Hey FB...they finally admit they do exist.
-In the 13 years that the state's cougar team has been searching, they have verified at least 65 reports of a cougar traversing the Michigan wilderness.
In a state where animals like deer dominate the landscape so pervasively, they can be found the official flag, even the thought of running across a large cat can terrify residents and visitors. But based on the advice from the Department of Natural Resources, there's really no reason to be concerned.
After similar fears took hold of people centuries ago, the cougar population in the U.S. was virtually wiped out by systematic hunting. The aggressive killing combined with the wholesale logging of forests meant the big cats would have little chance of surviving the wave of development that rolled over the country.
But evidence of cougars didn't stop entirely. And in the last decade, the state has fine-tuned its detection methods as sightings became more frequent.
"The team is made up of wildlife biologists for the DNR who have received specialized training in how to identify cougars from photos, as well as from tracks, scat and other physical evidence they may leave behind," said Brian Roell, a DNR wildlife biologist in a DNR press release. "It's important that we're able to identify these animals correctly, not just for conservation purposes but also so that residents can be informed about the wildlife living around them and take commonsense precautions...
The Michigan DNR has verified 65 reports of cougars in the state