Cougar sighting in Wisconsin

Department of Natural Resources in Wisconsin have been hearing stories for years about cougar sightings in the area. They now think they have the proof from photographs of footprints and an eyewitness account by a veteran hunter and trapper near Milton in Rock County.Kevin Edwardson, 44, of the Town of Milton was called by his neighbor on Jan. 18 to look at some unusually large tracks that appeared to have come from a cat. Edwardson, a welder by profession who spends much of his free time in the woods, followed the tracks into the hayloft of a barn. Armed with a handful of rocks, he walked the length of the hayloft when he said a large cat jumped toward him, bounded out of a hole in the wall to the ground and ran to a nearby woodlot. "That thing was so graceful," he said. "I was in awe."

A game warden and a biologist, Doug Fendry, tracked the footprints for more than a mile before quitting. But they took photographs and captured samples of urine and blood that was sent Thursday to a laboratory in Montana for DNA testing. The blood might have come from an injured paw. The photographs of the paw prints were e-mailed to biologists in the West who said they appeared to be from a female or young male cougar.

Cougars are moving east, driven by the cats' strong population growth in Western states that forces them to seek new territory, he said. The closest confirmed report to Rock County was in 2004 in Illinois, near the Quad Cities. If the reports are true, the presence of a cougar would be historic. The last known presence of cougars in the wild in Wisconsin was in the early 20th century.

If you're a trail runner in Wisconsin looks like you'll have to read up on what to do when you meet a cougar....or do what Kelsey does in Colorado, carry some large rocks while running.