# bobcats in lower mi ????



## Linda G.

If there is a huntable number of any type of game animal, we should be allowed to hunt or trap them, in my opinion. There probably isn't in southern MI, but again, that isn't known. 

Some people don't want to hunt those little rascally doves, either, Lunker, but they should still support those who do want to. 

Mallard was quite right about the incidental catches, I wasn't even thinking when I posted that. But then again, I've never been lucky enough to catch a bobcat or any type of out of season or rare wildlife at all-we trap mostly open areas for canines or streams, etc., for beaver and mink. I don't think the DNR cares about the stray cats and one wandering Black Lab. The cats have all found a better world and the Lab was duly delivered to the dog pound...

Mallard-we did pretty well this year on mink, we caught six in ten days-all the last week of November, right after the first snow, on blind set 110's. I take that back, one set was baited with a minnow.


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## huntingfool43

boehr 


It was just Wildlife, not Fish my mistake. It was a women that I talk to and after I got off the phone with her I had an idea she didn't have a clue. Talked to several people after that and it seems bobcat are not as rare as she made it sound.


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## boehr

Not making excuses, just a fact, sometimes phone receptionists really try hard to answer peoples questions from what they think they have learned in a very short period of time, like a few months. They try hard because they don't want to transfer people around and they do it for the good of the people they are trying to help. Sometimes they have mis-interpeted a comment they hear in an officer or whatever. Sometimes they provide incorrect information with only good intentions. Maybe that is what happened in your case and maybe not, just providing a possibility. Normally referred to as human error.


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## WAUB-MUKWA

Linda G,
Are you a dnr biologist or graduate from MTU or MNU? I mean you have an answer for everybody. You say you don't come to the UP or visit it often but are quick to show some sort of expertise in matters not in your backyard. How is something like the cougar so hard to believe they are in Michigan. The wolf walked in here from somewhere, why can't any other creature just walk in here too? I guess I just dont understand where you are coming from or what authority in wildlife research you have? I too would think there are bobcats in all the 83 counties like the coyotes, so there must be room for a few wild cougars.


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## Linda G.

and I don't credit myself to be an expert on anything. 

I'm an outdoor writer, have been for more than 20 years, with five file drawers full of interviews, research, and investigations done with the best experts in the country on a wide variety of outdoor subjects, and no, not all of them are from the MI DNR-but from university research scientists, federal agencies, independent groups like the MWC, other state game agencies, and thousands of very knowledgeable sportsmen and women.

I'm also a very active hunter, somewhat active trapper, and once in a while angler. I'm involved and/or serve on the boards with a number of conservation organizations. 

I concentrate on the wildlife species, please notice you rarely see me posting about fishing methods, firearms ballistics, just about anything to do with archery, etc. 

I've never said that I don't believe it isn't possible for a wild cougar to do just as you said, walk in...and if that has already happened or does happen in the future, it will probably be in the western UP, as there are documented cougars in extreme northeastern Minnesota. Well, there were, they killed one up there a year or so ago, and it proved to be wild.

But until we have that, as a legitimate writer, I have to go with facts as we know them, and we don't know that we have cougars in Michigan. 

I've heard every wild saloon story over the years there is to hear-grizzlies, bigfoot, you name it...people get hold of me every day with some sort of wild story. 

But we do have at least one lynx, captured by a trapper in the eastern UP last November. The first in Michigan since 1983-it was released, and is believed to still be present in the area. It was confirmed as a lynx by the US Forest Service, who DNA tested hair samples taken from the animal in the presence of a number of witnesses, including two MI DNR employees. 

That's documented evidence, and that's what we need to have with the cougar in this state.

I am not a complete skeptic when it comes to this sort of thing, I just want to see proof, and when it comes to wild cougars, at present we just don't have any proof. 

I enjoy the forums, I've always been an Internet junkie, and I try to share what I learn with the public in the interest of making us all a bit more informed on our wild environment.


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## Ferg

Keep it up Linda - I enjoy your input and hope you continue to provide your 'side' of the debate 

ferg....


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## Mallard

Cool on the mink Linda! Dry land conibears is one tool I have yet to figure out. I may get a couple in trail sets, but by far the minority of my take. Those big bank running bucks sure look nice in late Nov don't they!


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