Buffalo County Cougar
Posted by: Loren Coleman on July 23rd, 2012
A cougar is roaming western Wisconsin’s Buffalo County.
The cougar was photographed by an outdoorsman using a trail camera on land between Gilmanton and Mondovi after dark Saturday, July 21, 2012. A biologist from the Wisconsin DNR verified the sighting after discovering tracks in the area.
It’s only the second verified cougar sighting in Wisconsin this year. The DNR has been able to confirm visits from just six male cougars to the state since 2008.
The Winona Daily News reports the DNR hasn’t been able to find additional evidence that would allow it to track the cougar.
The DNR says cougars rarely attack humans, but if you encounter one, don’t run. Instead, face the cougar and spread your arms to appear larger.
The DNR also recommends yelling or throwing rocks and sticks.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
“The DNR has been able to confirm visits from just six male cougars to the state since 2008.”
Just six?!! How many couldn’t they confirm? Wisconsin DNR is pretty thorough–don’t be trying to jack deer out of season— but that number seems to point to a pretty decent population.
Maybe we’ll get a better idea just how far cougars are establishing themselves now that the Standard Issue Response of all wildlife officials east of the Rockies isn’t:
Have another drink, and you might see its mate!
I know you aren’t supposed to run if you see a cougar but couldn’t help but make me think of an old Robert Schimmel joke, “You know what they say you’re supposed to so if you’re being attacked by a shark? You’re supposed to punch him in the face. Yeah, and when that doesn’t work, you can poke him in the eye with your stump.”