Cougars Are In Michigan & You May Never See One

More and more cougars are getting spotted on trail camera's in Michigan but they are still considered an endangered species.

I have a hunted a long time and unless I am very far from a cougar, I have no desire to stumble across one of them. They are fast, go for the throat and leave almost no trace of their existence.

According WOOD, you were once allowed to hunt cougars in Michigan. The last known cougar kill was back in 1906 near Newberry. Now Michigan has a new task force the DNR put together to study the cougars and cougar sightings in Michigan. The group are scattered all around the state because the animals have been seen all around the state.

One thing the cougar study has uncovered, is that all the cougars that have been reported are males so they have yet to find any breeding going on.

Even though cougars once thrived in Michigan, the ones we are seeing the past few years are migrating to the mitten state from South Dakota. All of the sightings in Michigan have been in the Upper Peninsula except for one.

If you have any trail camera photos, proof of tracks or scat, contact your local DNR staff to try and confirm the sighting.

I have never seen any cougar tracks in Michigan myself but from the trail camera footage I have scene, they are definitely hear. Sometimes I wonder if they are in White Cloud because of how the deer act.

Cougars can ambush a deer from a tree in a split second going for the next for a quick kill. That might explain the paranoia the deer in my area exhibit. I only say this because the last time a cougar was caught on camera there was Facebook thread where some turkey hunters reported seeming them for years.

So far the DNR says there have been about 40 confirmed sightings in Michigan's Upper Peninsula from 2010 to 2021. Research teams are trying to figure out the area these animals are being spotted in so they can know better on where to be to try and study them and what is it about the area that draws the cougars to them.

At some point the cougars may recolonize in the Upper Peninsula but in order for that to happen, some females are going to need to make the trip from South Dakota.