Reprinted and posted with permission from the Traverse City Record Eagle

November 19, 2003

Cougar sightings offer chance to find answers

Cougar sightings in northern Lower Michigan have become the equivalent of the Sasquatch phenomenon of the 1970s - everyone's seen one, it seems, but whether they exist or not remains debatable.

There's no grainy film footage of the big cats roaming the Sleeping Bear Dunes, but several credible witnesses claim to have recently encountered Felis concolor in that area and near Traverse City and Kalkaska.

The animals were thought to have been hunted out of existence in the area in the early 1900s.

Officially - at least in the eyes of the state Department of Natural Resources - cougars may or may not live in the area.

Department officials don't flatly deny the cats' existence in Michigan, but they want more proof.

"We've been unable to even come close to substantiating a viable resident cougar population," department spokesman Brad Wurfel said. "What we're missing here is a cougar."

Though the state may have its reasons for not acknowledging the big cats, the sightings were enough for the federal government to recently post signs at each of Sleeping Bear Dunes' 13 trailheads, warning visitors that they're entering cougar habitat.

Granted, the feds have nothing to lose by posting such signs. If cougars are determined to exist, it would be up to the DNR to come up with a wildlife management plan for the cats, likely similar to the state's monitoring of moose and wolves in Isle Royale National Park.

The conflicting messages from the feds and the state are, however, contributing to the public's confusion about cougars and whether extra caution should be taken when entering the park, or even one's back yard.

People have a right to know it they're going to come face-to-face with a 7-foot long, 80-pound potentially dangerous wild animal and they should be informed about what to do if that happens.

A public that is used to dealing with (at most) deer and rabbits when going out for a hike should know if there's a chance they'll be running into a predator like a cougar. Big cats may be beautiful and graceful, but just ask Roy Horn (of Siegfried and Roy) if they're predictable. No one knows how a wild animal, particularly a predator, is going to react.

That's why the state and federal government need to determine if cougars do exist in this part of the state, including Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore.

There's an opportunity here to work together to interview witnesses, check for signs, send out patrols and get to the bottom of this. There's a safety issues here - both for people and the alleged cougars - and that should trump any misgivings a governmental body has about acknowledging an animal's existence.

We're not looking for Bigfoot here. Just a big cat or two.