Milwaukee Cougar
Wisconsin
A buddy of mine who lives in Milwaukee just gave me a head's up that there's a mountain lion roaming around town.
It would be a shame if it ended up snacking on some little yip-yip purse dog.
I saw the video on the news. It is a good size cat. It'll probably end up killed in a drive by and on someone's spit this weekend.
Any more sightings?
It'd be nice if a pack of wolves moved in too.
It was on national news tonight.
seen that some guy shot a dog thinking it was lion. Got the anti gun nuts riled up!
A coworker just got back from a canned buffalo hunt on a huge ranch in western South Dakota.
A lion was spotted...the proprietor, knowing he was from Wisconsin, said; "he probably moved in from Wisconsin".
The guy knew of the DNR's claim that our cats "moved in from the Black Hills".
Yeah...right...
So you don't think our cats moved in from the Dakotas??
Maybe a few...but I'm skeptical. Seems odd that after this long, they're choosing to go walk-about...over 800 miles...crossing a couple major rivers...
Not gonna get into a pi$$in' match over it, but I'm not buying it.
Too many sightings, trail cam pics, and denial from the...uh...authorities.
Check DNR's cougar page, it details the more than 1,000-mile journey of a collared cougar seen in multiple states (including MN and WI) that ended up dying in Connecticut. No photos of more than a single cougar that I'm aware of in WI or neighboring states (to indicate a breeding population). Lots of photos of singles, likely younger males, on trail cams through the years, and sometimes the same one hundreds of miles apart from collars and/or ID marks (including DNA from blood when one had a cut leg presumably from icing on snow or perhaps a barbed-wire fence).
rick, so you're implying that the DNR is stocking mountain lions without telling anyone? Do you really think that they could do that without someone talking?
As for all the sightings it's my believe that 99%+ of the sightings are cases of mis-identification. People see something that they aren't sure what it is and suddenly it's a cougar. Heck just look at how many "sightings" there are of black panthers? Mountain Lions can't be black, the black cats would be Jaguars which are all but extinct in the USA and certainly wouldn't be in Wisconsin as it's to cold for them.
Even most of the trail camera pictures are not actually mountain lions but deer in odd poses, bobcats, house cats,. etc.
So did I, in 1980! ;) Thanks for the good laugh Turkey!
Good one Turkey. Good old Wolskis. What a classic. Brady Street sure has changed.
I had been under the impression that these animals had been here for a while now. One might also wonder if they were ever absent. In the late sixties or early seventies a close family friend sent in a plaster of paris cast of two pair of tracks to the WI DNR to be identified, one big and one small. They were returned to them stating they were adult and juvenile mountain lion prints. This was in the Powell Marsh area of SE Iron county. Why (re)introduce an animal that never left?
There was no reintroduction, they come through on their own. Nearest known breeding population is in the Dakotas.
Be care careful OUT THERE! It may be Cecil's off spring! Just teasing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Do they only breed in the Dakotas? Shouldn't the bigger question be how the get across the Mississippi River. I thought cats didn't like water. Sarc off.
I know a dentist that can probably take care of it...
Cats may not like water, but they can and do swim when needed. Or, he could have taken the long way. What's another few hundred miles when you're going 1,000-plus? May also explain why cats are often seen/captured on trail cams in northern MN, MI and WI before sightings increase south.
A wild cat will swim without a second thought. There are a lot more rivers than just the Mississippi they have to cross.
Water freezes and I am sure they have no problem making their way across the Mississippi.
Thanks for the replies. I understand how an animal can get to WI. What I really want to know is, do you think this animal is reproducing in WI or just the Dakotas?
Every wandering cougar that's been ID'd has been male that I'm aware of. Can't reproduce without a female. No WI trail cam pics of more than one animal that I'm aware of.
Pray some Zimbabwe dentist doesn't shoot it, they will shut down wiz bowhunting in a heart beat
