bobs and lions--evidence of return to Ohio and MI

[Emily]

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/conten ... nside.html
By Steve Bennish

Staff Writer

Monday, January 21, 2008

TIPP CITY - Ohio's wild cats are on the comeback trail, and we're not talking sports teams.

Dave Kohler, the state's wildlife's management supervisor for 17 southwestern Ohio counties including the Dayton region, said wild bobcats are showing up in greater numbers now. Bobcats vanished from Ohio in the 19th century from hunting and settlement pressure.


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But the bobcat's much larger distant cousin, the 100-pound plus cougar, also an Ohio native, isn't likely here in any significant numbers, he said.

Kohler allows that captive animals who escaped or have been released could be running loose. It's legal to own a cougar in Ohio without a state permit but you need a federal permit to raise and sell them, he said.

For now, Ohio has no official statutory authority over cougars.

Bobcats, on the other hand, are officially back and breeding. In 2006, the Division of Wildlife recorded 134 unverified bobcat reports statewide. Of those, 37 were verified with photos, paw prints or other physical evidence. Every county in the Dayton region has reported a bobcat sighting.

A bobcat killed after being hit by a vehicle turned up in Hamilton County in recent years. In December, it was announced that a bobcat print had been identified in Germantown MetroPark.

The Hamilton County cat wore a radio collar and had come from Indiana, Kohler said. Bobcats can travel hundreds of miles. They're a protected species in Ohio and hunting or trapping them is forbidden.

"Reports have been growing and sightings have been growing over the last 20 or 30 years," Kohler said. "You will have folks who think they see bobcats, and it's difficult to tell if they actually saw a bobcat or a large house cat. Sometimes people get a glimpse of an animal for a couple of seconds, and make a determination of what they saw. Bobcats are a forested species and the highest densities will be in southeastern Ohio, but we have had them."

Kohler said that if cougars are in Ohio, hard evidence should have turned up by now given the state's 450,000 hunters and untold number of automated trail cameras.

"Ohio is a fairly populated state, and I don't believe we have the right conditions for mountain lions. They require a large home range and typically rugged terrain," he said.

That has not stopped Bill Reichling, who has formed R&R Animal Trackers to monitor any sign of a cougar comeback. He's joined with other cougar enthusiasts who formed the Eastern Puma Research Network. The network has put up a Web site listing its findings that include sightings and other evidence all over the eastern United States. They're even checking for evidence in Montgomery County.

North American cougars at one time were a top predator from coast to coast. By the 20th century, cougars had been reduced to small numbers and were declared extinct in the east. According to a National Geographic Society report, in Iowa the last historical record of cougar in the state occurred in 1867. But in the 1990s, reports began trickling in. At first officials were reluctant to believe, but in 2001, a car hit and killed a cougar and scientists examining its teeth and claws said the cat had been living in the wild, the Society said.

Closer to the Miami Valley, the non-profit Michigan Wildlife Conservancy said it has proof cougars are in seven counties there based on recovered feces.

Pat Rusz, director of wildlife programs for the Conservancy and a wildlife biologist, said up to 100 cougars could be present in the state. He's verified reports of horse attacks as far south as Berrien County, which is on the Indiana border, and in Jackson County, west of Ann Arbor.

Rusz wants the state to officially recognize the animal, launch serious studies and engage in a discussion about its future in the state.

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources acknowledges that people have reported sightings. Michigan, which lists the cougar as an endangered species, is sending wildlife biologists to New Mexico to learn more about cougars. Still, it doesn't recognize the cougar as a resident, said Pat Lederle, acting assistant chief of wildlife. He says there's not enough evidence. But with cougars showing up in Minnesota, there's little doubt that they'll appear in Michigan one day, he added, probably in the western Upper Peninsula.

Reichling of Delhi Twp., near Cincinnati, isn't waiting for official acknowledgement. He figures that some cats - who can range hundreds of miles - might have crept past the Ohio border with Michigan. Others could be infiltrating from the vast territory of the Ohio River.

"If you say you extirpated an animal as adaptable and secretive as a cougar, you are not thinking straight," he said. "They are smart, they are street-wise."

Rusz, who has examined Reichling's plaster castings of suspected cougar tracks in Ohio, thinks he's on to something.

"Some of his evidence looks pretty good," Rusz said.

Contact this reporter at (937) 225-7407 or sbennish@DaytonDailyNews.com.