Is There a Cougar Lurking in Battle Creek?
Andrew Norton
Laura Hammer reported seeing "a large cat-like animal with a long, fat tail in Jacaranda Estates (suburb in Battle Creek)" on Sunday. This isn't the first report of cougar sightings in west Michigan. Lately, there have been a number of reported sightings, but those have come from rural areas. An officer with the Battle Creek Police Department's Animal Control unit found the prints left by the animal in question not to have been made by a deer or domestic cat. It is possible that this case will be forwarded to the DNR.
The odds are good that if indeed it was a cougar that Hammer spotted it most likely was an illegal pet that either escaped or someone just let loose. The DNR says that there are no wild cougars breeding in Michigan.
Recently, in Lawrence, MI there was a deer kill that was reported to have been made by a cougar that is currently being nvestigated. The number of cougar sightings has continually increased in west Michigan as of late. It makes one wonder if perhaps the DNR is wrong.
Maybe the DNR isn't totally wrong in their stance. It wouldn't be out of the realm of possiblity that there are actually cougars breeding in Michigan, but they came into the wild as pets turned loose. Therefore, they wouldn't technically be "wild", but I still wouldn't want to run into one.