Nature
Humankind has driven many animals to extinction, from mammoths and thylacines to passenger pigeons. However, some species have only gone locally extinct and can re-emerge in other areas if conditions change. Now, for the first time in 100 years, cougar cubs have been spotted roaming wild in Michigan.
Two cubs were spotted on private land in Ontonagon County and are thought to be only 7-9 weeks old. They were identified as cougar cubs from photographs taken by a local. Cougars have many names, including mountain lions, pumas, and catamounts, but are all the same species Puma concolor.
“It’s pretty exciting, considering this could be the first known cougar reproduction in modern times in the western Great Lakes states,” said Brian Roell, large carnivore specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR), referring to Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, in a statement. “It really shows that we have a unique place in Michigan where someone has a chance to see a wolf, a moose, and a cougar in the wild. It’s something that should be celebrated, that we have the habitat to support an elusive animal like this.”
Despite this initial show of good news, the cubs were seen without their mother and remain vulnerable. Typically, cougar cubs can stay with their mother for the first two years. “Those young cougars are very vulnerable right now,” Roell said. “We don’t know where they are [now] or if they’re even alive. Mother Nature can be very cruel.”
Cougars are the world’s fourth largest wildcat behind lions, tigers, and jaguars. However, they are famously elusive. They were hunted to extinction in Michigan around the early 1900s. The last known death of a cougar in Michigan occurred in 1906 near Newberry.
More recently, though, the DNR has verified reports of 132 adult cougars, and DNA testing has found only males in the region.
Sightings for cougars can be logged on a DNR system called Eyes In The Field. Cougars remain on the list of endangered mammals within the state, which means they are protected by law from those trying to hunt them.
