On March 13, wildlife experts confirmed that two endangered cougar cubs were spotted and photographed in the wilds of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula in early March — a first for the state in over 100 years.
According to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, adult cougars have been spotted in the state in recent years (132 according to reports) but available DNA evidence has only shown evidence of the presence of males in the area.
“It's quite unique compared to previous cougar sightings because this is the first verified evidence of cubs in Michigan in more than a century,” the department explained on its official Facebook page.
Brian Roell, a wildlife biologist and large carnivore specialist based in Michigan, estimates that the pair of wild cubs are approximately 7 to 9 weeks old.
Although no mother was pictured with the cubs, Roell estimates that she could not have been far away from where they were sighted, since young cubs are highly dependent and typically tag along by their mother’s side until 18 to 24 months of age.
Roell told Michigan Live that he hoped that the family of three was quickly reunited.
“We’re just reminding folks that cougars are an endangered species in Michigan, so it is illegal to harass them and obviously you can’t hunt them,” Roell emphasized. “But at this point, we’re not releasing any more information on location or anything, just to protect her and those cubs.”
Roell said that the discovery was initially reported by a local man traversing the snow-covered roads of Ontonagon County.
“[He] saw the two young kittens running down the road and stopped, and one of them ran under his truck,” Roell said.
“He thought they were bobcat kittens, and so he took some pictures of them, and someone else actually stopped, and they both talked about them, like, ‘Oh, neat kittens.’ And then they went along [with] their day, not thinking anything of it.”
Calling the sighting “pretty exciting,” Roell said that he and his colleagues confidently believed that the mother gave birth in the state — which is substantial evidence of cougar reproduction.
“The birth was obviously in Michigan, because she didn’t carry them here from some other state,” Roell said.
In the early 1900s, cougars were hunted to the point of extinction. It wasn’t until 1973 that the species became protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Although locals expressed a mix of excitement — and concern — at the indication that cougars were returning to the state, state biologists consider it a positive development for the region.
Cougars are a keystone species. When they disappear from a food chain their absence can have negative cascading effects on the local ecosystem.
Notably, cougars reduce the overpopulation of deer — in turn reducing the presence of tick-borne illnesses and restoring balance to grasses, flowers, and vegetation — and coyotes — which grants small predators like foxes the opportunity to hunt small prey.
“There are not very many states where you can…have the potential to see a wolf, a moose, and a cougar, and so that really should be celebrated for Michigan, that we have the habitat that we do have,” Roell said.
Header images via Michigan Department of Natural Resources / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)
