You know I'm like seriously I can't get a picture of the thing but what it what it is. McCarter sent a sample to Dr. George Amato of the Wildlife Conservation Society in New York and Dr. Melanie Culver of the University of Maryland. Hawley: Yeah. He can be reached by phone at 860-275-7297 or by email: pskahill@ctpublic.org. Right. If you would like to continue helping us improve Mass.gov, join our user panel to test new features for the site. Please let us know how we can improve this page. They're the generalists that made it through both the arrival of the Clovis people with their with their spears and then the Europeans with their guns. Some page levels are currently hidden. Thanks for taking my call. Does not test random Scouts. Jason Hawley says his office gets lots of calls about mountain lions each year. Now again I don't know that there's anything to that. In 1994, scat collected after a sighting in Craftsbury, Vermont, was found to contain cougar hair (the animals are prone to ingesting their hair while grooming), and the commissioner of the Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department circulated a memo with the following line: Harrigans interest in cougars was sparked in the late 70s, after he took ownership of, Perhaps, then, the ultimate question isnt whether cougars are among us, but rather how we can encourage them to settle here, After 20 minutes or so, we turned and stumbled our way back to the parking lot. The regions top predator, the coyote, is classified by biologists as a mesopredator (a type that in New England includes skunks and raccoons), which feeds primarily on smaller animals. 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. 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.. 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. What set it off was a National Geographic special on mountain lions in California, right after my daughter and I had two encounters in my driveway, Betty told me. 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. A: It is less common than many other invasives but is found here in the Berkshires. The animal was shot in the town of Barnard on Thanksgiving Day 1881 by a man named Alexander Crowell. Can they really all be cases of false identification? Long before NASA was asked to put a man on the moon one engineer had already figured out how to get there. And its not just Vermont. So I did a bunch of research and all the documentation I found was there art are not any pieces of DNA of Eastern online. He soon developed a five-question litmus test: How far away were you? Patrick Tate: Yes. Some of the reports that I looked into that were actually on file at the local fish and game office were even from people who did not live locally. Anyways after three weeks I finally found the image on line on a field and stream photo contest and the explanation in the end was the person that set the camera out with another individual and they believed that someone who knew of the camera location saw the similarities put the can't picture on their SD card so it looked like that camera recorded the image that is. And yet there I was, on a Saturday in early November, crammed into a booth with Bo Ottmann, 48, and Bill Betty, 72, of Cougars of the Valley, the organization that Ottmann founded in 2007 to gather evidence of and alert the public to the big cats living among us. Peter Biello: We got an e-mail question from Robert in Epsom who asks are sightings or encounters with these big cats less dangerous here where they're passing through than out west where those same mountain lines might be establishing territory Rick. Peter Biello: Listeners give us a call if you have a question or a story of a sighting 1 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7. Bill and I are full-throttle. Betty, for instance, has presented on Eastern cougars more than 300 times, gathering many hundreds of sighting reports in the process. I think they never left, Ottmann piped in. Further, it is already illegal to kill a mountain lion in Massachusetts. Sue Morse: The big cat really commands the utmost respect not so much fear but fascination. While State Denies Mtn Lions are in NH, Numerous Sightings Say ) or https:// means youve safely connected to the official website. Weve done a lot of work over the years investigating sightings. Absolutely. While State Denies Mtn Lions are in NH, Numerous Sightings Say Otherwise. 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. Tracking experts Paul Rezendes, Charles Worsham, George Leoniak, and Dr. Mark Elbroch examined the photos. So it's there was no question in my mind. Prior to becoming a reporter, he was the founding producer of Connecticut Public Radio's The Colin McEnroe Show, which began in 2009. Thank you. When they fly, it is more like a burst and reaches around 50 mph. So take care of this problem. New England Mountain Lion Sighting Bulletin Board's Message Board But one day. OK. Rick van de Poll: Rick and I would add that if a mountain lion male takes up residence and successfully finds a female as pets there's gonna be a lot more evidence there will be like deer carcasses up in trees and territorial marking and claw marks and tracks and it you know dispersal is gonna be very tough to see or observed but residential parrots a totally different story. The next week, on June 11, the cat was hit and killed by an SUV on the Wilbur Cross Parkway in Milford. Patrick Tate: Well. And the clincher, What would you say was the most distinguishing feature? 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. In Massachusetts Wildlife magazine (No. It had rained previously. Hawley: Wildlife biologists across the United States know where the current mountain lion range is. Not a good idea I guess.. Q: Can you give me an idea if wild turkeyscan fly? Not yet. Seal pup cuteness best observed from a distance, 70% ineligible in start of NH Medicaid unwinding. No evidence and other states where Mountain lights have turned up. To Betty and Ottmann, the dominant narrative of the occasional itinerant cougar from the West is not particularly relevant to the facts on the ground. October 24, 2010. in News World. 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. All these photos were taken in a state other than Massachusetts. I mean it wasn't your idea. Still, sightings are common. 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. I mean there was this one lady I remember and tough tomorrow. An official website of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, This page, Are there mountain lions in Massachusetts?, is. Well thanks for sharing. Peter Biello: Let's go to Mike in Epping. It doesn't make much sense because you know mountain lions are as we as we said before. Sam Evans-Brown: And second the evidence required is is you know pretty pretty tough to gather. MassWildlife receives dozens of reportsa year, most are simplyreportsor sightings with no evidence. Mistaken reports of mountain lions are most commonly bobcats. We have evidence and as biologists we would find it quite exciting to find that evidence of one in the state. The DNA the DNA that they were able to pull from the cat suggested that it was a dispersed mountain lion that came. Morse introduced me to her cat, Allister, whom she referred to as her portable puma. Then she fetched me a beer. And I can recall its information but I can't confirm or verify anything. A lot of times. Rick Davidson is the author of the exciting thriller "Catamount. So here we have you know a very qualified biologist who who found a print took a plaster cast found a scat send it to a university. Overview and Background Because while male cougars eventually strike out on their own and occasionally wander far from home, females are, as Morse puts it, hardwired to remain close to their mothers home range. Author of The last woman in the forest on Saturday July 13th at 7 p.m. at Warner town hall Warner historical dawg. 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. That's what we're seeing is dispersing mountain lions from the West who are just making their way through. Well they are the same. Our guests today Patrick Tate New Hampshire Fish and Game Wildlife biologist Sam Evans Brown host of an HP podcast outside in. 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. Peter Biello: Mm hmm. Do we have native species that could have exhibited this type of behavior leaving leaving a deer carcass up in a tree. 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. Mar 1, 2017 - All the latest news and updates of New England Mountain Lion Sighting Bulletin Board's Message Board. Major news! Rick van de Poll: Well the mountain lion of course has been sort of an enigma in the wildlife suite for years and years. The engineers Dan Colgan our senior producer is Allan Grimm. There are always rumors about what state fish and wildlife agencies in the eastern United States know about mountain lions. Peter Biello: And then it ran away okay. They set the stage for the exotics to move in, and this has a huge impact on our ecology, he said. They absolutely do. If so that's for us as an agency. Listeners we'd love to hear some of your thoughts on this. Over a period of a year and a half, this mountain lion left DNA evidence in at least four states. Have a photo. So so do what you can get to do what you can to get proof. And Im assuming whatever were doing right now, its not working. Thank you. So Marty can you see what I'm getting at is the public sees different names and thinks that they're different animals but it's all the same animal. John. Q: I recently read the book "The Scarlet Pimpernel" by Sir Percy Blakeney and was telling a friend about it, and she reminded me that it is also is a wildflower. ), or someones coworkers mother had seen one from the back porch of a summer camp back in 07 or maybe 08, and shed tried to get a picture but this was before she got her first iPhone, and by the time shed retrieved her camera from the living room, the cat was long gone. Two independent labs confirmed the scat found at the site came from a mountain lion. It traveled all the way from from you know Minnesota to New York without being so seen Patrick take. There is some information that suggests that it spent a portion of its time in Massachusetts near the Claiborne reservoir. 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. 2023 Yankee publishing, Inc., An Employee-Owned company, all rights reserved. And so far we have not had any positive mark lion scats or any DNA. 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. Peter Biello: Sam I wanted to ask you a little bit about that first and then turn to Patrick Tate efficient game. There were caribou antlers mounted above the front doors, and the interior walls were covered in row upon row of books; a long table was piled high with still more books in seemingly random arrangements. Sam Evans-Brown: Well first I want to sort of explain why what the theory is but then also throw a bit of cold water on it because I don't think there's much much logic behind it but essentially is that if fish and game were to acknowledge that there was a population of Mount lions in the state there's a chance that something like a listing under the federal Endangered Species Act might happen and then there'd be you know some they'd have to put a plan in place to protect the species there'd be you know restrictions put on development. Mar 1, 2017 - All the latest news and updates of New England Mountain Lion Sighting Bulletin Board's Message Board. Which which I think Pat and I have both experienced. So I know it's another unconfirmed report but you string enough of these together. Peter Biello: And Carl before you continue I think Patrick Tate just give me a second. Your support makes this news available to everyone. John thanks. Patrick Tate: And there's one other way to model that is the same animal. There is no evidence of a reproducing mountain lion population in Massachusetts. Mountain lions weigh . Ottmann and I walked farther. Anyone can get fooled. Mountain lions are solitary and . If we end up with a population, it will be the result of a colonizer female who gets here somehow, some way, and the rest will be history.. 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? Rick van de Poll: Well I didn't. And why would they what. 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. Evidence considered could include "the body of a dead mountain lion or a live wild-captured animal; photos or video, in which a mountain lion can be identified and MassWildlife can confirm the location; DNA evidence from hair, scat, etc. 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. Human/Wildlife Interactions in California: Mountain Lion Depredation, Public Safety, and Animal Welfare Overview and Background More than half of California is mountain lion habitat. At first, I thought it was pretty, but then it kept spreading on the edge of the woodlands next to my lawn. I would say that there's going to be the truth in here somewhere. In their estimation, the presence of a breeding cougar population in New England would likely stem from our proximity to Canada, where, as they rightly point out, DNA analysis has resulted in 19 positive identifications across Quebec and New Brunswick since 2001 (although some of these were shown to be of South American lineage, suggesting escaped pets). 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. It's completely possible that it may have spent time in New Hampshire and went undetected but had it stayed in the area ultimately it would have been detected over time. Peter Biello: I did mention four feet nose to tail would be kind of small for a mountain lion. Residents from Bedford to Berlin have been reporting sightings for years. Patrick Tate: If I could just say one 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. When a cats around, its not hard to find evidence. And so a mountain lion is actually quite large right. So you know until I found those two scats I didn't think that mountain lions were here in the east. 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. Earlier in the year, Id attended one of these presentations, and even in the tiny village of Woodbury, Vermont, on a stiflingly hot summer evening, nearly 100 people showed up to hear her speak and see her photographs (Morse is a magnificent wildlife photographer). Those are the two closest populations that we have here. The key to Morses assertion can be found in the term breeding population. Although the fact that cougars have traveled through New England is irrefutable (a DNA-confirmed roadkill is hard to deny), Morse believes its unlikely that they have settled here and created a self-sustaining population. Evidence could include the body of a dead mountain lion or a live wild-captured animal; photos or video, in which a mountain lion can be identified and MassWildlife can confirm the location; DNA evidence from hair, scat, etc. Mountain Lions in Massachusetts Harrigan nodded. 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. Listeners give us a call if you'd like. 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. These were normal everyday folks. Mike you're on the air. Yes. So that did it for me. There was no sign of it. Were there any differences between these two that we could have noticed right off. As far as I could tell there was a positive DNA sequence coming from the scat sample Patrick. If mountain lions returned to Massachusetts, there is no need to update current forest management practices. McEnroe: Scientifically, this is a case where absence of evidence is kind of evidence of absence, right? 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.