So I learned about what Rick just reported through a heart of heart of New Hampshire a letter and. Get your tickets today and one for fifty dollars or six for 150 at NH PR and board. 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 saw that had this giant the bobcat had this giant sweeping which is John Bobcat don't have big sweeping tails. I wasn't employed as biologists at the time of a situation that's been reported but so I started digging into this report and spoke with another wildlife biologist with the agency and said Do you know anything about this. Caller: I got home to my wife that a gene that you should have seen the cat. We'll also hear your stories if you have them again. Lots of people have stories about them, people have them on their game cameras I mean its kind of a thing. I've collected scat samples I've got several in my collection. So you know until I found those two scats I didn't think that mountain lions were here in the east. So let's let's go to the phones. So I reached down to grab the camera and looked back and like a ghost it's gone. So I've been convinced the whole time that I saw a big cougar plume or whatever you want to call it standing there in the road in Greenfield. 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. Mountain Lion report and as a biologist for the state that's a situation where if he said to me what did I see. 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. Sandy Hodskins, owner of West Meadow Farm in Bradford, New Hampshire, took time from shoveling Wednesday to enjoy the snow with her horse, West Wind. It's you know I recognized their report and. Mountain Lions | Wildlife | New Hampshire Fish and Game Department Russ, from Sandwich (and Bedford) asks: In Sandwich New Hampshire, everybody has a story about seeing a mountain lion. Mountain lions (especially males) have incredibly large ranges that they defend from rivals. They are the same thing. Thanks for calling. For all the men out there that don't realize it. So hey, just me shooting from the hip, maybe there are a couple mountain lions skulking about. She is renowned for tracking. These were normal everyday folks. 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. That's pretty elaborate. There have been several sightings of mountain lions in New Hampshire recently. So maybe a good pet for you but not for your neighbor if you just stop by unannounced. Patrick Tate: So it's interesting it's brought up. Thanks for your call. 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. Its distinctive featurethe one that sets it apart from other North American wild catsis its tail, which is thick and often as long as its body. Its closest living relative is the cheetah. There have been several sightings of mountain lions in New Hampshire recently. All of that remains unanswered but it is an extremely interesting question. As wildlife biologists, wed be fascinated to say 'look look what was found in our state.'. I'm sorry go ahead you're on the air. Peter Biello: This is the exchange on an HP yard today we're talking about the mysterious elusive majestic Mystic Mountain Lion. So what counts as verifiable evidence? 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. If you have them email exchange at an HP board or give us a call to tell us your story. Lions Clubs Int'l Links: LionNet NH Links 2011 -2012 . Caller: Yeah. They reported seeing the big tail and everything everything. 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. Patrick Tate: Okay. And so far we have not had any positive mark lion scats or any DNA. WMUR NH Chronicle Mountain Lions in NH Part I and Part II. 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? Does not test random Scouts. PublishedNovember 16, 2018 at 6:16 AM EST. Thanks for a great thanks. 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. 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. 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. Patrick Tate: So Cougar Mountain Lion katama. Mountain Lion Population By State: 2023 Data [Statistics] 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. Residents believe cougars still roam New Hampshire's forests - AP NEWS Just. People go through great lengths to create hoaxes like this. The females disperse a shorter range and once they find a vacant home range they stay in that location and live there. And when provoked no animal could stand before him elegantly put. So so do what you can get to do what you can to get proof. Someone's got to see one they're very secretive. But Absence of Evidence Is Not Evidence of Absence, Right? One was in Shelton. What do you think that. The best documentation we have in New Hampshire suggests there hasnt been a mountain lion killed by a hunter in this state since 1885. But but I've also seen it cited the opposite way that look they're very secretive. 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. But are there mountain lions living in New Hampshire? Its impossible to say, but I think the odds are pretty good that some of these sightings are legit. A monthly donation of $5 makes a real difference. How far were you from this cat. Share. We're going to talk a little bit more about habitat first but then we'll get into sightings. Well let me ask maybe Pat and Rick about this. 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. 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. 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. Sam Evans Brown. Pat what do you think the mystique of the mountain lion. Do we have native species that could have exhibited this type of behavior leaving leaving a deer carcass up in a tree. For instance, Floridas wildlife officials have a similar ghost cat: the black panther. You don't know what's going on. Chartered 1973; Member of District 44-H; . We'll hear from her periodically through the show. Mountain lions live in the state. We'd love to have you in the queue. And there's there's no evidence of that cat's movement in that entire you know 12 hundred miles stretch of its journey. There's these animals aren't coming with a map saying oh I want to go here. Can you tell us about that story. Are there mountain lions in New Hampshire? : r/newhampshire - reddit 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. They create these scrapes where theyre communicating with each other with scent. And today we're talking about the mysterious elusive mountain line with folks who know something about it. Peter Biello: We at this e-mailed comment from Michael. We are the second most-forested state in the country, and those forests can be impenetrable snarls (part of why the Northeast is notoriously a difficult place to hunt deer), and while there are people in a lot of those woods, because the cats have been absent for a few generations now, most of those people dont know what a cougar scrape or latrine look and smell like. Mike thanks for your call. And really whenever you hear tiny code and long rope like tale it's kind of hard to pin this sighting on any other creature rather than an outline or just nothing else really matches that description. Somewhere the way they travel the things they do they're going to leave evidence. And they were using all the habitat. That's why we always go back to the physical evidence to support what they're reporting. Theres tracks everywhere. So when we talk about the threshold of evidence required to say for sure you have seen a mountain lion it is rather high. But if you were to get Western dispersing mountain lions just would just sort of expanding into New Hampshire. I'm Peter Biello in for Laura NOI. Caller: So I've been telling this story for five years or so and very few people believe me. 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. Tell us your story. But also I think it proves the opposite point which is that sometimes they're pretty secretive because all the way from Minnesota where the where was the first time was picked up on a game camera to New York. 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. Through DNA they approximate area in the United States or North America where I was born. 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. Want to report a Mountain Lion sighting in New Hampshire? Caller: Well I think Patrick I recognized your name. Is there something particularly hospitable about New Hampshire Forests that make them want to come here. All they think it traveled north through Canada up you know crossed across the Great Lakes and then and then down again through New York State. Alleged mountain lion sightings put Derry, Windham residents on edge But you won't find evidence of their existence in paw prints in the snow or a deer carcass in a tree. 1 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7. Yes. Mountain lions leave a lot of sign. 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. As far as I could tell there was a positive DNA sequence coming from the scat sample Patrick. 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. 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. So Michael follows with the question. The Lions of New Hampshire: MD44 Links. Support for an age PR comes from you our listeners. 235 or nhandy@ledgertranscript.com. And still the the folks there did weren't able to come up with it with 100 percent certainty what deposited that scat. Patrick Tate: Nice talk to you too. So there's even debate about that very subject. 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. Author of The last woman in the forest on Saturday July 13th at 7 p.m. at Warner town hall Warner historical dawg. We're gonna talk about sightings in this part of the program as well we'd love to hear your story. That's the real story is they can't follow up on every one of these sightings. Having not found any evidence is not the same as saying there are no mountain lions, its the same as saying we dont know. We we hear that there is allegedly a government conspiracy to deny the existence of mountain lions here in New Hampshire so I guess a local government conspiracy. You're on the air. 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. Something along those lines. Today on the exchange we discuss what residents may have been seeing and what breeding mountain lion pairs would mean for our ecosystem.