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attroll
05-02-2005, 01:07
I posted this upone the request of TakeABreak.

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All of the cougars sighted in the Midwest appear to be young males dispersing eastward from western states, where populations have been growing since laws were passed in the 1960s to protect them.<!--/CA-->
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Influx of cougars has Midwest wary<!--/head-->

<!--deck-->Long-absent predator seems to be moving east, with 25 sightings in nine states in two-year period.<!--/deck-->

<STORYTEXT><!--byline-->By Joan Lowy / Scripps Howard News Service<!--/byline--> (http://javascript<b></b>:scriptsearch('By%20Joan%20Lowy','phrase','','','3 '))
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Cougars in Michigan

Cougars have been considered extinct since the early 1900s, but that hasn't prevented several sightings of the big cats in Michigan.

• A cougar may have been sighted earlier this year in Macomb County. However, the animal on a video shot by a Sterling Heights police officer showing a cat estimated at five feet in length was considered a "housecat" by the Department of Natural Resources.

• Last year, the DNR acknowledged that a car hit a cougar in Menominee County. DNA evidence makes it impossible to deny.

• In 1984, a cougar was shot in Michigan and a blood sample was identified by the Colorado State University Veterinary School.

• The Michigan Wildlife Conservancy estimates that 10 to 20 adult cougars live in the Upper Peninsula, and a few inhabit the northern Lower Peninsula.
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Wild cougars were hunted out of existence in Illinois the same year Abraham Lincoln was elected president. But in the past five years, two of the big cats have been slain in the state -- one by an arrow presumably shot by a hunter and one that was hit by a train.

Earlier this week, police in North Mankato, Minn., broke up a fight between what they think was a cougar and a wild turkey. And there have been so many cougar sightings in Iowa, confirmed and unconfirmed, that authorities are having trouble calming residents.

"I think puma paranoia is out of control," said Ron Andrews of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources. "Most of the time when mountain lions sense humans, they run away. But we've got people saying they're not going to go camping, they're not going to do their usual walk in the woods or take the Girl Scouts on a picnic."

After an absence of more than a century, North America's top predator appears to be moving eastward, reclaiming its historic hunting grounds. There have been 25 confirmed cougar sightings in nine Midwestern states in the past two years, according to the Cougar Network, a nonprofit group tracking the incidents.

All of the cougars sighted in the Midwest appear to be young males dispersing eastward from western states, where populations have been growing since laws were passed in the 1960s to protect the animals.

Scientists believe it's only a matter of time before female cougars also venture to the Midwest and breeding populations are established. It's even possible that they could return to the East.

"As a scientist, you very rarely get to document the natural return of a large predator to an area where it's been gone for over 100 years," said Clay Nielsen, a wildlife ecologist at Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

Before European settlement, cougars -- also known as pumas, mountain lions, catamounts and panthers -- roamed from the Arctic to the tip of South America. By 1900, they had been hunted to virtual extinction throughout the eastern United States, with the exception of the Florida panther. Less than 100 panthers live in and around the Everglades.

TakeABreak
05-02-2005, 01:16
Thanks attroll, I could not get my computer to post it. I thought this would be great to show that are making a come back. Our Michigan DNR has disputing there existance in the Lower Peninsula of Michigan for years, know we have scientific evidence that can not be diputed.

saimyoji
05-02-2005, 20:10
Earlier this week, police in North Mankato, Minn., broke up a fight between what they think was a cougar and a wild turkey.

Hmmm. Either a small cougar or one damn viscious turkey.

I heard what sounded like a large cat's 'meow' one day on the trail. There was some shaking of trees and screaming of birds....I chalked it up to a bobcat....but ya never know! :bse

Tramper Al
05-02-2005, 21:40
Earlier this week, police in North Mankato, Minn., broke up a fight between what they think was a cougar and a wild turkey.

I wondered about this too. Do police commonly spend their crime-fighting time breaking up fights between wild animals? I hardly ever see this on the nature programs on TV, especially like in like Africa.