[jeeg]

Originally Posted by Torrid

Yes, seriously lol!!!! It was at a lake across from my house....(in the U.P.) so there's houses in my community but across the street is wildernessy...We decided to go night fishing and he came unglued........Screaming on top of his lungs and running after us LOL. It was something for sure! I think he was either really mad that we were there or.....really scared himself. Either way, night fishing is a thing of the past for me ROTF!

LOL!!! It probably had some young uns nearby and was trying to protect them! You crack me up

[Torrid]

LOL yeap, you're probably right! The funniest part of the whole ordeal was me trying to protect myself with one of those fold-up chairs (the ones that come in a bag)......it kept collapsing!!!! So, I ran to the Jeep dragging my chair and all LOL.

Originally Posted by jeeg

LOL!!! It probably had some young uns nearby and was trying to protect them! You crack me up

[Jswee]

Lots of bears, coyote & bobcats in Michigan, wolves in the UP and a remote possibility that wolves may have crossed the ice bridge to the Northern Lower but folks, there ain't no Cougars in Michigan, at least not a wild breeding population. I realize that a lot of people claim to have seen them but then again a lot of people have claimed to have seen UFO's, too.

If you are not a hunter you are probably not aware of this but there are literally tens if not hundreds of thousands of game cams out in the woods in Michigan that take pictures 24/7/365 of anything that walks in front of them. Virtually every type of large animal that exists in Michigan has been photographed by game cams thousands of times. I've had camera's on my property in Leelanau Co. for the past 4 years and have gotten pics of bears, bobcat, coyote, raccoon, fox, porcupine, skunk, possum, grouse, turkey, squirrel and about ten thousand pictures of deer. Not one cougar, despite being only a couple of miles from where a jogger supposedly witnessed one. The Sleeping Bear Dunes put out a number of cams over road killed deer carcasses, after a number of hikers claimed to have seen cougars, after a year of doing so the result was zero pics of cougars.

Until I see a verifiable picture of a cougar taken in Michigan, I'm going to remain highly skeptical of their existence in our great state.

[jeeg]

Originally Posted by Jswee

Until I see a verifiable picture of a cougar taken in Michigan, I'm going to remain highly skeptical of their existence in our great state.

Shortly before we move away from the area 3+ years ago, both WZZM13 and WOODtv8 out of Grand Rapids ran a couple stories about verified cougar sightings (including a car/cougar collision).
Just earlier this week, our local paper ran a story about confirmed cougar tracks between us and Escanaba. This was confirmed by the DNR, not just some random citizen!
The article also shows a picture of confirmed cougar tracks found 42 miles away in March of this year.
Here's the story from the MiningJournal
DNR officials say new cougar tracks found - The Mining Journal

[looking4sherry]

I am in dundee mi and although there was no attck my son thought he found a puppy and he did however it was a coyote pup

[looking4sherry]

here is another pic and of course I made him realease it back where he found it.

[JoeLunchBox11]

(My husband was looking at properties in Troy and saw a coyote in the back yard of a wooded property....better watch my small dogs. Yikes.)


I wouldn't worry about the coyoetes... I'd be more worried about the neighbors that have to listen to the barking of your small dogs!

[snow4461]

I live in the Southwest part of MI, on Lake Michigan itself and near the Indiana state line ( about 15 miles ) , we have had and do ONCE IN A WHILE have Cougers, the DNR tracked one on my property for a month, but never have seen a bear , ever , here. The cat they tracked I heard was not a normal thing and the DNR was not sure where SHE came from or why, but no reports of hurting humans just animals good luck

[Jswee]

Originally Posted by jeeg

Shortly before we move away from the area 3+ years ago, both WZZM13 and WOODtv8 out of Grand Rapids ran a couple stories about verified cougar sightings (including a car/cougar collision).
Just earlier this week, our local paper ran a story about confirmed cougar tracks between us and Escanaba. This was confirmed by the DNR, not just some random citizen!
The article also shows a picture of confirmed cougar tracks found 42 miles away in March of this year.
Here's the story from the MiningJournal
DNR officials say new cougar tracks found - The Mining Journal

Read the story, the DNR says it is a suspected Cougar track, not a verified Cougar track. Sightings are not verified unless you can produce the animal. Lot's of people claim to see Cougars but still no pictures. One of the UP papers made a big deal last fall about a supposed picture of a Cougar that was taken on a game cam and ran it on the front page. It turned out to be a picture of a Bobcat, which was obvious to anybody that has ever seen one but that did not stop the media from saying it was a Cougar. Sorry, until somebody produces a decent picture of a Cougar or a dead one, I'm going to remain skeptical. Here is a pic of a bobcat taken on my property, you would be surprised how many people seeing this in the wild would think it's a Cougar.



Here is the clipping of the "Cougar" pic that ran in the UP paper last fall. Note the black bars on the inside of the foreleg on the cat in both pictures. Dead giveaway that it's a bobcat.

[jeeg]

Originally Posted by Jswee

Read the story, the DNR says it is a suspected Cougar track, not a verified Cougar track.

No kidding. They will not say it is until they catch one, they've made that statement quite clear over the years. That was their position when asked to view the tape I mentioned being broadcasted on the newstation in my previous post. It was obviously a cougar on the videotape in someones backyard. But they didn't take the footage nor handle the animal so they refused to confirm that's what it was (tape was good quality)
Any good wildlife tracker can tell you tho that there is only one animal that makes tracks like a cougar.

Yes that is a bobcat in the first picture. I have seen both while living in CA. Kinda like how people keep insisting they have seen a wolf when in reality they've only seen a coyote.