ONTONAGON, Mich. (WLUC) – Newly released trail camera photos indicate that two cougar cubs, the first documented in the Upper Peninsula in more than a century, are still alive and living with their mother in Ontonagon County.
A Thursday Michigan Department of Natural Resources press release shows a photo of an adult cougar with two juvenile cougars that the DNR estimates are about 1 year old, which would match up with the timeline of the suspected age of the cubs that were photographed in March.
“This is a historic confirmation for Michigan since it is the first time in over 100 years that verified cougar reproduction has occurred east of the Mississippi River and possible even east of the Missouri River,” said Brian Roell, a large carnivore specialist with the DNR.
The new photos surfaced when a private landowner sent the photos to the DNR Sunday. Roell verified the site of the photo Monday and the DNR’s cougar team confirmed the photo and the existence of the cougars.
“We wanted to go out and make sure that the location where the picture was taken matched what was actually there,” Roell said. “I wanted to see, do I see the same trees, the same brush, what’s the GPS location of the camera, those types of things. To make sure that everything was legit for this report.”
Roell says the chance of the cubs surviving is high.
“The kittens’ chances of survival are actually pretty high because just like bears, cougars invest a lot of their energy into their young,” Roell said. “So, these kittens will stay with their mom through this winter and possibly even into next winter. They already have a leg up, seeing as how they’ve been with her for a year now.”
Roell expressed surprise that the cougars hadn’t been captured on any of the more than 1,300 trail cameras the DNR operates around the U.P.
“The interesting thing is, where were they for nine months?” Roell said. “That’s a mystery.”
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