Coyotes Secretly Imported by Insurance Firms

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20140119_Coyote_conspiracy__Myth__or_state-business_collusion_.html

The Inquirer [Philadelphia, PA]

19 January 2014

Coyote conspiracy: Myth, or state-business collusion?

Rita Giordano, Inquirer Staff Writer

[…] For years, a not-so-small segment of the hunting community has suspected coyotes have been secretly imported to the region by states to reduce their deer herds and/or by insurance firms to cut deer-related accident claims. […]

Mountain Lions Intentionally Released (Oklahoma)

http://www.newsok.com/mountain-of-a-tale/article/3430931

The Oklahoman [Oklahoma, OK]
10 January 2010

Belief that mountain lions are released into woods to kill deer doesn't make sense

By Ed Godfrey
The Oklahoman

Where did this rumor get started that the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation intentionally releases mountain lions to roam free in the state to control the deer population? [...]

http://www.newsok.com/article/3429730?searched=mountain%20lion&custom_click=search

The Oklahoman [Oklahoma City, OK]
5 January 2010
Trail camera near Atoka snaps a mountain lion
BY ED GODFREY

[Two reader comments.]

[...] When I was a kid there were the rumors that a circus train had derailed somewhere here in SW OK and that some big cats had escaped [including a black panther] and that they had eventualy breeded with the native wild cats.
David, Altus - Jan 6, 2010 at 3:27 am

[...] I have heard a story for years that a "circus train" crashed between Shawnee and Seminole and all the cats got loose and set up housekeeping out there. Not believeable, but an interesting story nonetheless. [...]
Paula, yukon 73099 - Jan 5, 2010 at 11:57 am

Pumas Secretly Introduced to Pennsylvania

Fortean Times #257 (January 2010), p. 73.

Letters

Pennsylvania pumas

[Tamy Kay Thompson of Newport News, Virginia, writes that the Pennsylvania Game Commission once tried to cut down the deer population by secretly introducing pumas outfitted with tracking device collars. Although the cats were probably responsible for the subsequent spate of missing pets and livestock, authorities denied that any pumas were in the area. -- bc]

A short while later, a farmer shot and killed a puma as it prepared to maul his cattle. He removed its tracking device and buried the carcass under his manure pit. The next day, officials with the Game Commission showed up on his porch, demanding to know where the puma was located. The famer looked them straight in the eye and used their own words against them, "There aren't any pumas around here."

DNR Secretly Releasing Mountain Lions

http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/event/article/id/100011912/group/News/

Bemidji Pioneer [MN]
24 September 2009

Mountain lion backlash

By: Molly Miron, Bemidji Pioneer

[...] The other rumor going around is that the DNR has imported and released mountain lions to cut down the whitetail deer overpopulation. I have asked more than one DNR officials about the claim. They told me the DNR has released grouse or prairie chickens in western Minnesota and, many years ago, reintroduced fishers in Itasca State Park to control porcupines. No mountain lions. One specialist said a radio-collared mountain lion was spotted in this area some time ago, but the animal had been collared in the Black Hills of South Dakota and had wandered here from out West.

I talked to someone today who said a DNR official had told him/her 15 mountain lions had been released near here, but that the DNR doesn't want people to know. I asked for a written affidavit from this official who reported the releases before I would consider the claim. The response was that officials don't want to put it in writing, but the caller would see about getting written testimony. [...]

Rattlesnakes Introduced to Knox County, Ohio

http://www.mountvernonnews.com/Sports/09/04/03/Miller-dispells-rattlesnake-rumors-fishing-starting-strong

Mount Vernon News [OH]
3 April 2009

Miller dispells rattlesnake rumors; fishing starting strong

By Joe Huddleston

[...] Brent Theophilus of Mount Vernon asked the question of “Are rattlesnakes making a comeback in Knox County?” He stated that a friend saw someone he thought to be a ranger in the Bladensburg area introducing rattlesnakes to the area as part of a conservation effort. Knox County Wildlife Officer Mike Miller, when presented with the question, quickly dispelled the notion. [...]

Biologists vs Elk Hunters (Oregon)

http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081030/LIFE/810300319

Mail Tribune [Medford, OR]
30 October 2008

Elk-camp talk turns to conspiracies

By Mark Freeman
Mail Tribune

Cascade general-season elk hunters remain so mystified as to why they never reach the 5 Percent Club that a stubborn few continue to look skyward for an answer to all that fails them. [...]

It can't be that elk hunters outnumber elk in Jackson County. Or that walking forest roads expecting to find a big bull is as likely as trolling Match.com expecting a quick date with Jessica Simpson.

It's gotta be those damn Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife biologists raining rock salt -- or bags of flour or fire crackers -- from the sky just before Opening Day to break up the Roosevelt elk herds, all intended to minimize hunter success. [...]

Wolves Planted in Dodge County, WI

http://www.fdlreporter.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080309/FON0101/803090521/1985

Fond du Lac Reporter [WI]
9 March 2008

DNR: Wolves planted in Dodge County only rumor

By Colleen Kottke
The Reporter

HORICON -- Some area farmers are howling that Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources officials have planted gray wolves in the area to combat burgeoning white-tailed deer populations.

Nothing could be further from the truth, said DNR educator and naturalist Bill Volkert, calling the claims nothing more than bad rumors. [...]

[Volkert also denies that the DNR has released rattlesnakes to eat turkey eggs.]

Coyotes Introduced to Kill Deer, Pennsylvania

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08062/861838-358.stm

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette [PA]
2 March 2008

Coyote stocking a myth, says commission

By John Hayes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

There's a persistent rumor -- call it a rural myth -- about how coyotes arrived in Pennsylvania. The story goes something like this: in a misguided effort to reduce the deer herd, the Game Commission secretly imported coyotes and released them throughout the state, later denying it when their numbers grew. [...]

[Game Commission spokesman Jerry Feaser believes the rumor started after a Wildlife Conservation officer attached a radio collar to a troublesome coyote. "With no official coyote tags available, he clipped on Bobcat Tag No. 26." A hunter later caught the coyote -- which by then had shaken off the collar but not the tag -- and assumed it was part of a program to stock coyotes.]

Dingoes Released by Government Agencies

http://www.gladstoneobserver.com.au/localnews/storydisplay.cfm?storyid=376
4582&thesection=localnews&thesubsection=&thesecondsubsection=

Gladstone Observer [Australia]
23 February 2008

Snarling dingo bails up woman at mailbox

[Julie Kelner is usually unconcerned about dingoes on her property about 12 km outside of Ambrose, Queensland. Most of them are timid, but recently an aggressive male dingo confronted her and had to be scared off by a neighbor with a gun.]

She said there were rumours circulating in her neighbourhood that the dingos had been removed from Fraser Island by government agencies and released in the nearby National Park.

Photos of Cougars in Illinois

http://www.morrisdailyherald.com/articles/2008/02/08/state_news/608aacougars.txt

Morris Daily Herald [IL]
8 February 2008

IDNR debunks Internet rumor of cougars in Illinois

SPRINGFIELD - The Illinois Department of Natural Resources is addressing recent Internet rumors claiming photographic evidence of cougars in Illinois. [...]

Coyotes Introduced to Kill Deer, Ohio

http://www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071221/NEWS01/71221004

Telegraph-Forum [Bucyrus, OH]
21 December 2007

Crawford County residents worried about coyotes

By Kimberly Gasuras
Telegraph-Forum staff

[Mike Schiefer, a hunter who lives on Ohio 4, "thinks coyotes were originally brought into the area 10 or 15 years ago. 'Rumor has it that a trucker was in the area who said he had a load of coyotes to drop off here, because of the high number of car-deer accidents.' "]

Deer Population Secretly Controlled

http://www.syracuse.com/articles/sports/index.ssf?/base/sports-1/1197713364193670.xml&coll=1

The Post-Standard [Syracuse, NY]

16 December 2007

Legends abound about who controls deer population

DAVID FIGURA OUTDOORS EDITOR

[...] Each year, [said David Riehlman, senior wildlife biologist for the DEC's Cortland office,] disgruntled or misinformed hunters point to so-called "urban legends" to try to explain or rationalize what's happening with the deer population. [...]

Government Releases Dragonflies to Eat Mosquitoes

http://www.thedailyobserver.ca/webapp/sitepages/content.asp?contentid=684127&catname=Local%20News&classif=

The Daily Observer [Pembroke, ON]
7 September 2007

Cougar spotted on Meath Hill?

MARIE ZETTLER

A Meath Hill couple is certain that the animal they saw in their field on Saturday morning was a puma, also known in Ontario as a cougar, mountain lion, or eastern panther. [...]

One of her neighbours suggested that the Ministry of Natural Resources (MNR) may have released pumas to control the deer population in the Lanark area.

However, Terry McLeish, a senior lands and waters technician with the MNR, was quick to debunk that theory.

"That's an urban myth we've been hearing for the last five years or so," he said. "It's the same as the one that says we release dragonflies to catch mosquitoes."

"We have a hard enough time keeping fish hatcheries going - how would we ever raise dragon flies? It's ludicrous," Mr. McLeish said[.] [...]