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JULY 18, 2012 AT 8:32 PM
Cougar sighting reported in U.P.'s Marquette County
BY TOM GREENWOOD THE DETROIT NEWS 24 COMMENTS

“Photos of cougars are usually captured at night and most of them are a bit fuzzy,” Rusz said. “But this one was tripped in the middle of the day. It’s really a great photo.” (Michigan Wildlife Conservancy)

A rare daytime photograph of a cougar roaming the woods in the Upper Peninsula is bolstering arguments of wild life experts that the big cats are doing well in Michigan.

The Michigan Wildlife Conservancy —a nonprofit organization formed in 1982 — released a photo Wednesday of the cougar that was snapped by a trail camera on June 1 on private property in southern Marquette County.

According to Patrick Rusz, director of wildlife programs for the conservancy, the cougar looks healthy and checks in at about 72 inches from nose to tail and weighs between 100 and 120 pounds.

"There have been other confirmations of the existence of cougars in the form of sightings, tracks and scat, but more and more of them are appearing on trail cameras," Rusz said. "For years, the Department of Natural Resources has been denying or downplaying the existence of cougars, saying they were someone's escaped pet or cats that drifted in from the west.

"It's time for them to take a look at this."

Rusz, along with retired DNR forester Michael Zuidema, verified the trail camera's location on a well-used wildlife trail atop a wooded ridge.

According to Rusz, the camera also has photographed wolves, coyotes, bobcats and other predators at the same site over a four-year period.

"Photos of cougars are usually captured at night and most of them are a bit fuzzy," Rusz said. "But this one was tripped in the middle of the day. It's really a great photo."

Adam Bump, a bear and fur bearing expert for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, agrees.

"That's kind of cool photo of a cougar," said Bump, who said the DNR had 15 confirmed cougar contacts in the Upper Peninsula since 2008.

"All in tracks and photos. Some of the contacts were of a radio collared cougar that moved into Michigan from a western state, probably South Dakota."

In total, the DNR has catalogued seven separate cougar photos and eight sets of tracks since 2008. Yet there has been no evidence the cougars in the Upper Peninsula have established a breeding population.

"We have no evidence of that," Bump said. "And there's really no way to tell how many of the cats are living in the U.P. There's at least two but it's almost impossible to know if there are any others."

There also was an earlier sighting in May in Baraga County, specifically in Skanee, a town southeast of the Keweenaw Bay. Resident Fred Nault captured the cougar on film May 5 as it crossed a road. The Michigan Department of Natural Resources officials confirmed the animal's presence after visiting the site.

In addition to Baraga County, the DNR has confirmed evidence of the radio collared cougar in Ontonagon, Houghton and Keweenaw counties.

According to its website (michigan.gov/dnr), cougars were originally native to the state but were wiped out near the turn of the 20th century with the last mountain lion spotted in 1906 in Newberry.

The DNR confirmed that there have been periodic sightings of the cats — which are on the endangered species list — with the situation "not unique to Michigan" and "other Midwest and eastern states as well."

Rusz said they will soon officially turn the photo of the Marquette County cat over to the DNR. More photos of the cougar, along with other predators taken with the trail side camera, can be seen at the conservancy's website at www.miwildlife.org.

"I believe that we never really lost our cougars," Rusz said. "I think they've always been here although their numbers have been very low at times. Michigan is still a wild place."

tgreenwood@detnews.com

(313) 222-2023

Staff writer Jim Lynch contributed.

from the Iron County Reporter
http://www.ironcountyreporter.com/index ... &Itemid=46

Cougar photographed in Marquette County
Written by Janet Rohde
Tuesday, July 24, 2012 1:01 PM

The cougar was photographed by a cased and padlocked trail camera on private property on June 1 in Marquette County. (Michigan Wildlife Conservancy photo)

MARQUETTE—The Michigan Wildlife Conservancy (MWC), a non-profit organization based in Bath near Lansing, recently confirmed the presence of a cougar in southern Marquette County.
The cougar was photographed by a cased and padlocked trail camera on private property on June 1.


The property owners will also share their information with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources (MDNR) but do not wish to be publicly identified.
Dr. Patrick Rusz, director of wildlife programs for the conservancy, and Michael Zuidema, a retired DNR forester, verified the trail camera’s location on a well-worn wildlife trail atop a wooded ridge.
The camera has also photographed wolves, coyotes, fishers and numerous other species at the same site over a four-year period.
The MWC is publicizing this photograph because it may be the best, clearest photograph of a wild Michigan cougar ever taken.
It is also unusually interesting because Zuidema has recorded over 20 credible cougar sightings in the same vicinity since the 1970s. These include several sightings within a few miles of the trail camera location.
“The long history of sighting reports in the area indicates the cougar photographed on June 1 may be part of a resident population rather than a wandering cat from a western state,” said Rusz.
Rusz has studied cougars for the conservancy for 14 years and is co-author of a peer-reviewed study that confirmed cougars in both peninsulas of Michigan by analyses of DNA in droppings.
He has also identified a long list of additional physical evidence dating back to 1966, and notes that Michigan State College zoologist Richard Manville documented several cougar sightings or incidents when he inventoried the fauna of Marquette County’s Huron Mountains from 1939 to 1942.
The large volume of recent Michigan evidence includes 15 MDNR confirmations since the agency formed a cougar team of specially trained biologists in 2008.
`The most recent MDNR confirmation occurred last May when a cougar was photographed with a hand-held camera near Skanee in Baraga County. That photograph was taken about 50 miles north of the Marquette County trail camera location.
“The MDNR cougar team should now look at the very good evidence of a remnant cougar population collected before 2008,” said Bill Taylor, president of the conservancy.
“They could still easily verify cougar photos taken in the 1990s in Alcona and Oscoda counties in the Lower Peninsula and some others. The vegetation and other landmarks needed to confirm the photos are still there.”