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‘Cougar warning’ signs posted
at Sleeping Bear
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By Tom Carney
Correspondent
Leland, Mich. — The
decision to erect signs warning of cougars at the Sleeping
Bear Dunes National Lakeshore was made independent of any
outside agencies and is not meant to imply that wild cougars
roam the state, a Sleeping Bear Dunes spokesman said.
This
contradicts a claim made by the Michigan Wildlife
Conservancy.
A statement released by the Conservancy on
Nov. 5 said, “The National Park Service (NPS) took the action
in response to a long history of sighting reports in the area,
the research by the Wildlife Conservancy, and a recent close
encounter with a cougar by one of the lakeshore’s 1.4 million
annual visitors.”
But in a Nov. 12 interview with Michigan
Outdoor News, NPS biologist Max Holden said the Conservancy
played no role in the process. The idea, he said, came about
as the result of “a consensus here in our office with a lot of
participants and suggestions.”
Participating in the
discussion were the district ranger, the fee collector,
Assistant Superintendent Tom Ulrich, and Holden himself.
A
decision based on any degree of input from the Conservancy
would have lent credibility to the Conservancy’s contention
that Michigan plays host to a “wild, remnant, breeding
population” of cougars (mountain lions, puma). So far, while
Conservancy spokespersons have captured the imagination of the
public through many stories appearing in the popular media,
they have not proved their claims scientifically.
Holden
said the action by the NPS should not be viewed as a
validation of those claims.
“We don’t want to imply that
they’re wild,” he said. “We’re neutral on it. We just want
people to know that others have reported cougars.
“We’ve
had so many reports that we think it’s prudent to put up the
signs. We might be being overly cautious, but we thought we
should advise people on how to behave if they do see
one.”
The signs advise park visitors that cougars have been
sighted in the area and offer tips on what to do in the event
of cougar encounters, as well as how to avoid them. Though
most of the reported sightings have come at the “Old Indian
Trail” at the south end of the park, Holden says the signs
have been erected at each trailhead.
“We thought it might
be a good public service to let people using those trails know
others have seen cougars,” he said. “We’ve had so many reports
recently that we felt it was advisable to alert people using
the trails.”
Understandably, skeptics of the cougar stories
ask why there are no signs advising people of the potential
for bear or wolf encounters.
Holden explained, “We haven’t
had any wolf sightings. Bear sightings are rare. Maybe once
every several years. We’ve had cougar reports for 20 years.
But then they were infrequent; every two or three years
someone would report seeing one. This last year we’ve had
numerous reports.”
Holden estimates this year alone he’s
received “probably more than a dozen” reported cougar
sightings, many “from reliable people who are known to us, so
we think cougars exist here.”
Similar signs can be found in
other national parks that host cougars. “Ours are different,”
Holden said. “But we got the idea from what they’ve done at
the other parks.”
Campers, hikers, hunters, and park
visitors alike can rest easy with the knowledge that there’s
little likelihood they’ll ever come eye to eye with a cougar
looking for a fight, officials say. According to a Nov. 3
statement from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife,
in all of North America there were “fewer than 20 fatalities
and 75 non-fatal attacks during the last 100 years.”
Representatives of the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy,
declined comment for this story. .gif) |
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