Anonymous guy says he photographed a cougar in NH; I'm not holding my breath

The Union-Leader has a big story today about a photo allegedly of a cougar, allegedly taken by an unidentified somebody near Alton in May. It's the latest and most potent offering in the long-running "cougars live in New Hampshire no matter what officials say" debate.

The item really pegs my Baloney Meter. The photographer is unidentified because he "has issues with Fish & Game" (conspiracy alert!), the photo was allegedly taken months and months ago but only surfaced now; and and it has no identifying marks for location and time because (ready for this?) it was taken with film, not digitally! Su-u-u-ure it was.

We could ignore this whole thing except it was written by John Harrigan, longtime North Country publisher and U-L columnist, who knows a lot about the outdoors and has a long, semi-skeptical interest in the cougar issue. He's no fool, and knows plenty more than me about the wild, so maybe there's something to it.

I doubt it, though.

You can read the story here.

Here's a recent posting of mine about why cougar sightings are treated with such skepticism.