BALSAM TOWNSHIP — A trail camera photo of what appears to be a mountain lion, shared on Facebook on Saturday, April 6, had many commenters sharing their own stories of big cat sightings through the years.
The image was captured in the early morning hours of March 17 in rural Itasca County's Balsam Township.
While not unheard of, cougar sightings are rare in Minnesota, which has three native wildcat species: cougars — also known as mountain lions — bobcats and Canada lynx.
Mountain lions are the only species without a breeding population in the state. Department of Natural Resources large carnivore specialist Dan Stark said reported sightings are of roaming male cougars, usually from the western Dakotas.
“It’s part of their biology. Young males that leave their natal range, they travel hundreds of miles," he said. "Some of them go further than others just because they’re out there searching for a mate or a female to breed with, and that’s kind of the limitation that we have here. Females haven’t reached Minnesota.”
Stark was unaware of a verified sighting near Balsam Township, though he said there was one a few weeks ago between Remer and Emily. According to the DNR’s wild cougar verification map, the last verified sightings of a cougar in northern Itasca County were in 2020.
As of January, Minnesota has had 107 verified cougar sightings since 2004 with a large spike last year. The previous record for sightings was 15 in 2020; last year, there were almost 35.
Stark cautions that a large number of sightings doesn’t mean a large number of cougars.
“Each of these is not an individual animal," he said. "It could be the same animal being detected in different places or in multiple observations over a period of time in the same area.”
Stark said people will send in trail camera photos to the DNR for help identifying animals. Sometimes they’ll think they captured a mountain lion, but it was really a bobcat, the state’s most common wildcat.
The DNR is interested in reports of cougar sightings, especially if they are accompanied by a photo or some type of physical evidence so the sighting can be verified and tracked.