Wild cat in willmar area?

[chucker34]

Last night, my wife and I were driving along highway 5 near Sibley State Park and some sort of large cat-looking creature bounded across the highway and into the woods. It was about the size of a yellow lab but it couldn't have been a dog. It was early evening and we got a look at it. My wife commented on its funny looking tail and it's ears and paws looked more cat-like, if that makes any sense. It also ran very smoothly, much more so than any dog I've ever seen. And no, I wasn't drinking beforehand. : ) Any thoughts on what it might have been? A bobcat? Do they make it this far south ever?

[LEECH21]

On Saturday I was talking with someone at my wife's christmas party and said they have seen the same thing! Well maybe not the exact same one, but they have seen something like that as well. They said it was a cougar (aka mountain lion). I think they can be fairly common making their way this far south. I can't remember where exactly they saw that one, but I try to find out. They also saw a dead large animal, like a dog, goat, or something like that up in a tree around that area. Cool stuff! I'll try to get more specifics....LEECH

[Ole1855]

Probably a cougar.

Ole

[Shad rap]

Last fall I had a friend that had a couger walk under his tree stand north of new london. Does anyone know if it is legal to shoot them in MN. I heard in Iowa it is legal and last year bow hunters shot 5 of them. they dont even need a specail license

[chucker34]

I was thinking more along the lines of a cougar because it was tan or yellowish - all solid in color and bigger than what I've researched bobcats to be.

[SPUD BAR]

My money is on a cougar. They are starting to turn up all over central and southern MN. I know a guy that lost some calves to a cougar last spring near Goldmine bridge northwest of Redwood Falls. Sure makes a guy hear some strange things when you are fishing kitties on the MN river near there!!

Later, SPUD

[LEECH21]

My wife said they saw it around New London, but couldn't remember much more than that. It's possible then to be the same one.

I did some research on cougars and found out females max out at about 105 pounds and males are 40% larger at 150 pounds. They are ambush hunters and can take down prey up to 7 times their own size(so a full grown male could kill a 1,050 pound animal!) The cougars range was every state in the U.S. before americans settled other areas. Now they are primarily found in the western half the the United States. They are making a comeback by pushing their way east again. Just a little F.Y.I. for ya!

[chucker34]

Thanks for the info. on the cougar.

I talked with my father-in-law, who I thought would think I was crazy, and he actually believed me. He said a neighbor's horse near Sunburg had actually been attacked by a cougar. It had claw marks from its neck down its back. According to the vet, that coincides with the signature attack style of a cougar. He also said the neighbor said a horse was found dead somewhere in this area a few years back and it was concluded a cougar did it.

I put in a call to the DNR office in St. Paul and they directed me to the local officer, who I haven't called yet. But I just wanted to get their reaction and they kind of acted like I was nuts - that they never usually make it down this far and they I probably saw a yellow lab. They said it could be an escaped game farm animal and that I might want to call the county sheriff.

Oh well. I might actually try and find some tracks in the area. I've seen them before that I thought had to belong to an extremely large dog or coyote but I've been studying the differences between canine and feline prints online and call the local officer if I can determine that there are cougar tracks. I don't know what would come of it but they might be interested in it.

[Guest]

Why is it that the DNR downplays this whole cougar thing? It's always "you must have seen this" or "it escaped from that".

There have been reports of cougars on the North shore for years and they always discredit the sightings.

I see no reason whatsoever why cougars couldnt be making their way back into the state. Heck, elk did it up by TRF!

I'm just glad they have plenty to eat out there, would start making me nervous while out hunting if they diddnt

[goose89]

tom , i agree with most of what you said, but i believe the elk in the TRFs area were "transplanted" in that area. I don't think they just wandered there naturally like the cougar(s) are proposed of doing. later,

goose

[cdnfisherman]

In fall 2001 I was deer hunting in the MN river valley south of Renville and saw a Mtn Lion. No one believed me but I know what I saw. You can bet that they are around.

There have been numerous sightings out here in ND too.

Clarkie

[psegriz]

My aunt lives down by Cokato and 3/4 mile from her house a couger had a den in an old field culvert. She had 2 cubs but later moved them as too many people knew about it and had to go and see. Nobody knew where she moved them to.

And as far as bobcats they are around but not many. I havn't seen one in about 21 yrs. but have heard about others who have.

[Duck-o-holic]

Hey Chucker,Give us a post after you talk with that local officer... and please ask him about the legalities of shooting one. I'm guessing that it would be illegal. Legitimate cases of self defense would be another story however!I remember seeing a news report a few years back where a couple was at a state park, and were camcording footage of their child playing there. When watching the video at home, they saw a crouched cougar in the brush that was obviously stalking and watching the kid. At no time at the park did they realize that the animal was there! I can't remember what state it was in, but I think is was somewhere like california?

[BIG_EYE]

I used to spend every min. I could fishing the Minn. river as a kid and have seen cat tracks on the sandbars and have had old timers tell me that there have allways been big cats in the river bottom.

[LEECH21]

That's cool that you saw one south of Renville! Thats my old MN River fishin' grounds....well still is when I get down that way. I remember as well seeing big tracks in the mud by the river. I always thought they were from some kind of coyote/wild dog or something....guess they could have been cougar tracks!

[castindad]

been seeing cougar in the nw corner of green lake by the old mill for past three years by the old mill chsing rabbits very fast

[wheelierida]

funny looking tail? if it was a really short tail it was a bobcat? i saw a huge cat run across the road in front of my truck once and I could have sworn it was to big to be a bobcat, but cougars have long tails. although i wouldn't dissmiss the possibility of cougars being there either.

[MNorthwoods]

chucker - cougars in the area I believe. They are known to be reported in the metro area and have also been spotted south of there toward Pine Island and Rochester. I sure believe that some of the areas around here can support them - especially the MN River bottoms. Now the skeptic in me asks the same question about the tail - if you were close enough to make an observation about funny ears and paws I would think you surely would be close enough to identify what would be a very long tail on a cougar don't you think? Anyway - I think there sure could be cougars around here but I think if you were that close and didn't observe a long tail maybe it way something else? Fun stuff nonetheless.

[chucker34]

By funny looking tail, I meant to say that it was longer and not as short as you'd see on a dog or as bushy as on a coyote.

[LEECH21]

I caught a little bit on the radio yesterday about a couger attacking a horse recently in Minnesota. Like I said I caught just a little....does anyone know where this happened?

[breadman]

heard the same thing I believe it was in northwest mn not sure by what town, from what I understood the wounds to the horse were not serious but the vet believed it may have been a couger

[castindad]

had long tail brownish tan and large ears and very fast running no doubt it was a cougar