I was talking to WDNR the other day. They said the number of confirmed cougar sightings continues to rise. 32 last year. All males, though, they said.
I asked if they'd like to get one collared. They aren't sure. That kind of surprised me. Several years ago when those dogs got that cougar treed, DNR tried to tranquilize it for collaring but was unsuccessful.
I wonder if other Midwest states are seeing more cougars too.
Maybe there really aren't any more than years back, but it's just that people have so many trail cameras out.

we have had cougar since the 70's here in the u p they use to plaster cast there tracks back then ,I think your right about trail camera

I tracked one for about 1/2 mil in 1986 after it killed a calf at a local dairy farm. There are sightings every year around here.

Now the guys who treed the one. They treed it two different times and the DNR couldn't hit it so they pulled the dogs off.

Fond du lac county last January. My hand

It just seems more talking about them because of social media these days. I have seen a few and have found tracks but not sure if there are more now though.

they change their tune from NO to not a significant breeding population.

They don't want to legitimize the population. OR. The feds could list them as threatened and the area would be a recovery zone until Specifics were met. That makes sense or the State would lose control.

Its just not a good policy to lie to the Public.

I saw some WI cougars at the Deer and turkey expo last night. Does that count ?

I think it does....did uou report it?

Did Beav report it to Pam? LOL

Chris

There were sightings of Mt. Loins in Michigan every little bit since I can remember. I personally have never seen one here, but know decent woodsmen that have in every decade since the 60's. I heard of others earlier than that. My own Grandad saw one, circa 1920, between West Branch and Houghton Lake. The last "official" sighting was one trapped in Luce County in 1909.What are the chances that was the very last surviving one? I'm sure the lions have been dispersing through here forever, but the Black Hills population has really grown the last 50 years, so it stands to reason that the larger that population is, the more lions there are to disperse. The Feds declared the Eastern Cougar extinct a few years ago, so how are they going to politicize a Great Lake population as one they can seize management of from the states? If there are all these young male lions roaming all over here it wouldn't take much to get the ball rolling...... about all you'd need to do to start a local breeding population is relocate some girl lions, the cats would do the rest!

Had a friend that lives near Madison send me some track pics to ID a couple years ago. He though they might be a wolf, but they were cougar tracks. Not sure where in the state he took the pic though.

Cougars have been spotted coming from SoDak through Wind Lake and Union Grove on their way to Chi town several times. Been from Phillips on back NW across WI for decades. Will.take cougars over wolves every time.

I have pictures confirmed by the DNR that it is cougar tracks from last November when I was pulling traps before deer season. Like above I put my hand in the picture for sizing. I would have been surprised to have a cougar in one of my traps.

I had one come to my fawn call last fall as I was hunting a creek in northern Marinette. Couldn't get anyone to believe me.

They've been here in MN for a few years not but only in small numbers. Guys would have them on their trailcams and still the DNR wouldn't believe them saying it was a bad picture of a barn cat. After several roadkills they now say we have them but probably just passing through.....right

Maybe 1 of these years a trapper will incidentally catch 1 in a MB750. It would then be interesting to see if DNR would collar it.

Nimzy,

Looks like a big bobcat track

Summer of 2016 a cougar walked up the street behind my house at 1145 on a Saturday night that was caught on film from a neighbors security camera, county paper had an article on it and WI DNR confirmed it, I live 2 blocks off the Mississippi River