2 cougar sightings confirmed in northern Wisconsin

[Scuba]

http://www.jsonline.com/sports/outdoors/2-cougar-sightings-confirmed-in-northern-wisconsin-b99551327z1-320796081.html

With big cat sightings swirling through the Wisconsin summer like the tempting, taunting smell of steak and sweet corn on a neighbor's grill, finally something of substance: The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources on Wednesday confirmed two cougar sightings in Langlade County.

The animal or animals were captured on trail cameras July 9 about six miles and 20 hours apart in the northern Wisconsin county. Landowners separately turned in the images to the DNR on July 27 and Aug. 3. Based on a review of the information and visits to the properties by agency personnel, the DNR verified the sightings.

...

The DNR has verified three or more cougar sightings a year in Wisconsin since 2008, MacFarland said. However, many of the sightings are likely of the same animal. Based on genetic evidence, the agency has confirmed at least six individual cougars in the state in the last seven years. The cougar, also known as mountain lion, catamount and puma, once roamed throughout Wisconsin but was extirpated in the early 1900s, according to state wildlife officials.

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Male cougars can travel long distances in search of mates and new territories. Female cougars have much smaller "dispersal tendencies," MacFarland said. In one well-documented and highly publicized case, a male mountain lion traveled from the Black Hills, passed through northern Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and ended up in Connecticut, where it was struck and killed by a vehicle in 2011. Wildlife experts estimate the journey covered more than 1,500 miles and spanned three years.

[Half-Century Man]

1. There have been recent reports of a couger in Rock County

South central Wisconsin, Big Hills Park.