In what might be a first, at least in modern times, a cougar with kittens was spotted in northern Minnesota, just south of Voyageurs National Park.
"Oh, it's amazing, it's frankly surreal to us," said Tom Gable never expected to see four cougars together, marking the first time that breeding has been observed in over a century.
Gable is project lead of the The Voyageurs Wolf Project, who captured video of the cougars. He says the discovery was unexpected as they were working on a project to track deer mortality.
"When the deer die, the collar sends a mortality signal and then we immediately go and try to investigate," Gable explains.
What they found was that the dead deer had been moved and buried under leaves, indicating the presence of a large cat.
So they put a camera on the deer carcass and started rolling.
"We got to watch this cougar and her kittens for hours sitting at this kill, feeding, grooming each other, sleeping," Gable said. "So, it's just kind of mind blowing for us to be honest. And I think we're still - we still all feel it's a little surreal. It was very unexpected."
He says cougars are slowly returning to Minnesota as they were previously considered locally extinct.
“Based on traits observed in the video, we estimate the kittens to be 7-9 months old, so born last fall,” said John Erb, research biologist with the Minnesota DNR. “The only other confirmed kittens in Minnesota turned out to be captive escapees and involved a female with two kittens that showed up and hung around a homeowner’s porch in 2001.”
Gable also called it a massive milestone, signaling that cougars may be nearing a point of reestablishing self-sustaining populations in the state.
There are occasional cougar sightings in the state. Fourteen verified sightings of cougars have occurred in the state in the last four years. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources says the number of sightings indicate that cougar occurrence in Minnesota is a result of transient animals from the Western Dakotas, but those are almost exclusively males.
Those weren't just happening in rural areas, either. 2023, there was a report of a cougar sighting in Lowry Hill and Lake of the Isles neighborhoods of Minneapolis, a shockingly large cat to be prowling through the heart of the metro. Sadly, that animal was likely the same one struck by a motorist and killed on I-394.
Until now, there had been no evidence of a breeding population of cougars in the state. Cougars can travel more than 40 miles in a day, and, to date, cougars documented in Minnesota appear to have all been transient animals from western South Dakota, North Dakota, or Nebraska.
Cougars are legally protected in Minnesota, and there is no hunting or trapping season for them.
“Although this is an important starting point for potential population establishment in Minnesota, predicting the future is extremely difficult,” Erb said. “These kittens might not survive, potentially getting killed by wolves, a male cougar or vehicles. They may also become part of the founding catalyst for a slow but steady increase in numbers. Time will tell, but we are clearly nearing a point where the probability of a self-sustaining population has increased.”
Cougars were native to Minnesota before becoming locally extinct. There hasn’t been evidence of reproduction for more than 100 years in the eastern Midwest (east of the Dakotas and Nebraska) until recent reports from Michigan and now Minnesota.
More information about cougars in Minnesota can be found on the Minnesota DNR website. More information about the Voyageurs Wolf Project is available at the project website.
