Cougar sighting confirmed

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel ^ | 2-5-08 | LEE BERGQUIST

[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.

[jdm]

Cougar sighting?

[ER Doc]

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.

[CholeraJoe]

Stiffler's Mom kinda cougar?

[Constitution Day]

Ya beat me!

[VA_Gentleman]

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

[Renfield]

Big Cat ping.

[Smokin' Joe]

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.

[JoanVarga]

But... where’s the moose?

[Snickering Hound]

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

[saganite]

Thought this was a thread about Mellencamp.

[Yaelle]

"Help me, Daddy!"

[Sopater]

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

[SGCOS]

Was it Charlie the Lonesome Cougar?

[abb]

[lmailbvmbipfwedu]

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

[bmwcyle]

If we were just young enough to be bait again.

[KC_Conspirator]

That is too hilarious.

[Corin Stormhands]

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

[chae]

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.