MARQUETTE, MI – (Great Lakes Radio News) – The Michigan Wildlife Conservancy has confirmed the presence of a cougar in southern Marquette County.
A photograph of the cougar was taken in a cased and padlocked trail camera on private property on June 1st of this year. Officials with the M-W-C verified the trail camera’s location on a well-worn wildlife trail atop a wooded ridge and say over twenty credible cougar sightings in the same vicinity have been reported since the 1970s.
These include several sightings within a few miles of the trail camera location. The agency says the long history of sighting reports in the area indicates the cougar photographed on June 1st may be part of a resident population rather than a wandering cat from a western state. The most recent D-N-R confirmation of a cougar occurred last May when one was photographed with a hand-held camera near Skanee in Baraga County. That photograph was taken about 50 miles north of the Marquette County trail camera location.
