MossRoad
Super Moderator
- Joined
- Aug 31, 2001
- Messages
- 58,241
- Location
- South Bend, Indiana (near)
- Tractor
- Power Trac PT425 2001 Model Year
Here's why I don't believe many stories about cougars, bears and bigfoot. NO VERIFIABLE EVIDENCE. And that's what the DNR goes by.
Perfect example is this stupid bear that's been wandering around northwest Indiana and extreme southwest Michigan for the past few months. People have seen it. People have photographed it. Law enforcement has been observing it. Its been knocking over bird feeders, trash cans, and standing at people's sliding glass doors trying to get in while people on the other side have been recording it on their cell phones. DNR saw it, got droppings, got fur samples... its verifiable.
So I go down to the feed mill last month in a small town to pick up a U-Haul trailer and inside is the local town cop and a couple other folks. Someone mentions the bear and the cop starts going off about "That's nothing new. We've had bears around here for years. I've seen them many times" bla bla bla
BS! Only he has seen them? No one else has seen them? No one else has reported them? No one else has photographed them? No one has stepped in bear poop?
In this day and age, with the prevalence of just about everyone having a camera with them 24/7, game cameras, security cameras, etc... there's no reason to not get verifiable evidence.
Sure, when I was a kid, we swore there was a bobcat in our neighborhood. People reported seeing it. We found some prints and took plaster casts. But no one ever got a picture of it, hit one with a car, got bobcat poop, bobcat fur, shot it, etc.... so it was just taking folks at their word, which most of the time, it was some looney old lady that had some birds at her feeder being killed by a really large house cat.
Anyhow, I don't doubt that you had porcupines 50+ years ago. But there's no documented cases of porcupines in recent times in Illinois. As I read somewhere a couple days ago, some biologist in Illinois said he'd bet his house that there is no viable population of cougars in Illinois, but he would NOT be his house that there are NO cougars in Illinois. There have been 4-5 documented cougars in Illinois in the 2000's.
Cougar Fatally Shot Near Western Illinois Town Of Morrison « CBS Chicago
If anyone finds a porcupine in Illinois, they should contact the DNR. They'd be real interested. :thumbsup:
Perfect example is this stupid bear that's been wandering around northwest Indiana and extreme southwest Michigan for the past few months. People have seen it. People have photographed it. Law enforcement has been observing it. Its been knocking over bird feeders, trash cans, and standing at people's sliding glass doors trying to get in while people on the other side have been recording it on their cell phones. DNR saw it, got droppings, got fur samples... its verifiable.
So I go down to the feed mill last month in a small town to pick up a U-Haul trailer and inside is the local town cop and a couple other folks. Someone mentions the bear and the cop starts going off about "That's nothing new. We've had bears around here for years. I've seen them many times" bla bla bla
BS! Only he has seen them? No one else has seen them? No one else has reported them? No one else has photographed them? No one has stepped in bear poop?
In this day and age, with the prevalence of just about everyone having a camera with them 24/7, game cameras, security cameras, etc... there's no reason to not get verifiable evidence.
Sure, when I was a kid, we swore there was a bobcat in our neighborhood. People reported seeing it. We found some prints and took plaster casts. But no one ever got a picture of it, hit one with a car, got bobcat poop, bobcat fur, shot it, etc.... so it was just taking folks at their word, which most of the time, it was some looney old lady that had some birds at her feeder being killed by a really large house cat.
Anyhow, I don't doubt that you had porcupines 50+ years ago. But there's no documented cases of porcupines in recent times in Illinois. As I read somewhere a couple days ago, some biologist in Illinois said he'd bet his house that there is no viable population of cougars in Illinois, but he would NOT be his house that there are NO cougars in Illinois. There have been 4-5 documented cougars in Illinois in the 2000's.
Cougar Fatally Shot Near Western Illinois Town Of Morrison « CBS Chicago
If anyone finds a porcupine in Illinois, they should contact the DNR. They'd be real interested. :thumbsup:
