Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Cougar sighting confirmed
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ^ | 2-5-08 | LEE BERGQUIST

Posted on 02/07/2008 9:29:48 AM PST by Renfield

Whether it was wild or a captive mountain lion remains to be seen.

The Department of Natural Resources confirmed Tuesday that DNA tests concluded that a large cat seen leaping from a hayloft on Jan. 18 in Rock County was a cougar.

If it is determined to be wild, it would be the first evidence that cougars had returned to Wisconsin since the early 1900s.

Additional testing from a U.S. Forest Service laboratory in Missoula, Mont., will determine the sex of the cat and the subspecies.

If testing shows that the cougar was from South America, for example, it would show that a captive cat had escaped. So far Doug Fendry, a biologist with the DNR, said that the agency has received no reports in Wisconsin or from northern Illinois of escaped cougars.

A veteran hunter and trapper from the Town of Milton saw the cougar and called the DNR.

The DNA sample came from blood while Fendry and another DNR employee tracked footprints in the snow.

Fendry said he has received about 40 calls and e-mails from people in Rock County claiming they have seen a cougar or saw one in the past.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: cats; cougar; cryptids; wisconsin
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-45 next last

1 posted on 02/07/2008 9:30:57 AM PST by Renfield
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Renfield
Cougar sighting?


2 posted on 02/07/2008 9:32:29 AM PST by jdm (A Hunter Thompson ticket would be suicide.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Renfield
About 18-20 years ago, an old Ojibwa woman told me she was seeing cougars in the woods in central Minnesota, while the Minnesota DNR was saying the occasional cougar sightings they investigated were large house cats, yellow dogs, and escaped pets. About ten years later, they confirmed there actually was a breeding population of cougars in Minnesota.
3 posted on 02/07/2008 9:35:57 AM PST by ER Doc
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Renfield
Stiffler's Mom kinda cougar?


4 posted on 02/07/2008 9:37:04 AM PST by CholeraJoe (Super What? How much longer until Nascar starts?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CholeraJoe

Ya beat me!


5 posted on 02/07/2008 9:38:24 AM PST by Constitution Day (Yuckabee '08. I'd prefer another letter, but it would get me suspended.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: CholeraJoe

Glad to know that I’m not the only one that was thinking of that type of cougar also ;)


6 posted on 02/07/2008 9:38:31 AM PST by VA_Gentleman (Doing my part to prove that global warming is a hoax.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: pcottraux

Big Cat ping.


7 posted on 02/07/2008 9:39:12 AM PST by Renfield (Turning apples into venison since 1999!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Renfield
Fendry said he has received about 40 calls and e-mails from people in Rock County claiming they have seen a cougar or saw one in the past.

The same happened here in North Dakota, with the claims filed under 'anecdotal evidence' (IOW, generally poo-poohed), until someone brought in a dead cougar.

For the uninitiated, these are beautiful, sneaky, nasty and deadly critters. There is a reason they were eliminated from inhabited areas, like many other predators who will view a human as a hot lunch in a pinch.

8 posted on 02/07/2008 9:40:46 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: jdm

But... where’s the moose?


9 posted on 02/07/2008 9:41:22 AM PST by JoanVarga ("¿Por qué no te calles?")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Renfield
cougar

So THAT'S where he's been all these years...

10 posted on 02/07/2008 9:41:44 AM PST by Snickering Hound
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Renfield

Thought this was a thread about Mellencamp.


11 posted on 02/07/2008 9:42:01 AM PST by saganite (Lust type what you what in the “tagline” space)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Renfield

"Help me, Daddy!"

12 posted on 02/07/2008 9:43:17 AM PST by Yaelle (Being McCain-boarded feels like you're drowning, too)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ER Doc

Cuz it aint a cooger until the DNR sayz its a cooger.


13 posted on 02/07/2008 9:43:34 AM PST by Sopater (A wise man's heart inclines him to the right, but a fool's heart to the left. ~ Ecclesiastes 10:2)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Renfield

Was it Charlie the Lonesome Cougar?


14 posted on 02/07/2008 9:44:21 AM PST by SGCOS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CholeraJoe

15 posted on 02/07/2008 9:44:30 AM PST by abb (The Dinosaur Media: A One-Way Medium in a Two-Way World)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: Renfield

Cool, send a few to northern Indiana. Maybe they can take care of the deer and goose problem.....


16 posted on 02/07/2008 9:44:57 AM PST by lmailbvmbipfwedu
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: CholeraJoe

If we were just young enough to be bait again.


17 posted on 02/07/2008 9:45:19 AM PST by bmwcyle (the Beltway crowd is like a bunch of women who have started menstruating together)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: abb

That is too hilarious.


18 posted on 02/07/2008 9:46:04 AM PST by KC_Conspirator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Renfield

Where’s Kim Bauer when you need her...


19 posted on 02/07/2008 9:46:10 AM PST by Corin Stormhands (New and Improved! Now with 4 less lbs.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Smokin' Joe

Ditto here in MO.
Apparently, some type of large cat was “reintroduced into the area”, without telling anyone they were doing it, and then it was denied by the DNR that there were any cats other than housecats out near the lake area. Worked pretty good until people started catching them in traps.


20 posted on 02/07/2008 9:47:16 AM PST by chae (I am karmic retribution)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-45 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson