Cougars are part of the NATURAL state in the midwest. It is only because of us that they have been absent for a few decades. The people who want them exterminated are the same ones who scream when there aren't so many deer per square mile that don't have to actually HUNT to get one.

I have little patience for "hunters" who only see game populations as being maintained for their own personal use, rather than taking into consideration the natural balance and the concerns of landowners, such as farmers, who depend upon the habitat for their very livelihood.

If you are a farmer, and you see deer eating your livelihood so some hunter who uses the neighboring land 2 days per year can see some extra game, you know what I'm talking about.

I am a hunter, and a son of a farmer, AND a biologist. Most midwestern states have too many deer, plain and simple. Plenty of deer to give a few to a small population of cougars.

I do laugh, however, at the DNRs denying the existence of cougars in their states. I actually had a cougar on a 2-acre parcel of land in suburban Detroit in 2003 and the MI DNR tried to convince me it was something else. I shared my credentials and challenged them as to why they shouldn't believe me, and they quietly left....