# confirmed wolf sightings in the LP



## Robert Holmes

Residences mean nothing to wolves other than they provide a source of food such as dogs and cats. Ask anyone who lives in the Moran area if they have seen wolves in or near their backyard. I have seen two right close to St Ignace, I have also seen bears inside of the city limits.


----------



## Robert Holmes

Most people laugh at the thought of Cougar or Wolves being in the LP. Consider this about the same time a couple of years ago a wolverine was spotted in the LP. About the same time a wolverine was spotted in the UP. A cougar could easily come into Michigan through Wisconsin and cross the ice in the winter. They could island hop and they are great swimmers so they do not need to cross the ice. I ice fish for steelhead on the great lakes and many times I have seen tracks going from shore to an island or who knows where.


----------



## Minibouncer

There are lots of cougars in south east Michigan. They prey on young Males in local watering holes and are attracted to smoke. 

Sent from my SPH-L710 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


----------



## DIYsportsman

Minibouncer said:


> There are lots of cougars in south east Michigan. They prey on young Males in local watering holes and are attracted to smoke.
> 
> Sent from my SPH-L710 using Ohub Campfire mobile app


if you don't have pictures, i don't believe you! :lol:


----------



## chuckinduck

Wolves will be permanent residents of the lower peninsula. It's really only a matter of how long it takes. If you asked me. I'd say they're already here in small numbers. The cougar debate is more interesting. It certainly seems like one should've turned up by now. I really don't know where to stand on that debate. Especially considering what seems to be overwhelming pics and scat/DNA. My uncle runs bear and bobcats with hounds. He took his dogs to Montana 10 years ago and tree'd and killed a nice lion. Those dogs had never smelled a lion track in their lives. Why wouldn't those same dogs get crossed up on a cat track in michigan during a bear or bobcat hunt? It happens with coyotes all the time to hunters chasing bobcat and bear. Heck. The hound hunters ran down the only wolverine in this state.


----------



## outdoorzman1

Like I said I could of easily had all the proof anyone could want to see. However, if I would of shot it then I would of been in trouble. So getting that hard evidence everyone wants is damn near impossible.


----------



## johnhunter

There's got to be over one million trail cameras strapped to trees in this state, right now. At 400 images taken per camera per year (a VERY conservative estimate), you're talking 400 million images.

And not one clean, verifiable cougar pic.


----------



## caffeineforall

Ummm pretty sure ive seen a few trail cam pics in michigan.

The.dnr has.said they are juvy males just passing through.

Believe one was a collard male from the dakotas...


----------



## Liver and Onions

caffeineforall said:


> Ummm pretty sure ive seen a few trail cam pics in michigan.
> 
> ...........



Cougar photos
UP yes. LP no, not a single one.

L & P


----------



## Wolverick

The fact that a lion has not been photographed in the lower means absolutely nothing. We are talking about a needle in a very large hay stack here. That does not mean I am a "true believer". I just means a big cat or two could be wandering around and no one have solid evidence of it. The landscape is changing all around us. There is a lot of former farmland reverting to forest in spite of the fact the human population is growing. It is in fact getting wilder right before our eyes. Enjoy it!


----------



## outdoorzman1

The one I seen and the one my aunt seen were both on public land. Not saying there are many but I do know without a doubt there is at least one!


----------



## Scott L

Check out Photos/Videos, then Home » Big Game » Trail Cam pictures title; upload_wolf.
This was spring/summer 09. 
Presque Isle County Five miles south of the Cheboygan County line 200' from US 23. 
DNR confirmed as wolf. Supposed to stop by and review area for tracks, scat, and other sign. That was scat cause I never seen a single DNR representative.


----------



## Hartland-Hunter

My MIL saw a wolf in her woods between Indian River & Alanson along M-68 back in 2011. What's so hard to believe about them crossing the ice pack in the straights in the winter time. It's like the bears & bobcats that have been sighted in the southern part of the state in recent years. I personally saw a Cougar back in the fall of 2007 (10/1) in the Livingston County. There were other documented witness accounts in the weeks before & weeks after on the Save the Cougar.org website. I know what I saw...


----------



## DFJISH




----------



## MERGANZER

We had one single wolverine in the entire sdtate of Michigan and we got picsd of that bugger. But we don't have LP cougar pics yet everyone has seen one and thier aunt saw one etc. Its laughable if it was real we would have pics.

Ganzer


----------



## Wolverick

Dude, seriously, you are not comparing a crazy wolverine that lands it`s self in the mostly agricultural thumb to the whatever in the much more wild northern lower? If that wolverine had been running around the Dead Stream Swamp or the PRC no one would have ever proven it existed. 

This is just a general question for you nay say-ers (you know who you are). Have you ever hunted bobcats? I have been out with some of the local guys a half dozen times. The day goes something like this. First you drive to all of the best crossing spots to look for tracks, starting before first light. If it has or is snowing you had better not drag your feet. Add a little blowing snow and you are in for it. Many times these guys can only tell a cat track from a coyote track by the way it moved because there is no seeing an actual track. If they are pretty sure of a cat they will put a good cold tracker on it.

Some days just don`t pan out and they call it a day by noon. They know where the cats are because they hunt the same places year after year. But even with their experience they have a lot of days that no cat is run. These guys spend almost every day of the season actively looking for cats they know live in the area, sometimes they are just hard to come by. 

Now imagine a lone cougar or a couple of wolfs wandering around in the northern lower. Do you really think they would be easy to find? Even if you were looking for them, where would you start? 

Lets just run a little experiment. I`ll shave the hair off a coyote and paint in blue then turn it loose somewhere in the LP and offer big reward for a picture of it. What do you think the chances are anyone will collect?


----------



## bucko12pt

Wolverick said:


> Dude, seriously, you are not comparing a crazy wolverine that lands it`s self in the mostly agricultural thumb to the whatever in the much more wild northern lower? If that wolverine had been running around the Dead Stream Swamp or the PRC no one would have ever proven it existed.
> 
> This is just a general question for you nay say-ers (you know who you are). Have you ever hunted bobcats? I have been out with some of the local guys a half dozen times. The day goes something like this. First you drive to all of the best crossing spots to look for tracks, starting before first light. If it has or is snowing you had better not drag your feet. Add a little blowing snow and you are in for it. Many times these guys can only tell a cat track from a coyote track by the way it moved because there is no seeing an actual track. If they are pretty sure of a cat they will put a good cold tracker on it.
> 
> Some days just don`t pan out and they call it a day by noon. They know where the cats are because they hunt the same places year after year. But even with their experience they have a lot of days that no cat is run. These guys spend almost every day of the season actively looking for cats they know live in the area, sometimes they are just hard to come by.
> 
> Now imagine a lone cougar or a couple of wolfs wandering around in the northern lower. Do you really think they would be easy to find? Even if you were looking for them, where would you start?
> 
> Lets just run a little experiment. I`ll shave the hair off a coyote and paint in blue then turn it loose somewhere in the LP and offer big reward for a picture of it. What do you think the chances are anyone will collect?


Ask those same dog guys how many cougar tracks they've ever run across.............they haven't. I know several of them and none of them, or others that they know have ever seen a cougar track in either the upper, or lower.


----------



## srconnell22

bucko12pt said:


> Ask those same dog guys how many cougar tracks they've ever run across.............they haven't. I know several of them and none of them, or others that they know have ever seen a cougar track in either the upper, or lower.


We had a lion track in Fairview in the 90's when one jumped out of a tree on top of my little sisters horse. Had tracks all over the pasture and a horse with claw marks down both sides of it's neck bleeding all over. 

"Unconfirmed" by the DNR investigator.


----------



## mydogisscout

Hartland-Hunter said:


> I personally saw a Cougar back in the fall of 2007 (10/1) in the Livingston County. There were other documented witness accounts in the weeks before & weeks after on the Save the Cougar.org website. I know what I saw...


I was Trapping an area south of White Lake rd and just west of US-23 about 2006-7 and saw some tracks on a sandy powerline that were out of the ordinary. I'm not saying for certain they were cougar tracks, but they were larger than any dog track I've ever seen and there were no claw marks visable in the loose sand. Now, I pride myself at being able to identify sign, trapping has made me a pretty good tracker. I have seen firsthand cougar tracks in Washington State when I lived there, and I'm pretty certain it was a big cat that walked that powerline.


----------



## Robert Holmes

Lets go back to trail cams. The UP is much more of a remote area than the LP with fewer hunters and fewer trail cams in operation. Pretty much every year someone in the UP gets a confirmed picture of a mountain lion in the UP. In the LP with years of running trail cam pictures nobody has a confirmed pic of a mountain lion. The jury is out on this one unless someone can come up with a picture there are no mountain lions in the LP. As for wolves I believe that a few have crossed the ice and they will continue to cross the ice. They actually could swim across, if they make it to Boise Blanc and go from there. From other areas it may be a long swim.


----------

