Cougar sighting

[amarillo]

I know for certain it is a bobcat in that video, I spend all winter long running them with hounds, have also seen many trail cam pictures of them with guys also thinking they were lions. Not saying they ain't in MN I my self have seen one and have talked to a few dnr officials about lions and they say they are here. I have a friend in the black hills of SD who used to tree lions with his hounds for the Fish and Wildlife service out there so they could radio collar them. The black hills has a huge population of them and that is believed to be were most of the lions in MN have come from because they have to find new turf of their own.

[ricqik]

There definately are cougars in MN, but the one in the vid is a bobcat. That clip of what is showing to be a long tail is actually it's right hind foot. The clip just before that shows a short tail. I also see patterns like a bobcat. Walks like a bobcat. Cougars have a slower pace walk. I'm 100% sure it's a bobby.

[jeff127]

It is obvious-bobcat......end of story

jeff

[Da Beak]

May not be as far fetched as one might think....

Hunters in NE Minnesota spot 2 cougars

Updated: 11/11/2008 11:15:19 AM

CULVER, Minn. -- Two deer hunters waited a few minutes to track a doe they shot northwest of Duluth -- only to find two hungry cougars tearing away at their kill.

It took Ted Kline and Ron Smith only about 30 minutes to reach their doe on Monday. In that time, Kline estimates the cougars ate about a third of the usable meat.

Kline says the animals had long tails and were three feet long. He says they weren't wolves, dogs or bobcats.

Officials say cougar sightings are fairly common across northern Minnesota. The Department of Natural Resources says seeing two cougars in one spot is rare.

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

All Material Copyright 2008 KARE-11. All Rights Reserved.

[mrklean]

Ok i have the video of the cougar from my buddy, how do i post videos???

[pinkfloyd4ever]

I thought there were only bigfoot and moose in NE MN?

[Newman2]

I was hunting with those two guys Sat and Sun. I should have the pics shortly.

[Newman2]

I just got one of the pics. For some reason it wont let me "save target as." If someone knows a way around this I'll post the pic. Or I can e-mail it to you and you can post it.

[updecreek]

wideopenlemans at hot mail. com send pics

[Pickelfarmer]

I thought there were only bigfoot and moose in NE MN?

Darn, you beat me to the big foot thing. There is an Email going around at work showing three mountian lions eating a deer some were up by Greenbush I think. They sure are impressive animals.Kind of makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up a little to think theres something like that out there. I'm sure they are scared of humans. I hope there scared of us....

[mrklean]

That email has been on this site a lot, there from South Dakota not greenbush

[updecreek]

This is newmans pic it is REAL GRAPHIC.

[AlwysFshn]

Must have been pretty hungry

[Chad Halvorson]

Here is a bobcat from last night. I do get rabbits on that camera too so maybe he was after a rabbit snack.

[LMCT]

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Here is a cougar from my trail cam.

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I didn't see where anyone considered that the animal in the video may be a coyote in summer coat so I'll throw that out there. It seems similar to the one in this pic:

http://tinyurl.com/6xjl2r

At first viewing I thought it must be a cougar then after playing the video multiple times and hitting pause to catch it in different frames it really started to seem like I was seeing a dog-like face/muzzle. Also it seems there may be a white/light area of fur at the base of the tail which cougars don't seem to have. And coyotes can have a partially darker tail and they do normally walk with their tail held low.

[Cooter]

I love it, just got an email and his story claims those cougar pics are from Buffalo Co WI - not only that but the pics are from a co-workers relative! Those 3 cougars sure get around.

[Big Dave2]

There's been several around the Le Sueur/Belle Plaine area. I saw one just off HWY 169 between Belle Plaine and Jordan back in '98.

I don't think I'd be too concerned about it either as long as I wasn't in full camo hunting turkeys. If the cat can identify you as a human, it will more than likely run the other way.

About 6 or 7 years ago or so I was deer hunting some private land just south and east of Belle Plaine when another hunter in our party and I heard what we figured could only be a sound made by a large cat. The sound filled the woods and made the hair on the back of your neck stand up!

[Dave S]

that was the general vicinity this cat was coming from, but closer to 169. There are also bobcat in the area as well. No one believed me until a bow hunter had one walk under his stand on some property that we hunted later in the season.

[96trigger]

Cooter, I got the same pics at school a week or two ago just before gun season, its the anti's trying to scare us out of the woods, HaHa. My email said that they were from Arcadia Wisconsin. They definitely are very popular cats on the internet.

[pinkfloyd4ever]

I think cougar too, I got a buddy who lives just east of Gutvaldt's corner, I'll have to ask him if he has heard anything.

So I talked to him on thursday, now I have never had any reason to doubt him, but he is getting his info from other farmers in the area. What he was told is that the DNR released 3 cougars in the area to try and reduce the deer population. He hasn't seen them, but has talked to others who have seen them and the remains of their livestock, etc.

None of that makes any sense to me, but that was the update I got

[mrklean]

i have also heard of the dnr releasing cougars into the wild, a person i worked with her dad was a huge dairy farmer in SE MN and the dnr let cougars go down there.

[BRULEDRIFTER]

Ohhh, gimme a break! Are you guy serious?

[BobT]

I find it very difficult to believe that the motive for the DNR to release cougars into an area would be to control deer herds. A more likely scenario that I would believe is trying to reintroduce the species to a former range and Minnesota is part of their former range. It is also known that cougars have been expanding their area from the Dakotas. Cougars are not non-native to Minnesota but they had been rendered nearly extinct years ago.

Cougars can have a typical home range of nearly 400 square miles so they can get around. Of course, with the photos that keep flying around the internet that would appear to be multiple sightings of the same animal(s), I have found it really interesting how the animal keeps bringing its backdrop along with it. Truly amazing!

Bob

[pinkfloyd4ever]

I find it very difficult to believe that the motive for the DNR to release cougars into an area would be to control deer herds.

Bob

I agree on that too, there was a post earlier saying that a guy had a cougar on a trail cam near Hilman and my friend lives out there. Like I said, he had heard about the cougar thing even before I had asked him. I don't have areason to doubt him but I also don't see the DNR releasing them either

[fishinmajishin]

Well if the DNR has planted them in the Hillman area to reduce the herd, they have been successful. My source has seen a single cat three times this fall and very few deer. I personally doubt the DNR has been doing it. These cats have to be migrating from the Dakotas. I'd be willing to bet there's going to be alot more sightings around the state in the coming years.