Don Dittberner
Michigan Outdoor News

Hunters dispute claim of cougars in state

By Bill Parker
Editor
Sault Ste Marie, Mich. — There are no cougars in Michigan.

That’s the word from some avid houndsmen who spend their hunting seasons running black bears, bobcats, and coyotes throughout the Upper Peninsula.

The Michigan Wildlife Habitat Foundation released a report last year by Dr. Patrick Rusz that stated there are cougars in Michigan and possibly a small breeding population.
 

Respected houndsmen who spend upwards of 200 days a year training and hunting their hounds, scoff at such remarks. “We hunt that whole area up by Seul Point, where they did their study, and there are no cougars there,” says John Cryderman of Sault Ste. Marie, a hard-core houndsman who guides for bobcats, bears and coyotes. “I’ve been hunting bobcats and bears my whole life, and my granddad did it, too, and he never saw any (mountain) lions, either.”

Cryderman feels “there are too many good houndsmen” running their dogs across the U.P during the fall and winter for someone not have encountered a cougar, or at least a hot track.

“(Cougars) are not homebodies. They travel,” Cryderman says. “Anyone who knows lions will tell you, when they hit a two-track out west they walk right down it. Wolves do the same thing. Someone running their dogs would have crossed a track. They’re just not there.”

Kewadin’s Mel Guntzviller is another avid houndsman and trapper who disputes the cougar claim.
A life-long trapper, Guntzviller made a living  by trapping predators in seven states for 30 years. He also has friends who are government trappers in California, who are called in to remove nuisance animals.

“I’ve been around a lot of lions in California,” Guntzviller said. “I’ve been in on depredation hunts and had them every day on my trap lines killing coyotes, bobcats, and fox. You just can’t mistake a lion track, especially in the snow.”

In the Upper Peninsula, deer “yard up” in cedar swamps in the winter when the snow gets too deep for them to graze in open fields and forest edges. According to Guntzviller, if there were cougars in Michigan they, too, would head for these deer yards to feed in the winter.

“A lion is a big game animal. They don’t eat rabbits and red squirrels, they eat deer,” Guntzviller says. “During the winter in the U.P., the deer are in the cedar swamps. That’s where houndsmen spend all their time in the winter, too —  running the cedar swamps chasing (bob)cats and coyotes. If they were in there, somebody would run one, but they’re just not there.”

Cryderman, who hunts black bears in California and has encountered many cougars and cougar tracks over the years, feels the MWHF study falls short of proving there are cougars in Michigan. “That whole study is based on one nine-inch (scat). They never found a lion,” he said. “We have 280 wolves in the Upper Peninsula and they get hit by cars, and deer hunters kill wolves every year. Where are the lions? Where are the dead ones?”
Cryderman says he’ll readily admit he was wrong if someone ever comes up with an actual cougar, but until then he, like many others, dispute the findings of the study.

“I’d be willing to travel anywhere in the state to run a track, but it better be a cougar track,” Cryderman says. “If not, they better put me up in a hotel.”