Viewers say they were cougars. The Michigan Department of Natural resources rightfully says prove it! That's the problem. So many of you have called, emailed, and sent in pictures of what you saw after I brought you a Fact Finder last week of a possible cougar sighting on Old Mission Peninsula. Your feedback from our webpage and a look at one of the DNR's theories about cougar sightings are the subject of this Fact Finder.
Rocquel Morrison's interaction with a large cat was three years ago, but she says it's as fresh in her mind as if it happened yesterday. She says "We were going down M 22 towards our house and just passed Dockside Party Store. He (her husband) slammed on the brakes, throwing me into the dashboard, and into seeing this big cat look at me. He turned his head and looked at me."
And that look from the big cat that darted across M 22 haunted Rocquel Morrison. She wanted to know what is was, so she drove to a local wildlife museum and found a carbon copy. Rocquel took one look at the stuffed animals inside and said "that's the cat I saw. The owner said, it's a mountain lion, but it's also called a cougar, and I said that's what was in front of me." Rocquel called me after we aired the story of a more recent cougar sighting on Old Mission. She wanted to share her sighting. She wasn't alone.
Vern Bishop sent me a photo from the Pigeon River Forest (see slideshow above) of a paw print. Vern and his wife say they've had a number of encounters with cougars. Jason Myers of East Jordan sent me another picture (also see slideshow) from his game cam of a juvenile cat. He says he has others pictures of adult cats. Viewers have commented with stories of their own.
D.G. From Williamsburg wrote "We've seen a cougar on Broomhead in Williamsburg three times in the past couple years. Nearly hit it with the car last winter. Fresh tracks in the snow all over the place."
Adam Price from Cheboygan shared his experience "I was going on a walk back through there when I came across a cougar and a cougar cub. I only saw it for a second but I'm sure of what it was."
Jane Giordano from Lake City says "My husband saw it and we both could not speak. It was tan, had a long tail and when he picked up his paws we could see that they were huge."
A lot of sightings in fact, we received so many stories from viewers, I decided to get a map and start marking where the mystery cats were reported. It was a pretty impressive collection of dots ranging from Manistee to Newberry.
The only problem is the DNR says they weren't cougars or least not wild cougars. The DNR's web page suggests that the last wild cougar was killed in Michigan more than a century ago (1906). So if you think you saw a cougar or if you have a cougar print, the DNR may have an explanation.
DNR Wildlife Biologist Rich Earle explains "We have had a couple of cougars tracks identified in the Upper Peninsula in the last year. However it's impossible to say whether they were from a dispersing individual from further out west or whether they were a privately owned animal on the loose for a day or two."
Opponents call it the DNR's Pet Theory; that tracks and sightings are those of cougar's which are pets that may have given their owners the slip.
But with this many sightings, over so many counties, I wondered just how many people really own cougars in Michigan. So I made some phone calls and got some answers.
According to the Michigan Department of Agriculture, The Large Carnivore Act went into effect in 2000. It prohibits the ownership of cougars and other large carnivores but if you owned your large carnivore (including cougars) when the law went into effect were allowed to be grandfathered in.
Every year, owners of big cats had to get permits and notify the MDA if their large carnivore died. So the MDA would know how many legally owned cats there are in Michigan and how many that could be out and responsible for the sightings and tracks as explained by the DNR. So what is that number?
"MDA has no record of any cougars currently permitted in the State of Michigan."
Jennifer Holton, Michigan Department of Agriculture"
So if the MDA has accurate numbers, the tracks and sightings recently reported are not likely from current legally owned pets. To be fair, they could have come from pets that were abandoned as they grew.
So what do you think? Have a sighting to share? Have pictures you would like to email to me MSCHOLLETT@TV7-4.COM
Please leave a comment below.
