Cougar cubs who were first spotted back in March were documented again earlier this month in the Upper Peninsula, the Michigan DNR said.
The DNR verified the Dec. 6 photo of an adult cougar being followed by two kittens down a snowy trail in central Ontonagon County. The last time they were documented was in early March and their mother was nowhere in sight.
The new photo shows the adult cougar with two juvenile cougars that appear to be a year old, according to Brian Roell, the DNR’s large carnivore specialist.
“This is a historic confirmation for Michigan since it is the first time in over 100 years that verified cougar reproduction has occurred east of the Mississippi River and possible even east of the Missouri River,” Roell said.
A private landowner sent the trail cam photo of the cougars to the DNR on Dec. 14. Roell verified the site of the photo on Monday and the DNR's cougar team confirmed the photo Tuesday.
The sex of the kittens is unknown.
“The kittens’ chances of survival are actually pretty high because just like bears, cougars invest a lot of their energy into their young,” Roell said. “So these kittens will stay with their mom through this winter and possibly even into next winter. They already have a leg up, seeing as how they’ve been with her for a year now.”
Cougars are native to Michigan but were essentially hunted out of the state by the early 1900s, according to the DNR.
Since 2008, the DNR has confirmed about 168 cougar sightings, all in the UP, but most of the sightings are of the same animal being reported by multiple sources, Roell said.
The number of sightings has increased each year since 2019, but the number of trail cameras has also increased. The DNR operates more than 1,300 trail cameras in the UP alone to survey wildlife, and about 25% of verified sightings in 2024 were on DNR-operated cameras.
So far in 2025, there have been 29 confirmed sightings of cougars in the Upper Peninsula, according to the DNR's cougar dashboard.
“This isn’t an animal that is ever going to become very numerous,” Roell said. “They’re going to remain rare on the landscape regardless of whatever happens with them here in Michigan.”
Cougars are on the list of endangered mammals in Michigan, meaning it's illegal to hunt or harass them, which includes trying to locate their den on public or private property.
“Too much human pressure can also trigger the female cougar to abandon her cubs,” Roell said. “As with all wild animals, we’re asking the public to respect their habitat and allow them to live naturally in their home.”
