Published: November 04, 2009 02:18 pm      

2:20pm: Cougar sighting confirmed in U.P.

State wildlife officials say they've confirmed the sighting of a cougar in Michigan's eastern Upper Peninsula.

The Department of Natural Resources said Wednesday it had determined that a trail camera in Chippewa County snapped a photo of a cougar wandering by one night last month.

Also, the DNR said it had verified two sets of cougar tracks found recently in the U.P. One was spotted near DeTour in late October and the other this week near Gulliver in Schoolcraft County.

Wildlife biologist Kristie Sitar says this is the first time a cougar's presence in the eastern U.P. has been confirmed, and it's the fourth such confirmation statewide.

There have been numerous other reports of cougar sightings, but the department hasn't been able to verify them.