Cougar confirmed from Feb. 7 video in Washington County

A cougar was videotaped Feb. 7 walking outside a home in Colgate in Washington County, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

Images of the large cat were captured at 1 a.m. by a surveillance camera mounted outside the residence.

After the homeowners notified the DNR, an agency wildlife biologist inspected the site and confirmed the animal was a cougar.

The cat is seen in the video striding on a paved walkway adjacent to a driveway and the home. The homeowners have requested to remain anonymous.

The cougar is likely the same animal verified in a Jan. 5 trail camera image from Rosendale in Fond du Lac County, according to the DNR.

Scott Walter, DNR large carnivore specialist, said the animal was likely a dispersing male. In each of the six cases the agency has been able to gather genetic material from cougars in Wisconsin in recent decades, the animal was determined to be a male.

"All of the research shows young males do the longest dispersals," Walter said. "If this one is like the others we've documented, it will keep moving."

In arguably the most famous cougar movement in North America, in 2011 a male cougar traveled from the Black Hills region, through Wisconsin and eventually to the East Coast. It was killed in a collision with a vehicle in Connecticut after traveling at least 1,800 miles, according to wildlife researchers who traced the animal's movements with DNR evidence.

Walter said past observations have shown dispersing cougars move mostly under the cover of darkness and hunker down during the day. Such behavior, in addition to the animal's stealthy nature, allow them to move through many areas without being seen by humans.

The animals are often only detected with trail and security cameras.

There is no evidence of a breeding population of cougars in Wisconsin.

The nearest established cougar population is in the Black Hills area of South Dakota, and genetic analysis of animals dispersing through Wisconsin have been linked to that population, according to the DNR.

Cougars, also called mountain lions, pumas and catamounts, were native to Wisconsin but were extirpated through unregulated hunting in the 1800s.

As the cougar population has increased in the Black Hills, more animals have dispersed, including to Wisconsin.

Over the last five years, the DNR confirmed three cougar sightings in Wisconsin in 2013, three in 2014, two in 2015, 16 in 2017 and three so far in 2018.

From early August through December 2017, cougar sightings were confirmed in Clark, Douglas, Juneau, Langlade, Lincoln, Marathon and Wood counties.

Without biological material for genetic testing, it isn't known whether the sightings are from a single cougar or multiple animals.

Cougars are a protected species in Wisconsin, meaning they can only be killed if they pose a threat to livestock or human safety.

No human has been attacked by a cougar in Wisconsin in modern history, according to DNR records.

The DNR asks the public to report sightings of cougars and other rare wildlife by contacting the local wildlife biologist or filling out the Large Mammal Observation Form on its website.