LANSING, Mich. (WILX) – Nine months after two cougar kittens were first documented in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, a newly verified trail camera photo indicates the animals are still alive and living with their mother.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources confirmed the image, which shows an adult cougar followed by two kittens traveling along a snowy trail in central Ontonagon County.
The kittens were last documented in early March, when they were estimated to be about two months old. At that time, the absence of their mother raised concerns about whether they would survive.
The newly verified image, however, shows an adult cougar accompanied by two young cougars that appear to be about a year old, according to Brian Roell, the DNR’s large carnivore specialist.
Michigan is home to very few cougars, and genetic testing has previously confirmed only adult males. The new photo suggests one of the first known instances of cougar reproduction occurring outside the species’ core range in the western United States.
“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,” Roell said.
A private landowner submitted the trail camera photo to the DNR on Sunday, Dec. 14.
Roell visited the site the following day, and the DNR’s cougar team confirmed the image Tuesday after enhancing the nighttime photo to verify the presence of all three animals. The sex of the kittens remains unknown.
“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 said he was surprised the kittens had not appeared on any public or private trail cameras since March.
The DNR operates more than 1,300 trail cameras throughout the Upper Peninsula to monitor wildlife populations.
“The interesting thing is, where were they for nine months?” Roell says. “That’s a mystery.”
Cougars are native to Michigan but were largely eliminated from the state by the early 1900s due to hunting.
Since 2008, the DNR has verified approximately 168 cougar sightings, all in the Upper Peninsula. Many of those reports, Roell noted, involve multiple sightings of the same animal.
Cougar sightings have increased each year since 2019, a trend Roell attributes in part to the growing number of trail cameras. In 2024, sightings captured on DNR-operated cameras accounted for more than 25 percent of all verified cougar reports.
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