The Dept. of Natural Resources on
Tuesday said biologists have confirmed
two cougar sightings in northern Wisconsin
in recent months.
Including a cougar sighting in January in
Bayfield County, DNR biologists say there
have been three confirmed reports of
cougars in 2014.
The two most recent cougar discoveries
came from photographs from trail cameras
on private land in Lincoln and Marinette
counties. They follow a string of such
observations since 2008. The big cats
disappeared from Wisconsin in about 1910.
A study in the Journal of Wildlife
Management in 2012 reported that
cougars have spread across the Midwest
landscape in recent years.
The study showed 178 cougar confirmations
in the Midwest and as far south as Texas
between 1990 and 2008.
Confirmed sightings of Midwestern cougars
were sporadic before 1990, but then
spiked to more than 30 by 2008, the
study found.
In the latest cases in Wisconsin, the
cougars in fact could be the same animal,
according David MacFarland, a wildlife
biologist with the DNR.
He said the respective locations were
about 90 miles from each other in a
straight line.
"It is very possible that a cougar could
have covered the distance in that
amount of time," MacFarland said.
In the first case, a cougar was sighted
in Lincoln County, east of Merrill, on
July 30. A Minnesota man, the owner
of the property, reported the photo to
the DNR onSept. 5, MacFarland said.
Feces found on the property could have
come from the cat and is now
undergoing DNA analysis.
In the second case, the cougar in
Marinette County was photographed
with a trail camera on Sept. 1 near
Middle Inlet, north of Crivitz, and
reported to the DNR on Sept. 30.
In both cases, personnel from the
DNR visited the sites, inspected the
images, interviewed the landowners
and concluded that the photos were
legitimate.
In January 2014, the first cougar of
the year was verified by its tracks by
a conservation warden in Bayfield
County. The DNR believes it was likely
the same cat that was photographed
in the county in late 2013.
The DNR received 240 reports of
cougars in 2013, according to agency
figures. Eight of the reports were
confirmed as probable and three
were verified.
The verified sightings in 2013 were
in Bayfield, Sawyer and Florence
counties.
The DNR believes the cougars are
males that left the Black Hills region
of western South Dakota looking
for a mate. Invariably, the cats move
east in the hope of finding a mate.
"There is no reason to believe we
have a breeding population in the
state," MacFarland said.
There has been no verified evidence
of predation on pets or farm animals
in Wisconsin, he said.
"For people who might be nervous
about having cougars in the area,
the indications are that they are
spending little time in any one place,
" MacFarland said.
In the most notable case in
Wisconsin, a cougar seen in 2009
was the same cat that was killed
by a motorist
driving an SUV on a
busy highway in Milford, Conn.,
in June 2011.
A DNR biologist said then that the
cougar's trek from its first confirmed
sighting in a Minneapolis suburb
to a densely populated corner of
Connecticut represented a record
of straight-line movement for a
cougar — 1,055 miles.
The DNR has a
website devoted
to cougars and rare animal
sightings, which includes a form
for reporting rare animals. The
site includes photos of other
cougar sightings.
Posts
