Oh, my.
A new report from a Michigan wildlife advocacy group claims that cougars, also known as mountain lions, still roam the Upper Peninsula and parts of the northern Lower Peninsula.
State wildlife officials, however, remain skeptical, while not totally discounting the possibility that the big cats are prowling Michigan wilds. Most wildlife researchers had thought cougars disappeared from the state around 1906.
The 63-page Michigan Wildlife Habitat Foundation report is based on historical documents, Michigan Department of Natural Resources files and interviews with 150 Michigan residents who have reported seeing cougars. It estimates that 10-20 adult cougars live in the UP, and a few live in the northern Lower Peninsula. There have been no known attacks on people in Michigan in the last 100 years.
"We believe ...that cougars have persisted all through the 20th Century in very low numbers," said Dennis Fijalkowski, executive director of the foundation based in Bath, Mich.
Responded Becky Humphries, chief of the DNR's Wildlife Division: "We've never been able to confirm a sighting. A lot of the information in the report is old information pulled from a number of historical findings. Unless we can confirm a sighting, we don't officially endorse it."
Cougars are common but rarely seen in mountainous areas of Western states.
By contrast, bobcats, which are found throughout the northern Lower Peninsula and UP.
Fijalkowski said the report contains sightings from 35 DNR professionals, two trained conservation officers, bone fragments from a cougar shot in 1984 as well as video and recent photographs of a female and two cubs.
He said the report's goal is to educate the public that it is illegal to shoot cougars -- they are a protected threatened species -- and to encourage reports of sightings.
The DNR said it will work to update information on cougar sightings and add the information to its department Web site.
Sightings of big cats are not uncommon around the state. In the late 1940s and early '50s, panthers were sighted in Leonard in Oakland County. In 1984, a panther was reported in Manchester in Monroe County and two years later in Waterford. Macomb County animal control officers were kept busy during the fall of 1997 looking for a liger -- a cross between a lion and tiger.
Authorities say cats spotted near urban areas probably were released from captivity after becoming unwieldy for their owners.
Fijalkowski said the cougar population has remained low because of bad breeding and poaching. He said the cougars have probably lived off deer herds. Some of the sightings in the report occurred in northern Delta County, Menominee County and in the northeastern Lower Peninsula.
Mountain Lions Roaming Michigan, Group Says
Mountain lions in Onaway and Manistique?
Detroit Free Press / MI | By Dan Shine - March 7 2001
