Cougar Sightings In Michigan

Outdoors: Skepticism abounds on mountain lion sightings in region

Every year, mountain lion sightings are reported in New England. Professional biologists, having heard countless unsubstantiated claims before, remain skeptical.

Are people reporting lions lying, or just plain mistaken? Stoking the controversy Saturday was the irrefutable killing of a cougar in Milton, Conn., a mere 70 miles from New York. But what does this road kill really prove?

The last confirmed mountain lion in Massachusetts was in 1858, when black-powder shooters achieved the final solution to this stock-raiding, deer-killing predator. Until this past weekend, there's been a mountain of questionable sightings, most convincingly refuted by bear and coon hounds, whose noses know best.

Eastern houndsmen make thousands of forays into suitable wild habitat every year. New Hampshire's Andy Savage asserts that if mountain lions really were here, hounds would have scented, trailed and treed several of them long ago, especially in the corridors connecting their present range. Whether in Maine, the White Mountains or the Appalachians, confirming prints, photos or additional road kills are tellingly absent.

Thousands of deer hunters' trail cameras, meanwhile, have produced no irrefutable evidence. Local farmers have never shot one protecting their livestock. Cows, sheep and goats surely would have irresistibly lured them in if they were present.

Should the many regional mountain lion reports then all be put in the same dubious-sightings categories as ghosts and space aliens — or even willful prevarications?

Today, even photo reports don't necessarily have credibility. Some provocative liars have been exposed using computers to fabricate Bigfoot-caliber evidence.

Many ask how so many reporters can be wrong. Amateurs frequently make misidentifications. Some years back, an Auburn woman was convinced that a submarine was in the pond behind her house. A water department representative answered her complaint and from her kitchen window saw the “periscope” — which turned out to be the head and neck of a cormorant, its body typically submerged.

Sometimes reporters just don't know their species. People spot rare “cranes” here every year. In most cases, they turn out to be common, great blue herons. But periodically, a real sandhill crane does show up. Not long ago, a crocodile was also reported in Auburn.

The Hickory Nut: Michigan Cougars: Fact, Fiction and Future

As for the public, their cougar credibility has often ranked right up there (or down there) with sightings of Elvis or Sasquatch. We’ve heard reports of black cougars, although in the U.S. not a single black cougar has ever been killed or photographed. We’ve heard claims about deer carcasses hung from trees, which is something an African leopard would do, but not a North American cougar. True, the DNR has yet to confirm a cougar sighting in the Lower Peninsula. That would require either a clear paw print, scat pile, DNA sample or legitimate photograph. However, solitary males have already migrated more than 700 miles east from the Black Hills. Last year, a cougar was killed near Chicago and another was verified in Greene County, Indiana, a mere 300 miles south of Kalamazoo. My question is how the people of southern Michigan will react once the big cats officially return. For me, to see such a majestic eminence pad through an oak-hickory forest at dusk would be a peak life experience. For others, the thought of a six-foot long, 150-pound killing machine afoot in the landscape would be due cause to keep a.30-30 rifle handy. The first is personal safety. DNR officials say there’s already an unwarranted fear of cougars, a solitary animal that wants little to do with people. Yes, there’s been rare cases of attack on humans. But in the mountain west, millions of people live safely in cougar country without incident. Around here, shouldn’t we worry more about the amped-up maniacs who run rural meth labs? The other potential cougar concern will likely involve what the animals eat – which is mainly deer. Some hunters may argue that an influx of cougars will put a major dent in the whitetail population. But consider this: in my own St. Joseph County, hunters bagged 5,300 deer in 2009 and vehicle accidents claimed another 700. By comparison, an average cougar kills about one deer per week. Given the cougar’s wandering ways, we’re unlikely to see more than one resident cougar per county. So if a cougar took 50 deer annually, that’s less than 1 percent of my county’s yearly harvest. Finally, for all their wily ways, cougars don’t fare well on highways. In south Florida, about 100 cougars still haunt the Everglades – and eight to 10 are killed each year in vehicle accidents. With nearly 1,000 miles of paved roads in St.

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