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As we have learned with Loch Ness, Bigfoot, and certain recent political assertions, any number of facts and court judgments can’t kill a notion.
Mountain lions in New England fit into this category, reports the Globe’s Brooke Hauser, who wondered if she saw one a while back in her yard. Brooke was disabused of the idea, but she has been swamped by New England readers insisting there are mountain lions here.
We’re breaking down Brooke’s popular followup story as a public service — and because this writer once yanked a 20-pound cockapoo from a too-close early morning encounter with a coyote, and later away from a padding black bear. And don’t get me started about fisher cats.
The facts
Anyway, there is no proof of mountain lions in the region. The last confirmed sighting of a New England catamount was in 1938 in Maine. In 2018, the US Fish and Wildlife Service removed the eastern puma from the federal endangered species list, due to extinction. The mountain lions also are called cougars or panthers, and again no proof they’re roaming these parts, though that hasn’t stanched unconfirmed reports.
So what could they be?
Maybe bobcats, who do roam New England. “I think this is part of the confusion for people,” Brooke told me yesterday, “since we think bobcats basically look like big house cats — but from afar, some could look more like a mountain lion, especially if you can’t see the defining features and can only see the size.”
The defining features
That gets to the most important part. Photographs of bobcats have been misidentified as mountain lions, even though the mountain lions lack the “face ruff” of the bobcats.
Some readers also wrote Brooke about the “coywolf‚” a cross between a western coyote and an eastern wolf. Perhaps, the reporter wrote diplomatically, that’s “a topic for another time.”
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Read: She thought she saw a mountain lion. Readers wrote back.
🧩 9 Across: Comfort | 🌧️ 74° Cloudy, rain
Offices to homes? A independent board suggests the US government could save $185.6 million if it sold the John W. McCormack US Post Office and Courthouse in Boston’s Financial District. Developers are eyeing apartments there.
From the home of Julia Child: After years of cuts, GBH is touting a growth in donors and launching a statewide show.
Who wants strawberries and watermelon? These refugee farmers are bringing their harvests to New England’s “food deserts.”
$1,000 head start? Millions of children can get $1,000 from the government for retirement accounts. Will it shrink the wealth gap?
Tartan founder: This Scottish immigrant and Founding Father hated the idea of an Electoral College and even the Senate. Let the people choose without interference, James Wilson said. Why don’t we know more about him?
Wrong-way crashes: They’re deadlier than any other accident. Mass. is working to prevent them.
Eighth grade nightmare: Algebra was mandatory this year in Cambridge. More than 60 percent of students will have to retake it.
Hot dogs in Boston have gone crazy this summer.Ilana Zahavy for The Boston
🌭 Hot dog summer: Move over ketchup, relish, and mustard. These Boston restaurants have topped themselves with toppings.
📺 Nantucket misadventure: In this week’s non-World Cup TV picks, Jennifer Garner goes New England in “The Five-Star Weekend,” a Burning Man documentary, and J.K. Simmons in an Irish gang battle (in New York, for once).
🏠 Home of the week: This one’s brand new, with an indoor patio. Check out the three-bedroom condo in Newton on the market for $1.6 million.
🎆 See it again: How Boston celebrated the Fourth.
🛋️ Family counseling: “I tried with a sibling. Are some things better left unsaid?”
🍩 Dunkin’ merch: Do we even care anymore?
Hear ye! Hear ye! Readers rang the bell on Friday’s 1776 Starting Point edition. Bob Ponte, who usually reads a few stories from the newsletter, “read every word. Thanks for a wonderful idea.”
Elaine Rush Arruda called Friday’s newsletter “an absolute masterpiece. … Truly educational, witty, engaging, and on point.”
Thanks to all of you for reading.
This newsletter was edited by Curt Woodward and produced by Ryan Orlecki.
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Dave Beard can be reached at dave.beard@gmail.com. Follow him on X @dabeard.