Wisconsin cougar sightings spike in 2017

Cougars have returned to Wisconsin — at least a few of them.

This week the DNR confirmed that four photos from Douglas County taken in November were of a cougar.

The DNR’s Jeff Pritzl thinks it’s probably the same handful of mountain lions that have been responsible for the now 11 confirmed sightings in the state since late September. Animals that aren’t from here.

“(They’re) originating from the South Dakota area, where we know there’s the closest breeding population,” Pritzl said.

Pritzl isn’t very concerned.

“Virtually none,” he said. “The risk isn’t zero.

“Of course, there’s documentation in western states of conflict between mountain lions and humans. But we’ve never had any issues with those individual animals that have moved into the midwest, even over the past decade.”

Pritzl says the cats are mostly just passing through.

“It’s just the nature of mountain lions,” he said, “where their population gets high enough within their range, young individuals leave, expanding and exploring new territories.”

Cougar sightings began in Wisconsin about a decade ago. There’s been almost nothing for the last couple of years until trail cams started documenting the big cats wandering about.