- Alex Hearn is a former Massachusetts resident and cryptozoologist now residing in Arizona. (SUBMITTED PHOTO)
By George Barnes TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
It is more the season to see squirrels at your bird feeder or dogs on leashes, so a report of a wild boar running along Route 2 in Lexington last week caught Alex Hearn’s interest.
Mr. Hearn is a former Massachusetts resident and a cryptozoologist interested in reports of everything from Bigfoot to animals that may be common in some parts of the country but are reported in places where they are not supposed to be. In Arizona, where he now resides, he especially researches sightings of large cats, including the spread of jaguars.
The wild boar sighting caught his eye because, as a former Bay State resident, he keeps track of sightings in his former home state.
There have been only two substantiated reports of a wild boar in Massachusetts, according to Thomas French, assistant director of the state Division of Fisheries and Wildlife. In October 2008, a Russian wild boar was struck on Route 2 in Lancaster and had to be euthanized. Outdoorsman Chet Hall from Royalston ended up with the carcass.
Mr. French said that a wild boar had been killed in Westminster in 1996.
Where they came from was never confirmed, but Mr. French said he would like to know. He said it is likely they escaped or were released by someone who kept them illegally in the state. He said they could adapt to the wild here and cause major problems.
“It would be terrible,” he said.
Mr. Hearn’s interest is not so much in problems the boars could cause, but simply in the existence of odd things and out-of-place animals. “They said they were going up Route 2 near Lexington, heading from I-95, when they saw what they thought was a dog-like animal running along,” he said. “They said it was some sort of pig.”
Mr. Hearn said that was all the information he received, but he continues to investigate it, hoping someone else saw it.
In Arizona, Mr. Hearn investigates a variety of things, and has gone into the mountains to check out Bigfoot reports. He compiles the information, makes it available through several websites, including www.azcro.net, which is the site of the Arizona Cryptozoological Research Organization.
Mr. Hearn and others in the organization attempt to prove or disprove the existence of mythological wildlife, such as the Mogollon Monster, most often described as a Bigfoot-like creature, but descriptions vary.
Mr. Hearn said they could be hybrids of some type of wildlife. To illustrate the possibility of strange wildlife combinations, he said lion-tiger hybrids, called ligers, have been created in this country and other parts of the world. The most well-known liger is a 1,000 pound animal called Hercules.
Even the now ubiquitous coyotes in the state are likely hybrids. Mr. French said they include genetic matter from eastern wolves. Coyotes here are much larger than those in the west.
Mr. Hearn said he became interested in cryptozoological research after an experience when he was 12 while hunting with his father in New Hampshire. Heading back to his father’s truck by himself, he believes he was followed by something large that remained just out of sight.
He never saw what it was, but when he and his father stopped at a diner that night, people at the restaurant did not think he was crazy and assumed he’d seen that area’s Bigfoot equivalent.
The wild boar, or possibly a feral pig sighting reported to him last week, does not surprise him. Farm animals may have escaped into the wild, he said.
Mr. French said his office often receives reports of unusual animal sightings.
Among the odd and exotic animals found running wild in the state over the years are a Capybara in Lunenburg in 2006; an African crested porcupine that was hit by a car a few years ago on Cape Cod; an Asiatic black bear that was shot while raiding a garbage can in Mendon in 1977; a nutria in Marblehead in 1942; a Sika deer in Middleboro in 1979; a gorilla that twice escaped from the Franklin Park Zoo in 2003, attacking a 2-year-old girl the second time; an African serval cat that escaped from King Richard’s Faire in Carver in 2010 and was later recaptured.
There have also been Australian black swans, flamingos, European red deer and a North American elk. Unlike wild boars, most of the exotic animals could never survive a New England winter.
The Holy Grail for cryptozoologists in Massachusetts is discovery of a mountain lion. They are animals that might be able to survive here year-round. Every year there are dozens of sightings reported to state wildlife officials, but there have been no confirmed sightings of mountain lions in the state since 1858.
“There are lots of sightings, lots of reports, but nothing tangible,” Mr. French said.
Mr. French said state wildlife officials receive more reports of mountain lions than they do bobcats, which are known to be in northern Central Massachusetts. A typical case was an anonymous report by a resident of Hubbardston on Jan. 4 who wrote to the blog, Exploring Western Massachusetts, that a neighbor saw a mountain lion on Williamsville Road in Hubbardston on Dec. 31.
“The most frequent mistake is the bobcat,” he said.
The cats are similar enough that some people confuse them, although a bobcat is much smaller than a mountain lion. Surprisingly, Mr. French said many of the reports — and especially photographs — turn out to be house cats.
There are mountain lions being kept illegally as pets. In the 26 years, Mr. French has been a state wildlife biologist, six have been seized from private homes. He said if one is found in the wild, it is very likely an escaped pet.
There has been some evidence, including a female mountain lion skull found in the Quabbin Reservoir area, and an ulna bone from a male, but none of the evidence confirms a wild mountain lion.
Mr. French said he does not take reports lightly. There had never been a gray wolf in Massachusetts in 160 years until a farmer shot one in Shelburne in 2008, after it killed about 18 lambs and sheep. DNA testing confirmed the wolf was wild.
There have been wild wolves in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire and New York that have been hit by cars or shot. He said the wolves likely have come down from Algonquin Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada.
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