Fist I will start with telling you that I was severely admonished for my last article. My 13-year-old daughter read it and told me in no uncertain terms, that I was never going to be allowed to write an article again. It was long, boring, and pointless. Oh well everybody is a critic. So I will have to write future articles in fear and seclusion. Well maybe I was in ì The Winter Doldrumsî.

Today I am going to talk about three animal species that historically had an impact on our area and ìseemî today to be making a comeback. Along with explanations of how & why they ìseemî to be repopulating this area. They are Felis Concolor, the Mountain Lion. Canis Lupus, the Grey Wolf, and possible one of the most rare animals ever to walk this continent, Mustela Ursus Horiblius, the Greater Lotobul, or sometime referred to by Native Americans as the Little Bear Devil. Somewhat of a misnomer, understandably. Although a fairly accurate description.

Often when I am giving talks about the life history of the animals that we know inhabit our forestís I will get asked about these animals and if I think that they are indeed returning to inhabit our are. My response is measured and I explain what I think is happening. I start by explaining in all of the time that I have in the out of doors I have never seen Felis Concolor, the Mountain Lion, or Canis Lupus, the Grey Wolf. However, my son and I did have a VERY PERSONAL encounter with a Mustela Ursus Horiblius, the Greater Lotobul. I will go on to explain that it is possible that these animals could migrate from the west through highly populated areas of Canada to reach our remote forests. Especially difficult for the Felis Concolor, the Mountain Lion, Canis Lupus, the Grey Wolf, or so I would think. The Mustela Ursus Horiblius, the North American Lotobul is a different matter all together, as I will explain later. I will say that of the Mustela Ursus Horiblius, the Greater Lotobul, it is possible that these animals are migrating.

However I continue the explanation with a story of Felis Concolor, the Mountain Lion, sighting in northern Vermont some 12 years ago in January of 1993 I believe it was. The Vermont Fish & Wildlife Dept. had many reports of sightings of a Female Mountain Lion and two cubs in the Craftsbury area. There were even some reports of loss of live stock. After very persistent hounding from the local residents, the Fish & Wildlife Dept sent up two biologists to investigate. While they had no personal sightings, They did find some interesting evidence. They found three sets of tracks, which they took plaster, molds of. They followed the track, which were obviously feline, and found an area where the cats had defecated. Being biologists, they had no trouble in deciding to collect the scat so it could be sent off for identification. After extensive searching they found no more definable evidence and discontinued their search. The scat samples were sent to some lab out west for identification. Now this is toward the beginning of the time when DNA analysis was becoming a popular way to make identification. After six months or so, the results were returned and a meeting was scheduled in Craftsbury to go over the findings. Since members of the cat family groom themselves so thoroughly with their tongs, hair is ingested into the digestive tract. If you have ever seen a domestic cat try to cough up a hairball, you know what I am talking about. Some of the hair inevitably make it all the way through. At the meetings it was reveled that indeed there had been if not still was a Felis Concolor, the Mountain Lion in the area. There was only one problem This was a subspecies of Felis Concolor, the Mountain Lion that is only found in remote area of,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, Peru. Now I donít think that a female, Felis Concolor, the Mountain Lion with cubs walked 9000 miles to poop in northern Vermont. Do you?

Next on our list is Canis Lupus, the Grey Wolf. Ten years ago in a remote part of northern Maine a fellow had employed a local Maine Guide to take him on a deer hunt. Northern Maine is and has been renowned for itís large trophy size whitetail bucks. Just ask the Bennoits or Mr. Bernier. As the story goes they started out in the snowy early morning, looking for large buck sign and eventually cut a track, which they started to follow. Not to long afterwards they stopped on the edge of a large cedar swamp. The guide felt that he knew this buck and that it was bedded on a particular hummock in the swamp. The guide put his client in place for a shot when the deer would leave the hummock on one of his escape routs. The guide then proceeded to follow the track. As expected when the guide went on the hummock the buck went off. The guide had guessed right but the client never got a shot off. They proceeded to follow the track of the fleeing buck. After more than 3 miles they came to the top of a ridge, which overlooked another large cedar swamp. As they started down the ridge, the guide was amazed to see a HUGE ìcoyoteî staring at them at about 50yds. The largest he had ever seen. The book on the song dogs, of the area is that, they had replaced the wolf in that niche of the environment, and were hard on the deer herd. The guide encouraged his client to shoot it before it ran off. Later as they related their story, it was noted that the ìcoyoteî did not exhibit the usual flight response. In fact, it stood as the client took aim and shot. Since it was less than hour till the end of legal hunting time they decided to call it a day. The client had never seen a coyote in the wild and wanted to have it mounted. Therefore, they brought it out to the guideís truck. Later that evening, as they were in a local Greenville bar extolling their exploits, and showing off the large song dog. Word got to the local Game Warden who made a visit. He asked if they wold like to show him this unusually large animal, which they in their inebriated state were more than happy to, and probably would have been glad to even if they had not been imbibing. After examining the ìsong dogî the game warden asked them where they would be staying and where the ìcoyoteî was going to be kept. Next morning good and early before the guide and client had time to get the to a taxidermist the game warden returned. He had with him a federal officer from the US dept of Wildlife. HE impounded the animal, the guideís truck, the clientís firearm and all equipment that was involved in the harvesting of this HUGE ìcoyoteî. He informed these stunned gentlemen that he believed they had shot a Grey Wolf. Which is protected by federal law in the lower 48. Later DNA evidence was offered in court to support this. Although the men with their attorneys argued that since the animal did not exhibit the usual flight behavior of a wild animal and there for was not a ìwild wolfî that they should be exempt from prosecution. To no avail. The guide was fined $10,000 and lost his truck and his guiding license. The Client was fined $15,000 and lost all of his gear.

Due to the evidence in each case, I think it is fairly reasonable to come to the conclusion that there is a good chance that both of these animals were released into the wild by misguided people. What sometime happens is that for whatever reason some people think it is ìcoolî, or ìmachoî to own large and potentially dangerous animals. Most of these people do not possess the knowledge and skills to train domesticated animals. Never mind the specialized skills it takes to train and keep wild ìdomesticatedî animals. As the animals grow and mature they become more than these neophytes bargained for. They cannot handle them. If they inquire about giving them to facilities that can handle these animals, they sometimes find that they are in violation of the law and may face prosecution if they acknowledge having them. Therefore, they do the thing that seems romantically correct. They take the animals to a ìremoteî area by their standards, and release them. They believe that these animals will live out a wonderful and fulfilling life in the wild as the are ìsupposedî to. The reality is that since these animals had no training from their parents they often die a horrible death of starvation. I am not going to say that we do not have these animals in our mists. I am not even going to say that these animals could not have migrated here. However, I feel it is most likely that these animals are released animal. Just my $.02 for what that is worth.

This now bring us to the, Mustela Ursus Horiblius, the Greater Lotobul. This animal has been so rare that it could almost be thought of as mythical. It is referred to across the northern part of the continent in Native American tales & legendís as Little Bear Devil. This animal is and has been so rare that like the mountain gorilla of Africa, it was thought by the European settlers to only be myth and found only in Native American lore. However throughout colonial times there are descriptions of brief encounters with the Greater Lotobul. In her 1957 book ì A HISTORY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE GAME AND FURBEARSî, Helenette Silver references colonial encounters with this animal in the most remote parts of the state at those times. There is even one reference to an official sighting in the early 1920ís. No documented information of contact that I can find since and is considered to be extirpated from the state. In the different records, it is noted that the animal is extremely aggressive toward humans and his domestic livestock. Even attacking, and killings of humans have been recorded on occasion. To me this makes this animal truly fascinating to historically study. From its Latin, it is obvious that it is a member of the weasel family. A little smaller that the Wolverine but larger than another weasel cousin the Badger. It has the loose skin of the badge, but the coat most resembles the Fisher, with a shorter tail. It is arboreal like the Martin, and very inquisitive. It is reputed to have a disposition that makeís a wolverine look like a childís teddy bear. Since the size of this animal is so much smaller than the Mountain Lion or the Grey Wolf, I could easily understand that is could have migrated here. Never mind the fact that it is so aggressive that there is and never has been any records of attempted domestication.

I mentioned above about a personal encounter that my son Zack had an encounter with a Greater Lotobul. Oh yes, I can hear you all now. Yea, and what was this guy smoking while he had this encounter. All I can say is that when some one tells me that they have seen something that is not supposed to be there I do not call them a liar. Nevertheless, I try to give them the credence and respect that they deserve. Unless, of course, it seems obvious that they are deliberately pulling my leg. Then I call it, like I see it. Which I might add I am renowned for. In addition, if I told you all of the things that I have seen in the out of doors that have no explanation you would begin to question my sanity. So on with the story of the encounter. It was the summer of 1998, late June. Zack was 14 & I 41. It was after school had gotten out for the year and before the flatlanders had invaded. I like my privacy in the out of doors unless I choose otherwise. Like when I choose to guide. We had planed a weeklong trip in the Pemmi Wilderness. Starting in Lincoln Woods and traversing the wilderness up Bondcliff trail over West Bond Cliff, Mt. Bond to Mt. Guyot Shelter. Then exiting over South & North Twin Mt. That morning we left a secret little camp I knew of near camp 16 and started our climb up Bondcliff trail. We had a good workout ahead of us that day, with over 5.5 miles of trail and 3500í gain in elevation. It was mid afternoon and we were a little more than a 1000í past the summit of Mt. Bond when we came round a sharp turn in the trail. There is where we were confronted by an animal that I had never seen before, and had only seen in one drawing. It was obvious that it was hunting and did not see use directly. I froze where I stood remembering the reports that I had read of this animal. The Greater Lotobul! At first, I could not believe what it was that was before us. After a moment Zack leaned forward and tried to whisper in my ear asking what was in front of us, and it was only a faint whisper at that. However, as the words left his lips the Lotobul heard us and snapped its head around to look in our directions. I immediately motioned for him to be still & silent. Many animals tend to see in such away that they pick up on movement more than still objects. Knowing this I hoped that we would not be detected. The Lotobul scented the air, but since we were down wind it could not detect us. At this time, I estimated the animal was over 60yds. from us. It started to move in our directions. With what I had read about the aggressive nature, this animal I was not to take any chances. Especially since my son was with me. I motioned for us to move back up the trail. As we did, the Lotobul quickened its pace. Once around the corner in the trail we ran as quickly as one can with 50 & 60lb packs. We went back down the trail past the sharp turn over the summit of Mt. Bond as far as we could and still see the corner. I was hoping that the Lotobul would loose interest there and go on its way. However, That was not to be. The animal, stopped on the open summit and scent the ground until it could determine which way we had gone. It then started toward us at an increased pace. I told Zack to drop his pack as I dropped mine. Thinking and hopping that it would be more interested in the food in our packs than in us. We then ran down the trail to where we could see the packs. The Lotobul never even noticed them and kept right on down the trail toward us. Now, I am not one to be scared of anything I meet in the woods. Nevertheless for the first time since I was a child I was truly in fear of the possible outcome. Zack and I ran as hard as we were able, over the rough mile until we got to Bondcliff. Zack was really scared and trying hard to be brave. I assured him that I would not let this animal do him any harm. No matter what! Our rapid flight seemed to have the encouraged the Lotobul as it was now running towards us at a very fast pace. I should have expected that as it was the predator and us its potential prey. As we crept back toward the edge of the cliff the Lotobul slowed and started to circle looking for an opening. I noticed a ledge about eight feet below the edge of the cliff and told Zack to jump down onto it and I would follow. Hoping that this small ledge was beyond the animalís reach. Zack jumped, and as I started to follow the Lotobul lunged for my head & neck. I twisted my body away from its leap. However, its claws ripped my shirt and cut deep into my shoulder & chest. I had twisted enough that other than that the Lotobul missed me and plunged over 800í to its death on the rocks below. We were both very shaken from our ordeal. Although the danger from the Lotobul was now passed, I was in a bit of a pickle. I was loosing blood and was starting to go into shock. With Zackís help, I made it back up to the trail, but could go no further. I told him that he would have to go to the AMC shelter on Mt. Guyot for help. He was afraid to go and justifiable so. He had just been through a life & death situation. His dad was in some serious trouble and he had never navigated solely by himself in the forest. I assured him I had faith in his abilities to accomplish this. He helped make me comfortable and started a fire leaving extra wood for me to put on it I could. So off he went. It was well after dark before the AMC people lead by my son got back. They administered first aid and helped me keep warm for the remained of the night. I had lost a lot of blood and was to weak to make it to the shelter. About 9 am the next morning a medivac helicopter flew over and lowered a litter which I was strapped into and raised up and into the medivac helicopter. I was then transported to Dartmouth/Hitchcock where I spent the next 12 days recovering from my injuries. I was very proud of my son and his accomplishments through all of this. I will be forever grateful for his courage in this dire situation.

The first two stories are from published material that I have collected over the years, and very much enjoy sharing and discussing them with people. I honestly believe that some people do see Mountain Lions and Grey Wolfs in our area. I have never met another person that has encountered a live Lotobul. Moreover, I believe I know the reason why, other people have not had any experiences with this very rear and dangerous animal. That is because the story of Mustela Ursus Horiblius, the Greater Lotobul is nothing more than a Lot Of BullÖ Got Ya didnít I. All aspects of the Lotobul story are fictitious, as this animal does not exist! I originally heard a version of this story from a fellow member of the NHWF. Steve Sabol. I just made the embellishments to fit my story.

Take care, and let the Lord help you make it a great day.