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The South Boardman
couple and their neighbors are concerned. Two horses bear nasty scars after
an encounter with the animal, and suspicions are that it might be an adult
female cougar and her year-old
kit.
Patrick Rusz, director of wildlife programs
for the Michigan Wildlife
Habitat Foundation in Bath, believes cougars, once believed extinct in Michigan since 1906, are roaming remote
locations in both peninsulas.
"Cougar
tracks are different than a large bobcat, coyote, dog or wolf," said
Rusz, a trained cougar
trailer. "These tracks definitely belong to a cougar."
Bill George said the animal has been hanging
around his farm and that of Larry Strouss, a neighbor. The cat came into
George's horse corral behind his home Aug. 8 and attacked two horses. Both
animals have bite and claw marks along the back, neck, rump and sides. The
animal also has attacked a dog and mule owned by the Strouss family.
"A cougar
kills by jumping on its victim's back, digging its claws in, and biting
through the neck vertebrae or breaking its neck," Rusz said. "The
claw marks on the brown horse indicate the horse tried to buck the animal
off its back. The bite marks are too low on the neck to kill. The canine
teeth marks are consistent with those of a cougar."
The attacking animal or animals apparently
have lived in the area for two or three years.
"We didn't hear any noise when our
horses were attacked," Linda George said. "But we are concerned
about our personal safety and that of our animals."
The Department of Natural Resources is
slowly becoming convinced of the attacking animal's identity. DNR forester
and wildlife biologist Tim Webb of Traverse City issued a DNR Wildlife
Damage Investigation & Control Permit to George and Strouss to allow
them to kill "one large, feral cat, species unknown." It expired
Sept. 30.
"We hope to catch the animal
alive," Webb said. "Until we catch or kill it, we are not sure
what it is."
Regional DNR wildlife biologist Penny
Melchior in Cadillac said physical evidence indicates the animal is large
and feline, and "probably a cougar."
Oddly enough, although the DNR on page 33 of
its 2002-2003 Hunting & Trapping Guide lists cougars as a protected
species, George and Strouss were given permits to kill what might be a cougar. And, if cougars exist in the
Lower Peninsula, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service considers them
endangered but offers them little protection.
Said FWS special agent Mike DeCapita:
"The agency still does not recognize the existence of cougars in Michigan. The Federal Act does not
protect it. That could be rebuked under the right scientific evidence, but
right now the animal is concerned extirpated, gone from Michigan."
He said if it were determined the animals
did live, the only excuse for killing one would be in self-defense or in
defense of another person. If the entity were protected in Michigan, and someone killed it, that
would be against the law.
Such language seems meaningless to many
people, including MWHF executive director Dennis Fijalkowski. He said Rusz
has studied the animals for nearly three years, and scat (droppings) samples
have been conclusively proven to be from cougars.
"We have had DNA testing done at
Central Michigan University
that positively identifies the scat as that of a cougar," Fijalkowski said. "We know the animals
exist in the Upper and Lower peninsulas. We've identified their tracks, and
yet the DNR and FWS will allow them to be killed. The only thing missing
here is the smoking gun, a dead cougar."
Rusz has sought and found evidence of
cougars in both peninsulas and has spent the past two years investigating
suspected cougar sign. He said
he feels there are 20-30 breeding adult cougars in the Lower Peninsula and
perhaps as many as 50 in the Upper Peninsula.
"The wealth of cougar evidence is mounting," Rusz
said. "We have found sign in 28 different areas. Evidence consists of
positive sightings by one or more trained trailers (people trained to
identify cougar tracks), and
by scientific DNA analysis of cougar
scat.
"We have had many scat samples examined
and DNA-checked, and they are definitely cougars. The Wyoming Fish &
Game Laboratory in Laramie, and Central Michigan
University, have analyzed many scat samples and much of it was determined
to be from cougars. And, to clarify matters, the animals were North
American cougars."
One philosophy espoused for years by state
DNR biologists was that cougars found in Michigan
were escaped or released pets. Most pet cougars are of a Central or South
American strain and genetically different from North American animals.
"We feel Michigan's cougar
population is hampered by a genetic bottleneck," Rusz said. "This
means that any cougars in the state are descendants of a small group of
individuals that do not reproduce well because of low genetic
variation."
It's known that cougars have a 25- to
30-square-mile area that is considered their home range. It's possible
there might be only one or two Benzie-Leelanau animals, but cougars are
present in the federal lakeshore property.
Kim Mukavetz of Empire, a park ranger at
Sleeping Bear for 14 years and a trained wildlife observer, was driving
north on highway M-22 to Empire in 1997 when she saw a cougar.
"I was driving home when a
grayish-brown cougar jumped
across the road in front of my car," Mukavetz said. "I hit the
brakes, and the animal disappeared into the trees toward Lake Michigan."
Two years ago Bill Herd, the park's
interpreter, was driving M-22 at sundown when he saw a large animal with a
long tail cross in front of him.
"It crossed 25 yards in front of me and
vanished into a nearby swamp," Herd said. "I've seen this animal
two other times in about the same location."
NPS rangers know what they see, and they
have seen cougars and made reports about them for 20 years.
Judge Albert J. Engel of the United States
Court of Appeals Sixth Circuit Court is a cougar
believer as well. He saw one cross highway M-55 on Aug. 17, 1995.
"My wife and I, and a law clerk, made a
positive identification of a mountain lion crossing M-55 from north to south
at a point between the West Branch River and the Muskegon River,"
Engel said. "It was coming from the Dead Stream Swamp."
Rusz believes he has indisputable proof that
cougars prowl Michigan's
wilder areas. He said his research has pinpointed cougars in Alcona,
Dickinson, Menominee, Presque Isle and Roscommon counties. As soon as cougar scat has been found and
analyzed, it might be proven they also live in Kalkaska County.
Only time will tell.
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