MICHIGAN — You saw us reporting on this back in June, and it got a lot of interest online. 13 cougar sightings had already been made so far this year in the Upper Peninsula. Building on the 31 confirmed sightings last year, which included cubs being spotted for the first time in 100 years.
What does that mean about the population here in Michigan?
“I think we're seeing more influx of cats coming from Nebraska, both the Dakotas, you know, that's the source population," Large Carnivore Specialist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, Brian Roell told me. "So they're doing well there, and young male mountain lions are pretty much hardwired to move, and if they head east, when large carnivores tend to move, they look for others of their own kind to kind of settle down, so when they head east, they don't find anybody, and they just keep walking and end up in the U.P. eventually.”
But don’t think these 13 new sightings mean 13 individual cougars. Brian told me it’s probably a few pics of the same cat.
“There was one that was in Schoolcraft County, I think that cat was on like three or four different pictures.”
He also said that even with the increase in sightings Up North, Brian's pretty confident in saying the cats haven’t moved below the bridge just yet.
“We get hoaxes from the Lower Peninsula, but then when we go to do a site visit and make sure [the] habitat all lines up and all that kind of stuff, things haven't panned out."
And that is a good reminder to use some critical thinking when seeing posts on social media when it comes to attention-grabbing animals, ike cougars here in Michigan.
“They're easily feared or easily loved, and so you know you got that popularity out there, and people want to report, and social media is really easy," Brain told me. "But it's getting to the point now with AI that we have to be so careful about confirming anything, and one of our IP specialists said doesn't know how much longer we can even confirm stuff, because it's so easily manipulated.”
Also, as you spend more time outside this summer, Brian reminded me that all wildlife deserves to be given it's distance. Not just the big animals with claws and pointy teeth.
"Anything can be dangerous," Brian said. "It's just always give wildlife its due respect. Try to give it a wide berth. Don't try to approach it, particularly if it has young ones, you know. And you know you're going to be safe. You're far, it's far more dangerous driving in your car than it is, you know, to worry about wildlife."
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