Basically, the DNR denies the existence of such predators because an admission of such would open a bureaucratic can of worms they’d rather not deal with.
A year or so ago in Wisconsin, residents of some separate western Wisconsin localities reported seeing what looked like to them a mountain lion. The state DNR fiercely denied the reports saying those people had to be mistaken. Later photographic evidence turned up showing it was indeed a mountain lion. Then the DNR did some blustering about how it was just a rare lion wandering far from home. To which the proper reply was: and so what? It was in fact a ml, and the state DNR was wrong. Why they went to such headed efforts to deny the possibility is mystifying. More mls have been reported since then.
It was an “unexpected” mountain lion. I wonder if they were keeping this on the job rolls.