Cougars in Michigan

This past week the Michigan DNR had put on display two cougars in the hopes of helping the public learn more about these beautiful animals.  One of the cougars is displayed at the Department of Natural Resources customer service center in Newberry, while the other is located at the “Fact Shack” at the Upper Falls at Tahquamenon Falls State Park.

Cougars were originally native to Michigan and were then extirpated from the state at the turn of the century. Since 2008 the DNR has confirmed that there has been around 30 cougar reports.  So it appears that cougars still do exist in the UP, but are extremely difficult to find. Central Michigan University, as well as the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy, have been conducting DNA analysis on hair and scat samples. They concluded from their study that there are eight locations that have tested positive as locations where cougars have been, pretty exciting.

No one knows for certain where the observed cougars in Michigan are coming from, but there are a few ideas. For instance, it is said that these cougars can be escaped pets, released pets, or transient cougars from breeding populations in North and South Dakota.  Those populations in North and South Dakota are over 900 miles away!  During the winter of 04/05 the National Park Service put up cameras on trails and roads in order to detect any cougars along those paths, but amazingly they found nothing! So who knows for sure where these cougars are coming from or how many there are, but regardless these are amazing animals that we should try to learn more about.

To find out information you can go to michigan.gov or ironcountyreporter.com.

General.