment from Michael. Have you seen one. Patrick Tate: No downward pressure at all I think actually Sean turned up and we found the evidence there a number of people would finally say finally we can put this debate to bed. We'd be inundated with scouts in the past when newspaper articles have been written about DNA and scouts. But one day. A lock icon ( They're very loyal to what the handler which makes them very dangerous to everyone else. And you know all that. It was really muscular looking cat I mean is that like a side angle to me. Three females confirmed well ahead of predictioins, Re(1): Mountain lion confirmed in SW Quebec, Possible big cat sighting in Barrington, RI, Re(1): Possible big cat sighting in Barrington, RI, Re(2): Possible big cat sighting in Barrington, RI, Possible Belchertown mountain lion sighting, Re(1): Possible Belchertown mountain lion sighting. Wildlife do really crazy things, and you just never know.. So I learned about what Rick just reported through a heart of heart of New Hampshire a letter and. Patrick's reporting has appeared on NPR's Morning Edition, Here & Now, and All Things Considered. That's what we're seeing is dispersing mountain lions from the West who are just making their way through. There have been only two caseswhere evidence supports the presence of a mountain lion in Massachusetts. 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. Okay. And consider, for a moment, the concern and outright fear an official acknowledgment of such a carnivorous and predatory creature might evoke. Here it is. Tracking experts Paul Rezendes, Charles Worsham, George Leoniak, and Dr. Mark Elbroch examined the photos. For who but we humans can look across the landscape and not acknowledge our role in the diminishment of cougars and the myriad ways in which we have knocked the landscape out of balance? However if if and when it does happen it takes up a lot of resources looking at that situation and identifying what's going on because when you start out you don't know it's a hoax. So when we talk about the threshold of evidence required to say for sure you have seen a mountain lion it is rather high. Mar 1, 2017 - All the latest news and updates of New England Mountain Lion Sighting Bulletin Board's Message Board.