I'm sorry go ahead you're on the air. 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 Rick van de Poll naturalist and founder of ecosystem management consultants of New England. So before we get to the the the the stories of sightings we're getting a lot of calls. Peter Biello: So Rick seems like you agree that the tail is a big giveaway whether or not it's a mountain lion Absolutely. I mean I that said I've lived out west for nine years. It's you know I recognized their report and. Patrick Tate: So one thing I'd say is DNA would definitely identify an animal animal's Mark line or not. They get a lot of media attention but compared to the the amount of times that a mountain lion could attack a person but doesn't because they don't typically view us as prey. It traveled all the way from from you know Minnesota to New York without being so seen Patrick take. 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.. Are there other powers that be worried that scary mountain lions will scare off people from camping in New Hampshire. Mountain Lions in NH. Sam Evans-Brown: What he would have stopped as well I think is way way that the reason that mountain lion kept moving is because he wasn't finding anybody. N.H. Peter Biello: Well Mike thanks very much for sharing your story. 1957. But my experience was that the majority of these accounts could not be taken lightly. Patrick Tate: Yeah yeah. Peter Biello: Yeah. The trouble with accepting every reported sighting as a confirmed mountain lion is that there are so many mistaken identifications. Peter Biello: Ok weird question but do they make good pets. Anytime at any HP broad dot org or subscribe to our podcast search Apple podcasts Google Play or stitcher for an HP bar exchange. 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. Really appreciate you guys being here as well. Sam Evans-Brown: Certainly that is a thing I've heard but again you have to think of the incentives involved here. 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. Caller: Oh yeah. HOLDERNESS, N.H. (AP) Two of the known mountain lions in New Hampshire have spent their 15 years in close proximity to humans. Yes. We did a short segment about mountain lion sightings earlier this year and and after which I was sent a photo and also a video recording that was mostly just audio because it was so dark the photo just a quick reverse Google image search you can put images online and see where else where else they've been posted revealed that the photo had been taking out taken out in Wyoming and has been used you know hundreds of times to claim and the person who sent it to me said it had been taken New Hampshire. So we're fixated on natural but there's other possibilities. So maybe a good pet for you but not for your neighbor if you just stop by unannounced. Mike you're on the air. Peter Biello: Thank you for sharing that. We'd be inundated with scouts in the past when newspaper articles have been written about DNA and scouts. So Pat you field a lot of calls about people seeing or reportedly seeing mountain lions. If you believe you have seen a mountain lion and want to report it to NH Fish and Game, please contact the Wildlife Division at (603) 271-2461 or wildlife@wildlife.nh.gov to request an observation report form. Is there something particularly hospitable about New Hampshire Forests that make them want to come here. The second story window through about 30 feet away from it. Now again I don't know that there's anything to that. Here it is. Are these big cats back?Subscribe to WMUR on YouTube now for more: http://bit.ly/1lOjX9CGet more Manchester news: http://wmur.comLike us: http://facebook.com. There was no sign of it. 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. Id like to hazard the explanation that we really, really want to see a mountain lion. Want to report a Mountain Lion sighting in New Hampshire? So let's let's go to the phones. Listeners give us a call if you'd like. There's just one subspecies of North American mountain lion. 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. Mountain lions don't usually travel more than 100 miles from where they are born. Administrative Links. Despite numerous reports, the NH Fish and Game Department continues to have no physical evidence of mountain lion presence in the state. Caller: I have yeah. Well thanks for sharing. BUT THAT SAID, Id love to be proven wrong. However, as far as I can tell theres no Deep State Conspiracy to cover up a breeding population of cougars in the Granite State. But if people are still seeing mountain lions, why is the state and federal government seeking to COVER IT UP!? I mean they're a survivor. Peter Biello: They make great mascots at least. New Hampshire Public Radio | John Holt's ideas were at first dismissed but he refused to be silent. Someone's got to see one they're very secretive. Patrick Tate: I don't believe it is. The females disperse a shorter range and once they find a vacant home range they stay in that location and live there. 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. Thanks very much. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. The way that we define species has undergone a revolution with the advent of DNA testing. And maybe it's a no holds barred nostalgia for a better world a wild or Fuller world not a world that's constrained by our boundaries and our taxes and our highways. But you can continue the conversation on Facebook or at our Web site and HP Borg. John if you're still on the line here I was going to I don't. 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. 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. 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: Let's go to Mike in Epping. So so do what you can get to do what you can to get proof. Yeah 13 to 15 years ago 13 to 15 years ago. The 17-year-old Kiger mustang mare was born in Bend, Oregon, said Hodskins, who got her . Sam Evans-Brown: So I just had two thoughts which is that we hear a lot of these stories and all of us here have heard these stories. Lots of people have stories about them, people have them on their game cameras I mean its kind of a thing. 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. The supervisor that hired me in the game division in October of 1978 passed on to me this whole big folder of mountain lion information and sightings going back probably a couple decades. These young males are tracking looking for mates and if they don't find a mate they just keep moving and moving and moving. Let's talk to Bob in Laconia Bob. Do you want to see real, living mountain lions that do exist in New Hampshire. Think you've seen a mountain lion. Something along those lines. This is the exchange. Rick van de Poll: 80 90. Peter Biello: What about the idea of tourism like us leaving aside the fact that it is not on the Endangered Species Act is it. It was not a bobcat. Peter Biello: Well John thanks very much for the story really appreciate it. Gotcha, so the Deep State is suppressing mountain lion news in order to prop up New Hampshire tourism? Erler is a senior naturalist at the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center in Holderness. Fish and Game then deny the evidence. OK. That location they just described we had two or three Bobcats radio collared on just off the runway in Laconia airport. Today, their range stretches from the Yukon Territory in Canada along the western coast of the United States, all the way to the Southern Andes in Chile. They absolutely do. Share. I've had a number of people call up and say I found a scout in the woods and I want it DNA identified. You know interactions are pretty unusual. I just don't understand the mechanism for how that would happen. 1,470 likes. Peter Biello: Ok. In my New Hampshire career I have written several, and seen at least 20, stories along the lines of "local person thinks they saw a mountain lion but there's no actual evidence aside from. Known to exist in the state for over well over a hundred years. I saw that had this giant the bobcat had this giant sweeping which is John Bobcat don't have big sweeping tails. And a lot of people around the county airport have seen a lot of pilots coming in said they saw huge. Patrick Tate: So Cougar Mountain Lion katama. There's no attraction. And Rick Van de Poll naturalist and founder of ecosystem management consultants of New England. 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. Can you look into this picture. Michael Brindley is our program manager our producers our Jessica Hunt and Christina Phillips and our theme music was composed by Bob Lord. 1957. Let's look for other evidence. Get your tickets today and one for fifty dollars or six for 150 at NH PR and board. Patrick Tate: I would say well when social media first started they picked up the hoaxes became much more prevalent in the last four or five years hoaxes have died down completely. Love hearing these stories. Which which I think Pat and I have both experienced. Enable JavaScript by changing your browser options, and then try again. We'll push great photos to the front page. If it's someone that has an illegal captive animal that is accustomed to humans those leave a lot of evidence because they want to go around humans to find food meaning they're used to being fed by humans. You know one of the the biggest questions I have about that is it points to how much we don't know and if in fact we don't know enough. When you talk about a bobcat Bobcat maybe 80 90 pounds and then a mountain lion could be between 130 and 180 pounds. Peter Biello: Well I want to ask Patrick about one of these stories a few years ago you had a story about someone who claimed to. The big cat has been extinct here since the mid-1800s. 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. Sam. Okay. Mountain lions when they show up they leave evidence. John thanks. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. Just one quick point I think I think when we we talk about these conspiracy theories the real story is that fish and game is an agency that that is short on budget and staff. I found a second scat scent both to him. Patrick Tate: Okay. Caller: And the more I thought about it the color of it it was definitely not a bobcat. Patrick Tate: Nice talk to you too. All of that remains unanswered but it is an extremely interesting question. Don't miss your chance to win three two thousand dollar gas gift cards at any station of your choice not to mention the grand prize twenty five thousand dollars toward a new car. How far were you from this cat. In fact, Pat Tate concedes that hes been told of sightings from folks that he considers to be very credible, very woods savvypeople who know what a bobcat looks likebut those folks have never snapped a good photo or found a good track. And the second question is this a behavior mountain lions exhibit. I mean so what what is the practical change that it would bring to New Hampshire if any. Peter Biello: Wow. Rick shaking his head so Rick now correct me please. How to Report a Possible Mountain Lion Sighting. Many people in New Hampshire have claimed to have seen mountain lions. 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. HOLDERNESS, N.H. (AP) Two of the known mountain lions in New Hampshire have spent their 15 years in close proximity to humans. Can we go to the site. As wildlife biologists, wed be fascinated to say 'look look what was found in our state.'. So that did it for me. Sam Evans-Brown: One in fact Helena silver in that sort of tome that Rick van de Poll read from at the beginning is she. Or years or so. NHPR is nonprofit and independent. There's a lot of photographs that you can see that it's very clearly a tabby cat that someone has thought was a mountain lion. There wasn't a distinct subspecies the North American mountain lion is all is all one species and then you can find a genetically distinct South American subspecies. Well Is DNA the most reliable means we have of identifying whether or not what we saw is actually a mountain lion. Verifiable pictures recorded by the observing person or a trail camera. It was in the spring flash kind of early summer and my wife looked at you look at the size of an adult bear and we were up in arms. I mean that so many of them are false sightings we. Peter Biello: This is the exchange on an HP yard today we're talking about the mysterious elusive majestic Mystic Mountain Lion. There were several sightings in CT over the last few months. 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. And boy it was big it had to be at least 200 pounds the thing was you and and it just made a little bit of noise and it was gone. Thank you. Well within there. Yet this young male traveled about 1,800 miles. The current estimate is 2,000 - 2,700 throughout Arizona. NHFG Wildlife Biologist Patrick Tate identifies this cat as a bobcat. 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. There's never, ever, ever, ever been a documented case of a black mountain lion. Thank you very much for that story really appreciate it. And I think a lot of folks would like them to be around. Have a photo. Patrick Tate: Yes. The species that once inhabited the Northeast, known as the eastern mountain lion, is now extinct. And the cougar embodies that. SUE Morse naturalist and science director for the organization keeping track. They kill big animals. Residents Report Mountain Lion Sighting By Elysia Rodriguez Published August 11, 2015 A southern New Hampshire neighborhood believes a mountain lion is roaming the woods near their homes. So and so the idea that they can follow up on every individual sighting is just crazy right. It all used to be based on measurable physical traits color, skull size, paw size, etc but now its based on whether an animal can be shown to be genetically distinct from others. Peter Biello: Sam I wanted to ask you a little bit about that first and then turn to Patrick Tate efficient game. And so so with their limited staff and limited budget that is that is more and more limited every year because you know fewer people are buying hunting and fishing licenses. Mountain Lions in New Hampshire-Fact or Fiction 3,207 views Jul 31, 2019 78 Dislike Share Save New Hampshire Fish and Wildlife 634 subscribers During my thirty-one career at the New. Peter Biello: Mm hmm. Sam Evans-Brown: Pretty well I was going to say it is nice to hear about how to identify the facial markings but probably I'd being a to identify the tracks is probably the more useful useful tool that one can have in their tool box. Peter Biello: Oh okay. nh.gov | privacy policy | accessibility policy
You're on the air. Select image for larger view. 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. Patrick Tate: I've from all the situations I've read and learned about wildlife. Mountain lions can be found throughout Arizona, and data suggests the populations are not only stable, but growing. So what those ranges. 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. So so they're just a very resilient species and they're pretty they're pretty neat. Sort of dropped onto the SD card of a camera he'd set up out in the wild. They sent it already. Caller: Hi. And that's this morning at 10:00 here on NH PR. Caller: Yeah. So so in 2011 a mountain lion was killed in a car accident in Connecticut a car hit a mountain lion and killed it. Peter Biello: We at this e-mailed comment from Michael. So it's six months of a large large predatory animal that moves great distances on the landscape that is not known if it went northeast west Salt and how many circles it did. Caller: Are probably. 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. 44-N Links. The DNA the DNA that they were able to pull from the cat suggested that it was a dispersed mountain lion that came. The great thing about pictures isn't the animal itself it's the background. 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. Your support makes this news available to everyone. Oh you saw him online. I've seen him in the woods and that was not a bobcat but I was looking at. Caller: Hey guys how you doing. We'll hear from her periodically through the show. Long before NASA was asked to put a man on the moon one engineer had already figured out how to get there. Residents believe cougars still roam New Hampshire's forests. And when provoked no animal could stand before him elegantly put. 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. Thanks also to Rick van de Poll naturalist and founder of ecosystem management consultants of New England and Sam Evans Brown host of an HP podcast outside in about the natural world and how we use it. So what a neat experience. 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. New Hampshire Fish and Game Department says there's no proof. Peter Biello: This is the exchange on an PR. Using DNA and physical evidence, state environmental officials said they determined that the animal.