Cougars In The East

Are we finally seeing irrefutable evidence of the long-suspected remnant populations? Science suggests another possibility …

- Jeffrey Goddin

A photograph taken last June appears to show a very large cat at the side of a road outside Hasslett, Michigan. The DNR has determined that it is a cougar, making this the first verified sighting in the Lower Peninsula in almost 100 years.

Most wildlife authorities believe cougars were extirpated from the East by the early to mid 20th century. Yet there have always been a few wild cougars in southern Florida, and some take reports of sightings elsewhere as evidence of other smaller remnant populations surving in the backcountry.

The response from state wildlife officials usually had been that those making the reports were either mistaken or had seen cats that escaped captivity. But a surge in reported sightings—36 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan in the last 10 years alone—has made that dismissive explanation less plausible.

Photos like the one taken outside of Hasslett have also become more common. Indiana DNR officials set a trail camera over a suspicious deer kill, and the camera took clear photos of a cougar. Two cougars have been photographed in neighboring Ohio. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency website mentions nine photos taken with trail cameras between September 2015 and September 2016. More photos have been taken farther East, and five dead cougars provide solid physical evidence.