mountain lions in new hampshire mountain lions in new hampshire

NH Fish and Game Wildlife Biologist Patrick Tate reports that so far, mountain lion reports accompanied byphotographs have been misidentified bobcats or housecats, or pictures of mountain lions taken from the Internet and reported as being recorded in New Hampshire. 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. They are the same thing. A 140-pound male mountain lion was hit by a car and killed in 2011 in Milford, Connecticut. But are there mountain lions living in New Hampshire? If you have them email exchange at an HP board or give us a call to tell us your story. The current estimate is 2,000 - 2,700 throughout Arizona. We're gonna talk about sightings in this part of the program as well we'd love to hear your story. Patrick Tate New Hampshire Fish and Game Wildlife Biologist thanks very much for being here this morning really appreciate it. And there's there's no evidence of that cat's movement in that entire you know 12 hundred miles stretch of its journey. We'd love to have you in the queue. Which goes back to the Connecticut Connecticut cat and what not. I found a second scat scent both to him. 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. Rick van de Poll: Oh yeah absolutely. Do you want to see real, living mountain lions that do exist in New Hampshire. 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. She is renowned for tracking. Mike you're on the air. Anytime at any HP broad dot org or subscribe to our podcast search Apple podcasts Google Play or stitcher for an HP bar exchange. Sam Evans-Brown: Certainly that is a thing I've heard but again you have to think of the incentives involved here. 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. And so maybe before I go to you recommend I ask you Patrick Tate is the standard too high. 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. 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. 1957. And those are not the same things. 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. Despite numerous reports, the NH Fish and Game Department continues to have no physical evidence of mountain lion presence in the state. So try to take photographs if you see something like this. Share. Its impossible to say, but I think the odds are pretty good that some of these sightings are legit. And those and that's how you can go from a story that Pat says I have nothing to say about that to a story that you know could be the first verified sighting in over 100 years. The 17-year-old Kiger mustang mare was born in Bend, Oregon, said Hodskins, who got her . There's no logic for why they'd be listed as an endangered species. 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. That's next time on one day. I mean it wasn't your idea. 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. I looked at the picture and asked me what do you see in the picture and I wrote back. Fish and Wildlife Service decided all of the cougars, pumas, and mountain lions in the country are actually the same species, and that species hasnt had a breeding population anywhere near the Northeast for at least 70 years. 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. Kyle I think about Rick Tate wants to jump in here. So they're scary. So hey, just me shooting from the hip, maybe there are a couple mountain lions skulking about. They sent it already. 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. So what counts as verifiable evidence? Which which I think Pat and I have both experienced. So I just throwing that out there it's interesting. Because I mean as we've heard in the past 10 minutes like there's there's some disagreement or at least some some vagueness about what an actual mountain lion should appear like in the wild assuming we can even get close enough. If it's just in the middle of a greenfield you can't prove anything. I'm gonna send you a letter that we researched this report and we spoke with those labs and the lab wrote in their letter to us that they could only say that Scott contained white Tea Party fur and that they could not say what deposited the scout because it's far too degraded listeners we'd love to hear from you about your mountain lion sightings if you have seen one or if you if you think you have give us a call we'd love to hear your story 1 800 8 9 2 6 4 7 7. BRADFORD, N.H. - All that snow in parts of the Northeast has more than just kids jumping for winter joy. Oh you saw him online. 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. Mark Elbroch doesnt think so. NH Fish and Game relies on physical evidence to answer questions about the presence or absence of mountain lion in the state. Thank you very much for that story really appreciate it. Some argue that it's a leap of faith. Mountain Lion | Squam Lakes Natural Science Center All exhibit and hiking trails are CLOSED for the season. And when provoked no animal could stand before him elegantly put. Mountain lions ( Puma concolor) are one of the six native species of wild cats in North America. Thanks for your call. When they were landing or taking off and it seems like it's been there for like. 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. So and so the idea that they can follow up on every individual sighting is just crazy right. They reported seeing the big tail and everything everything. From: Boomerdog in OK 08-Oct-07 It's you know I recognized their report and. Ive received pictures of dogs at odd angles, says Tate. Really appreciate it. So one thing I'll add. 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. So so do what you can get to do what you can to get proof. Are there Mountain Lions in NH? 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.. brings a lot of. Sam Evans-Brown: You know the North America had a number of large predator species when humans first arrived in the continent. List of Mountains in New Hampshire is a general list of mountains in New Hampshire, with elevation.This list includes many mountains in the White Mountains range that covers about a quarter of the state, as well as mountains outside of that range.. Erler is a senior naturalist at the Squam Lakes Natural Science Center in Holderness. Patrick Tate: So Cougar Mountain Lion katama. 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. Peter Biello: This is the exchange on an PR. Well thanks for sharing. To date most of the pictures that have been sent in have been bobcats and other species Ive received pictures of house cats. 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. Fish and Game looked into the labs to have them confirm the information in the reports which the labs did not. And I I have this great text history of New Hampshire game and fir bears and I think by Helen Silver who used to work for fish and game and she sort of I kind eyes this animal in one of the quotes from 1892 stating that the catamaran was the most ferocious of all the wild beasts of New Hampshire his great size strength and agility of movement together with his formidable weapons rendered him the terror both of man and beast. 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. Mountain Lions are a mythical creature in New Hampshire with strong feelings on both sides of the question: are there Mountain Lions in New Hampshire? So here in New Hampshire when a person turns in something that the Department believes is possible mountain lion and believes it should be investigated further. There's no attraction. I really really enjoyed listening to this program so thank you all very much. GAP MOUNTAIN LIONS CLUB Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire (USA) District 44-N . Thank you very much for listening. It traveled all the way from from you know Minnesota to New York without being so seen Patrick take. Mountain lions leave a lot of sign. Or years or so. Rick van de Poll: Well I didn't. 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. Can you tell us about that story. This is not the same as saying that there has never been a mountain lion seen in New Hampshire. We live around Cold Springs Campground and it was undeniably a mountain lion. Patrick Tate: And there's one other way to model that is the same animal. I saw that had this giant the bobcat had this giant sweeping which is John Bobcat don't have big sweeping tails. But my experience was that the majority of these accounts could not be taken lightly. Well within there. Somewhere the way they travel the things they do they're going to leave evidence. The way that we define species has undergone a revolution with the advent of DNA testing. Peter Biello: They make great mascots at least. 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. This is a machine-generated transcript, and may contain errors. Patrick Tate: Martin Like what about Panther Panther saying animals same animal and like a bit of trivia Guinness Book of World Records says the animal with the most names is in English alone they're supposedly 40 names for Mount lion. nh.gov | privacy policy | accessibility policy Long before NASA was asked to put a man on the moon one engineer had already figured out how to get there. OK. So one thing that I find fascinating about this Connecticut cat was six months between the New York situation where they found evidence of it too when it was hit by a motor vehicle. Peter Biello: Hmm. Have you heard stories do you have questions about the mountain line. 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. For starters, part of the confusion might come from the fact that the eastern cougar was taken off the endangered species list earlier this year. I just stood there just a second and I came to a complete stop and then I ran away. 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. Is there a way we can learn more about these dispersing mountain lions that may travel through the Granite State and that I would ask you certainly part about whether or not a he's spending too much time chasing down these kind of false leads or B would rather be doing something else that is more informative to whether or not we actually have or can prove that we have dispersing mountain lions in the state. So now what's going on. Theyve always said when we have verifiable evidence to say a mountain lion has been, is, or was in the state that wed acknowledge that and give that information out, says Pat Tate, the furbearer biologist with New Hampshire Fish and Game, who insists theres no conspiracy. The best documentation we have in New Hampshire suggests there hasnt been a mountain lion killed by a hunter in this state since 1885. 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. Patrick Tate: So the individuals can say that but for an agency that's based on science and what not to to go off with no evidence and then get into that giant debate and all these other issues and put credibility at risk I don't think that would be a great path to take. She quotes a biologist in Lyme New Hampshire who who is keeping two mountain lions himself so in the not too distant past in the early nineteen hundreds it was perhaps more common and still in Maine. www.wildlife.state.nh.us, Buy or Renew Your Saltwater Fishing License, Great Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve. Peter Biello: Well yeah. So the U.S. Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station has a database on mountain lion and they can identify. So I learned about what Rick just reported through a heart of heart of New Hampshire a letter and. So they're not afraid of humans and they'll show up like a regular housecat. 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. We're going to talk a little bit more about habitat first but then we'll get into sightings. There have been several sightings of mountain lions in New Hampshire recently. They create these big latrines that are very obvious. Ecosystem Management Consultants of New England, Ask Sam, and recently fielded question about mountain lions, 10 things to do in NH this weekend: Dartmouth Dance, Hamilton De Holanda & more, Turkish restaurant in the Upper Valley aims to help those affected by recent earthquakes, RFK Jr. tells NH crowd hes considering a presidential run, Epping woman pleads guilty to threatening Michigan election official in 2020, We also hear excerpts from an interview with, Read about the most recent cougar "sightings". 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. HOLDERNESS, N.H. (AP) Two of the known mountain lions in New Hampshire have spent their 15 years in close proximity to humans. For all the men out there that don't realize it. 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. 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. They're very loyal to what the handler which makes them very dangerous to everyone else. The females disperse a shorter range and once they find a vacant home range they stay in that location and live there. Peter Biello: So let's say Rick that it was confirmed that there that there are mountain lines here in New Hampshire. You need a permit to have that. And it was you know 10 or 12 people saw it all at once. The Connecticut Mountain Lion is the best documented wild Mountain Lion in New England. And so a mountain lion is actually quite large right. The states never denied mountain lions are here, and theyve never admitted mountain lions are here. I can't. 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. 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. By Eric Orff. Peter Biello: And that will make identification for a layperson rather difficult. It was some sort of a Lion Mountain Lion animal. 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. Rick van de Poll: 80 90. 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. There's never, ever, ever, ever been a documented case of a black mountain lion. 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. 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. So Pat you field a lot of calls about people seeing or reportedly seeing mountain lions. We'll hear from her periodically through the show. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. Peter Biello: Nice to be here. Thank you. Its actually fairly reasonable to believe that mountain lions do, at least, pass through occasionally. And so. There was no sign of it. 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. Let's talk to Mike in Webster. Pat what do you think the mystique of the mountain lion. No doubt in my mind it was. Well let me ask maybe Pat and Rick about this. So I reached down to grab the camera and looked back and like a ghost it's gone. Peter Biello: Sam I wanted to ask you a little bit about that first and then turn to Patrick Tate efficient game. Second when I when they did forward it from Wyoming to to Michigan you know this was coming right from sample 18 and 19 had no remarkable differences from known mountain lions from Michigan or Wyoming. They just end up in these places. 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. So if you were to ask me has a mountain lion ever passed through New Hampshire and been spotted by somebody who wasnt able to get hard evidence? Id personally be willing to say "probably, yes.". 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. Chapter X, Predators, Panther (Mountain Lion) From History of NH Game and Furbearers by Helenette Silver, Research Clerk, NH Fish and Game Dept. John Holt's ideas were at first dismissed but he refused to be silent. Peter Biello: There have been several alleged sightings of mountain lions in New Hampshire recently. 19 Do they travel. But the state always denies it, and none of us know why they deny it. Peter Biello: Rick I believe you did mention that that they do leave carcasses up in the tree from time to time but are there any other species known in New Hampshire to do this on a regular basis. New Hampshire Fish and Game Department says there's no proof. There's just one subspecies of North American mountain lion. Here she is talking about how to identify a mountain lion. Give us a call if you have a question or comments or story about perhaps seeing a mountain lion here in New Hampshire. Peter Biello: I did mention four feet nose to tail would be kind of small for a mountain lion. Think you've seen a mountain lion. Just. Chartered: 1973 . 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. Do you get a lot of these these these things that end up being hoaxes. Let's look for other evidence. 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. Caller: It had to be a mountain lion convinced I was about 30. If you go on YouTube and search mount lion Pat you can see people patent their hundred pound kiddie like its regular mascot cat. Get your tickets today and one for fifty dollars or six for 150 at NH PR and board. That's too big for Bobcat. Caller: Hi. support for an HBO who comes from you our listener Sam from advanced in you a local New Hampshire nonprofit specializing in college student loans and student refinancing options. Many people in New Hampshire have claimed to have seen mountain lions. So that's the specimen that you find going long distances. But before I go any further I want to say we do not have sufficient game. 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.. They lived perhaps elsewhere in New England and they were just passing through and happened to have an encounter of some sort. Some are included in lists of mountains, such as the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) list of the Hundred Highest peaks of New England, or the . People were calling the New Hampshire Fish and Game director's office saying why are you dragging your feet on this. We speculate they dont want us to screw up tourism we dont know whats going on. To date, the Department has not received any verifiable evidence (photographic or DNA)of mountain lions existing in New Hampshire. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. Information online ad an age student loans dawg. How to Report a Possible Mountain Lion Sighting. Patrick Tate: It became a very interesting investigation over time because it started becoming. Patrick Tate: So one thing I'd say is DNA would definitely identify an animal animal's Mark line or not. My wife and I saw a mountain lion. I think that you probably are. There are corollaries in other states. 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. About Lions. About Us Media Kit Calendar of Events Volunteer Visit Learn Events Membership Support Your Visit BUY TICKETS Know Before You Go Directions and Information Our Animals Live Animal Exhibit Trail Hours and Admission Calendar of Events