Lying weasels. There have been cougars in our mid-Michigan location for close to a decade.
My parents, my brother and I were driving way up on Labor Day (yes, we knew about the bridge, but the funeral was Tuesday) we saw one in the Seney stretch. I was driving and Dad was next to me.
He was right next to a highway reflector so there is no question about his size, he was definitely a cat and no bobcat nor lynx carries a tail like that. If it had been just me I would have questioned it, but we both saw it clear as day. And it was day, mid afternoon. MIDNR was claiming and did for years afterward that there were no cougars in MI at all.