Cougar spotted on trail-cams in Clark County; tracks in Bayfield County

© Leu and Krystal Vang
On January 18th, a trail cam on private land in Clark County captured an image of a subadult cougar (see image right). This location is approximately 44 miles southeast of the cougar sighting on December 27th in Eau Claire County. Then, on January 20th, another cougar was captured on a trail cam video image, this time about 12 1/2 miles NNE of the previous Clark County sighting. Assuming this is the same animal seen by police in Champlin, MN on December 5, 2009, it had been traveling at steady ESE trajectory. The straight line distance would be about 136 miles in 44 days. Assuming these two Clark County observations are of the same animal, this is the first time we have seen a major shift in direction of movement, and it appeared to be starting to move more to the north. This also makes it more likely that observation in Price County on January 29-30th are perhaps the same animal (see story below).

Then on February 15th, a citizen reported cougar tracks near his home, 3 miles south of Cable in Bayfield County. Snow had fallen overnight and he noticed the tracks while walking his dog that morning. While the tracks were confirmed by DNR biologists and followed for quite some distance, no further sightings have been reported in this area. This location is 55 miles northwest of cougar tracks observed in Price County on 1/31/10.