The number of cougar sightings in Michigan is increasing, with 27 reports in the Upper Peninsula so far during 2025, the Michigan Department of Natural Resources says. 

There were 23 such reports during all of 2024, and 18 during all of 2023, a DNR database shows. 

While the database for a given time frame might involve the same animal seen by different people, the numbers are significantly different from previous years, when, for example, only six such reports were posted for 2015. But the number started increasing in 2019. 

There have been a total of 161 such reports since 2008, the database shows, all of them in the Upper Peninsula.  

The repopulation could be for a variety of reasons, the DNR said. While the nearest large breeding populations are in North Dakota and South Dakota, it is possible that transient animals have traveled. Another potential source is escaped or released cougars that were initially pets. It has been illegal since 2000 to keep a cougar or other exotic cat as a pet in Michigan. 

Cougars are tan to brown in color, with the adults about 5 to 6 feet long from nose to tail and weighing between 90 to 180 pounds. They are primarily nocturnal and solitary, but can be active during the day. They are considered an endangered species in Michigan. 

They are predators of a variety of animals, including young moose, as their preferred food. 

The reports during 2025 all came from photographs or videos. More significantly, the 2025 sightings included cougar cubs spotted with an adult female during March in Ontonagon County in the western Upper Peninsula.  

In previous years, some of the reports came with animal tracks. In addition, a cougar carcass was discovered in 2016. 

Cougars are technically native to Michigan, the DNR says, but the wild population was wiped out by the early 1900s. Confirmed cougar sightings began again in 2008. 

"This situation is not unique to Michigan, but has been occurring in many other mid-western and eastern states, as young males disperse from core range in the western United States," the DNR said. 

You can report cougar sightings by using the DNR's Eyes in the Field reporting system.

The video above first aired on March 14, 2025.