Michigan recorded a record number of confirmed cougar reports in 2025, according to the state’s natural resources department, and officials said the evidence includes sightings of cougar cubs in the Upper Peninsula. Cougars — also called mountain lions or pumas — are tan or gray large cats, and the DNR’s detections in 2025 reached 31, the highest count of confirmed observations since the predator disappeared from Michigan in the early 1900s.
Brian Roell, a large carnivore specialist with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources, said the confirmed total could rise once the department reviews more camera images. “That number will go up once we get our DNR cameras in there, as well,” Roell said, adding that staff are “like 6 million images to go through.”
DNR officials said the 2025 detections also include confirmation that cougar reproduction is occurring in Michigan. This year, the DNR said, cougar cubs were discovered in the state, meaning at least one cougar family is raising babies there. Roell said the cubs represent a development that has not been verified in the region for more than a century.
Byron Weckworth, a chief conservation and advocacy officer with the national nonprofit Mountain Lion Foundation, said the presence of a large carnivore reestablishing in Michigan shows that conditions have changed to allow the animal to return. He also said he hopes the human presence in the area will “embrace that and seek to find the right ways to coexist.”
Officials cautioned that confirmed detections do not automatically translate into an increase in cougar numbers. Roell said people should take the figure “with a little bit of a grain of salt,” noting that it can be difficult to know whether there are more cougars or simply more ways to spot them. He pointed to the growing use of trail cameras by both the DNR and private residents, which makes cougars easier to detect.
The DNR’s data also reflects how detections are counted. Roell said that while there were 31 confirmed cougar reports in Michigan in 2025, some reports involved multiple cougars, which is why the DNR’s data counts 34 sightings for the year. He also said two landowners whose properties are located near each other accounted for nine of the 31 reports, and he suspects that indicates a “very active cat close to these two landowners.”
The department has previously said DNA shows male cougars have been in Michigan over the last two decades, but officials had assumed the animals were passing through, in part because they were not sure whether females were present. Roell said that assumption changed early last year when two cougar cubs were spotted by a motorist in Ontonagon County in March, and then nine months later, in December, two slightly older cubs were seen with an adult female on a resident’s trail camera.
Roell said the last confirmed cougar sighting in Michigan happened on Dec. 14, and he said none had been confirmed yet in 2026, meaning the cubs seen earlier have not been reported for more than a month. He said officials hope the cubs are still alive but that they do not have knowledge of their status. In addition to potentially producing more adult cougar images, Roell said reviewing the remaining camera footage could help show where the cubs were during the nine-month gap between sightings and where they might have gone after the December detection.
Cougars are on Michigan’s endangered mammals list, and the state says hunting them or even trying to locate them is illegal. Roell also said in a DNR release after the cubs were spotted in December that too much human pressure can cause a female cougar to abandon her cubs, and that the public should respect the animals’ habitat.
Cougars are generally considered low threat to humans, but attacks can occur. The report noted a fatal cougar attack in Colorado on Jan. 1, the first fatal cougar attack in the state in more than 25 years, and it said if someone sees a cougar in the wild they should make themselves big, make noise, throw sticks or rocks, and avoid running away. The DNR also says people can report sightings or photographs, along with tracks or scat, through its “Eyes in the Field” reporting form.