Posted on 12/21/2009 7:56:50 AM PST by earlJam
Hundreds of people in Southwest Michigan claim to have seen cougars.
Michigan Citizens for Cougar Recognition, a group started six years ago by local attorney and Van Buren County Commissioner Denise Noble, has catalogued nearly 200 cougar sightings in Allegan, Van Buren, Kalamazoo and St. Joseph counties. Add in Barry, Cass and Berrien counties, and total cougar sightings reported in Southwest Michigan jump to 412.
Allegan County had the third highest number of reported cougar sightings in the state, with 62. Van Buren County came in fifth, with 58. Kalamazoo County was seventh in the state, with 54.
Noble said Southwest Michigan’s large deer population and open tracts of land lured cougars from out west into the area.
“I think we definitely have a population here,” Noble said. “I don’t think it is that we have more cougars. I think it is that more people are willing to report and be part of the process.”
Reported sightings in the area date back to the 1800s, but the bulk of them have been since 2000. In Kalamazoo County, according to Noble’s data, cougars have been spotted crossing U.S. 131, in rural areas near Gull Lake and Climax, and in the city, at the intersection of Douglas and Mosel avenues and near Wheaton Avenue and Oakland Drive.
(Excerpt) Read more at mlive.com ...
Seen pictures of the tracks...Talked to people who have seen the critters...In Allegan county...
LOL
The Wildlife Dept....denied they were here until "they" saw proof.
IOW...the public are a bunch of no nothing noobs.
LOL
I was riding horses in Ada (Grand Rapids area) a few weeks ago.
We saw a set of giant cat tracks.
We figured either cougar or bobcat.
been seeing tracks for a couple years in barry county.
Come to think of it...
Cougars are everywhere. They are good at not being seen. Video of one was just released from a local Minneapolis suburb police car dash cam. There have been reported sightings here for years and the DNR always plays it down. Now there is official proof.
Man is cougar’s favorite prey.
Black bear won’t stalk humans like a cougar or pack of wolves. They are also getting ready to hibernate if they have bedded down already. I have never been around grizzly bear, but I have seen the movie The Edge.
I could use one but at my age she'd have to be over 95.....................
Perhaps this was sighted in the area?
Yeah bears don’t worry me the way cougars do.
Well there was this one chick...
Nah, couldn’t have been a bigfoot. The plantlife wasn’t wilted and there was still wildlife in the woods.
A breeding population would be a lot more visible.
You obviously don’t know the difference between a paw print and a hoof print.
There sure was.
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