(WWJ) -- The Michigan Department of Natural Resources has confirmed a recent cougar sighting in the state’s Upper Peninsula.
Earlier this month a Twitter user posted an image from a trail camera, claiming it had recently been captured in Dickinson County.
Wildlife biologists with the DNR confirmed the photo was authentic on Wednesday. It was taken on Sept. 16. Officials say the big cat was spotted about 50 miles from where a July 20 video captured a cougar in Baraga County.
“The DNR’s team of biologists that investigates cougar reports had seen the photo but initially could not confirm the source or location where it was taken,” a press release said. “The team was able to investigate the report after the owner of the photo saw a newspaper story about it and contacted the DNR.
The confirmed sighting is the 10th this year and the 74th in Michigan since 2008, officials said. All of the confirmed 2021 reports have been in the U.P., including three in Dickinson County, two in Marquette County, and one each in Baraga, Delta, Houghton, Luce and Schoolcraft Counties.
Those figures don’t necessarily translate to the same number of cougars in the state, because a single animal may be included in more than one confirmed report.
The DNR says previous genetic research has shown the cougars seen in the U.P. have dispersed to the area from states west of Michigan and they have no evidence confirmed of a breeding population of cougars in the U.P.
DNR officials say this latest confirmed report continues a three-year trend of the highest number of cougar reports confirmed over the past 14 years. The previous high of seven confirmations in a single year was surpassed in 2019 when 11 reports were recorded, followed by 15 in 2020. Norton said greater use of trail cameras by the public may be contributing to the increased number of cougar reports.
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Cougars -- also known as mountain lions, pumas, panthers or catamounts in other areas -- were originally native to Michigan, but they were wiped out from Michigan around the early 1900s, according to the DNR’s website. The last known wild cougar legally taken in the state occurred in 1906 near Newberry.
For more information on cougars in Michigan, including a list of the confirmed reports and forms for reporting additional cougar evidence, visit Michigan.gov/Cougars.
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