And they asked me about the tail which I just did not remember that tail out of that whole experience. Want to put this to to Patrick Tate who may have heard some some info or info from listeners like you about these these these cats. The report came in from a conservation officer. Give us a call if you have a question or comments or story about perhaps seeing a mountain lion here in New Hampshire. So maybe a good pet for you but not for your neighbor if you just stop by unannounced. They are the same thing. Sam Evans-Brown: So Tim so this cat's been been referenced a couple of times I think we should talk about it specifically lay the whole story out for folks who haven't heard the story because it's actually I think really indicative of a lot of stuff for talking about. It's listed as population of least concern. New Hampshire Fish and Game Department says there's no proof. John. So I just throwing that out there it's interesting. These young males are tracking looking for mates and if they don't find a mate they just keep moving and moving and moving. Based on this blurry photo and pawprints, DEEP confirmed it was likely a mountain lion. The last wild mountain lion in New Hampshire may have been killed in the White Mountains in 1885. Patrick Tate: It's wow interesting that you brought this up because I've had people report I saw cardamom. What gets confusing is when you have a large adult animal and a smaller juvenile animal of a different species you can now step start beginning talking about overlapping body weights and sizes. Have a photo. So so in 2011 a mountain lion was killed in a car accident in Connecticut a car hit a mountain lion and killed it. Rick van de Poll: Rick van de Poll so I was a non-believer as well. 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. The cougar is also commonly known as mountain lion, puma, mountain cat, catamount, or panther. We send out DNA samples to the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station. It traveled all the way from from you know Minnesota to New York without being so seen Patrick take. 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. And it was you know 10 or 12 people saw it all at once. Peter Biello: Hmm. John you're on the air. 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 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. Phone number 1 800. Sort of dropped onto the SD card of a camera he'd set up out in the wild. We'll be right back. Rick van de Poll: Yes. I've collected scat samples I've got several in my collection. 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. Here she is talking about how to identify a mountain lion. I was a Bobcat we saw it and I have a picture of it. I saw that had this giant the bobcat had this giant sweeping which is John Bobcat don't have big sweeping tails. So I just brought up the bobcat thing because the location is fascinating to me that that that location we have Bobcats existing but that location we have a mountain lion report because it's a developed area and which brings me back to earlier what I had said it's a bouncing ball. Russ, from Sandwich (and Bedford) asks: In Sandwich New Hampshire, everybody has a story about seeing a mountain lion. 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. So Pat you field a lot of calls about people seeing or reportedly seeing mountain lions. Your support makes this news available to everyone. I mean so what what is the practical change that it would bring to New Hampshire if any. And now that everyone and their mother has a remote camera in their back yard its just so, so unlikely that there are resident, breeding mountain lions in New England that are living invisibly among us, he says, Its become Big Foot.. And today we're talking about the mysterious elusive mountain line with folks who know something about it. Credit: Elizabeth Nichols via Storyful . And so. I'm Peter Biello. People were calling the New Hampshire Fish and Game director's office saying why are you dragging your feet on this. I mean that so many of them are false sightings we. Sean McDonald. I have one that's more elaborate than that. 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. So I want to start the program with a comment from someone who is not in the studio with us today. 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. And sometimes I've seen pictures of those where it's the question is What is that is that a bobcat. Thanks for a great thanks. 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. 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 . You could trace that was this same cat from point to point to point. Pat what do you think the mystique of the mountain lion. 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.. I wanted to get your thoughts on the mystique of the mountain lion start with you Rick. If it's just in the middle of a greenfield you can't prove anything. State officials have said, over and over in recent years, that the eastern mountain lion has been completely wiped out from the Northeast. Sam Evans-Brown has been working for New Hampshire Public Radio since 2010, when he began as a freelancer. So that that's more or less I think why I'm here and why I got into this in nineteen ninety nine I found a what appeared to be a print of a mountain lion and that was in the Osprey mountains and I thought well OK that's that's a print. We want answers. He says when youve got a mountain lion in town, its kinda obvious. Sam Evans-Brown: And second the evidence required is is you know pretty pretty tough to gather. 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. for some excitement. Listeners we'd love to hear some of your thoughts on this. That's the real story is they can't follow up on every one of these sightings. May 18, 2012 Mountain Lion Killed In Conn. Today she talked with us a little bit before the show about why the mountain line is so compelling and why we want it to be part of our world. We actually have the largest subspecies of bobcat in the northern part of our state which they can get up to 40 and over 40 pounds which looks like an 80 pound the animal to visually and quite large. I didn't see him online. The big cat has been extinct at least the eastern mountain lion has been extinct here since the mid 80s hundreds. It doesn't make much sense because you know mountain lions are as we as we said before. #4. 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. They were able to do all that by genetics. But no proof was offered. They absolutely do. Love hearing these stories. But if people are still seeing mountain lions, why is the state and federal government seeking to COVER IT UP!? Peter Biello: Ok. 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? Home; Archivos. Wes Siler. Share. No evidence and other states where Mountain lights have turned up. It was determined that Mountain Lion came from the Dakotas across the Northern part of our country . That's next time on one day. BUT THAT SAID, Id love to be proven wrong. It was a 140-pound male mountain lion, the first confirmed in Connecticut in more than 100 years. It's good to talk to you. So. He was just walking along the river then went up into the woods . We're going to talk a little bit more about habitat first but then we'll get into sightings. So that did it for me. As far as I could tell there was a positive DNA sequence coming from the scat sample Patrick. A middle school in Manchester, New Hampshire has sent out an alert after a mountain lion was spotted. NHPR is nonprofit and independent. 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. So. For evidence of a free-roaming, wild and native mountain lion, we must look back to 1874. 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. Yeah 13 to 15 years ago 13 to 15 years ago. Patrick Tate: So I agree with what Sam said in part that their ability to go undetected for amount of time but ultimately it was detected. Now again I don't know that there's anything to that. Thanks for your call. So so they're just a very resilient species and they're pretty they're pretty neat. Anytime at any HP broad dot org or subscribe to our podcast search Apple podcasts Google Play or stitcher for an HP bar exchange. Are there other powers that be worried that scary mountain lions will scare off people from camping in New Hampshire. These were normal everyday folks. Peter Biello: But clearly you know you're saying like hoaxes people who claim to have seen a mountain lion but knowingly have not or are appropriating photos taken elsewhere of legit mountain lion say out West where they people acknowledge that they exist certainly knowingly or unknowingly in this case the person who sent it to me said hey a friend of mine sent me this photo and said he took it on his back porch also. Which goes back to the Connecticut Connecticut cat and what not. They create these scrapes where theyre communicating with each other with scent. A monthly donation of $5 makes a real difference. That's pretty elaborate. 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. So the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station has a database on mountain lion and they can identify. Information online ad an age student loans dawg. I saw a mountain lion on my property in NE corner of Dutchess County about 6 years ago -- the cat (or a cat) had been spotted many times over the years and was believed to have been introduced and escaped from a nearby Hunting Preserve. The last catamount in Vermont is finally, officially, certainly dead. 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. 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. Peter Biello: Today on the program Patrick Tate New Hampshire Fish and Game Wildlife biologist and far better project leader Sam Evans Brown host of an HP podcast outside in which is about the natural world and how we use it. Mountain lions remain an enigmatic animal for residents of New Hampshire, with New Hampshire Fish and Game reporting three to five sightings per week. Peter Biello: Let's talk to Ron and where Ron thanks very much for calling. Right. 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. 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. So they're scary. Thank you very much for that story really appreciate it. So now what's going on. New Hampshire Public Radio | 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. The big cat has been extinct here since the mid-1800s. 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. 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. 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 . So hard to know hard to refute if there's no interest in making up a story which many people of course do then I would respond the same way as Pat did. 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. Monday, December 5th: Mountain Lions in New Hampshire? We'll hear from her periodically through the show. The big cat has been extinct at least the eastern mountain lion has been extinct here since the mid. 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. Sue Morse: The big cat really commands the utmost respect not so much fear but fascination. DNA from scat or from fur, a clear track that is confirmed by an expert, or a photo that clearly shows a mountain lion. There's no logic for why they'd be listed as an endangered species. Well let's hear from from Sue Morse again science director for the organization keeping track. What do you think that. What's interesting about Bobcats is here in the Northeast we have some very large bobcats.