MI Cougar Sightings Hit Record High In 2025

Cougar sightings in Michigan hit a record high in 2025, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Wildlife officials with the agency have confirmed 27 cougar sightings across Michigan in 2025, the highest number on record since they were thought to have been wiped out in the state.

All the sightings were captured in the Upper Peninsula. The last time a cougar was spotted in the lower peninsula was 2017 in Clinton County’s Rose Lake Wildlife Area. Wildlife officials do not know how that cougar ended up in that area, whether it was released there or found its way there naturally.

It is also the third straight record-breaking year. There were 23 cougar sightings in 2024, 18 in 2023 and 14 in 2022. Wildlife officials began tracking cougars in Michigan in 2008 when they confirmed three sightings.

Although cougars are native to Michigan, wildlife officials believe most of them are transient animals, and coming into Michigan from Western states. So despite the rising numbers, they are still trying to determine if the big cats have an established home in Michigan.

"This situation is not unique to Michigan but has been occurring in many other Midwestern and eastern states, as young males disperse from core range in the western United States," wildlife officials say on the DNR's website.

In March, cougar cubs were found living in the Michigan wild for the first time in over 100 years. They were spotted on private land in Ontonagon County in the western Upper Peninsula.

Cougars are on the list of endangered mammals in Michigan, meaning it’s illegal to hunt or harass them. It is also illegal to try and locate their den and to trespass on private property.