HOUGHTON (WWJ) - The Michigan Department of Natural Resources is investigating a cougar sighting in the U.P. after a big cat was caught on a trail cam taking down a deer during hunting season.
Houghton resident and Michigan Tech student Eli Schaefer, 24, told WWJ's Beth Fisher that he realized he had something special when he stopped to review footage from his trail camera last weekend.
"I was pulling all my equipment from deer hunting and I was just rifling through the camera, you know, not really caring too much as the season was over," Shaefer explained. "And I look and I was like, 'Oh my God, I got a cougar on camera.'"
Schaefer's footage is rare as there is no native population of cougars in Michigan despite a rise in reported sightings that hit double digits each of the last two years , according to information complied by the DNR.
Schaefer said the large cat video, which was time stamped on October 30, 2023, is the first footage he's aware of that caught the animal taking down prey in the state.
"I've never seen a video of a cougar taking down a deer and especially in the U.P. of Michigan and then I ended up going to the next video and it ended up being the cougar dragging the deer off," he explained.
Schafer added that cougars are rare, but the footage wasn't the only time he caught a big cat on his trail cam.
"I was even lucky enough in October to get a picture of one on a different trail camera probably about a mile away from where the video was taken," he said, adding that he wasn't sure if it was the same cougar or a different one.
The DNR's large carnivore specialist, Brian Roell, has been in contact with Schafer to review the footage and come out an investigate the area to confirm the sighting.
Since 2008, the DNR has only confirmed 106 cougar sightings in Michigan. Schefer said the experience hasn't only been surprisinly to find, but also chilling.
"I've never really thought about cougars being in the area. I've never even really paid attention to other people posting pictures, but it's a way different feeling looking on your camera and seeing one standing right where you do and then you start thinking about, 'well, how many times was that cougar watching me walking around the woods?'"
Schafer said he carried protection before whenever he ventured out into the woods -- but he said he won't forget it after his latest experience.
Back in the winter of 2021, Schafer found a large cat print after driving through the woods and spotted a trail of blood going across the road.
"It looked like there was a little bit of a scramble on the side of the road, like a big matted area down in the snow and then large cat tracks and drag mark with a little bit of blood, like a deer was dragged, and I ended up following that and I actually found... a deer was buried." he told Fisher.
He took a picture of the tracks and showed it around town before being told it was likely a large bobcat. Only now he's not so sure it was.
"They didn't think cougars were in the area, but now thinking back on it -- for how large the track was -- it was bigger than my hand," he said. "It most likely was a cougar."