Just got off the phone with a friend of mine. His brother has been out bow hunting a lot this fall and hasn't seen hardly anything. He usually has 2 deer in the freezer by now. Well, his question why has been answered today. He watched a very large cougar for about 20 minutes hunting rodents along a meadow/wooded edge. He's also noticed a drop in other wildlife in the area(porkypines,possum,fox,etc) His brother happened to talk to a neighbor who hunts within a mile of there, and that guy said he found a deer carcass in his tree stand this fall.
At this point I'm not going to say where other than central MN(about as central as you can get, too). I'll let him decide what to do as far as the DNR is concerned. He is a dedicated/honest sportsman and will not try to eradicate it himself I'm sure.

I live in Big Lake Township and 2 years ago My neighbor saw a cougar on my acreage. the last 20 years there have been spottings of a cougar around co. road 4 & co. road 15 near the sherburne co refuge. Cougars do not like humans so they tend to stay away from developed areas.

This sighting is about 45 miles north of here. I guess he'll be a little bit nervous on his walk in to his stand in the dark now! Yipes!

I wouldnt get to nervous about it, unless you provoke the bugger he is more afraid of you then you are of him. With that said you still need to keep your distance if you do see one. There are lots of them in western Canada and Cougars cause very few problems with people.I would be more afraid of pit bulls in the area and the way people drive on Hwy 10 LOL

I know I'd be nervous no matter what the statistics are. So does the guy need to report it to the DNR? Would they try to remove it?

I would report it to the Dnr. It helps them keep track of the movement of the cougars. Usually if the get reports from multiple people the will check the area, looking for tracks ect. I doubt the would remove the cougar though unless it was threatning someone.

It's not like there is a shortage of deer in the state. I'm pretty sure I came across one at night last year. Long story short, it was not fun. I was in a boat on a lake and the animal was on shore staring at me. Never seen anything like it. I agree about contacting the DNR.

There have been cougars in the Dalbo --> Stanchfield area of Isanti County for years. The DNR does not like to addmitt to much about them. They dont want to get people all riled up.

Someone down here by Fairmont got a pic of one on their trail cam. I will see if I can get a pic e-mailed to me

There are also bobcats and lynx in Minnesota which are much smaller and sometimes people get confused between the three

Why would it be eradicated?

I did not mean to say it would be...just stated that I'm sure the guy would not do it himself.

And to get another sighting might be pure luck in itself.

cougar sightings...I thought we were talking about Linda Hogan

Would be nice to get some more of these sightings on trail cameras. I know the DNR is trying to get an estimate on the in-state population.

From what I understand, It has been a very long time of a confirmed lynx spotting in MN