Cougar on MLK in Lansing? It's a hoax

LANSING — A photo of a cougar widely circulated among Lansing social media channels Wednesday is from Tigard, Oregon, according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

The photo was posted on Facebook Wednesday afternoon by Dalen Rosario, with the message: “seen on MLK !!! STAY INSIDE!!!” The post had been shared more than 900 times by Thursday evening.

The furor surrounding the post was enough that the Potter Park Zoo posted assurances on its Twitter page that the zoo’s lions were safely inside their pens.

“We received about 45 telephone calls and a few social media messages,” starting around noon Wednesday, said Amy Morris, executive director for the Potter Park Zoological Society.

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Rosario did not immediately respond to a message left on Facebook.

Kevin Swanson, wildlife management specialist with the DNR’s bear and wolf program, said the DNR receives hundreds of reports each year regarding cougars.

To date, there have been 36 confirmations in the Upper Peninsula since 2008 and one confirmation in the Lower Peninsula. That lone sighting in the Lower Peninsula was confirmed in Bath Township in late June.

Since then, Swanson said, the DNR has noted an uptick in reports, some claiming legitimate sightings and some that are patently bogus.

“The vast majority of those are bobcats and a lot of domestic cats that people just have a hard time scaling,” Swanson said. Others involve cougars that are clearly superimposed on a Michigan backdrop.

Swanson said the photo circulated Wednesday is believed to have come from the Facebook page of a police department in Tigard, Oregon.

A July 7 post on the Tigard Police Department Facebook page said the department was investigating two reports of cougar sightings and includes photos similar to the Wednesday post.

Swanson said reports like the one shared Wednesday complicate the confirmation process for the DNR’s cougar team.

“We ask the public not to submit false reports,” Swanson said.

Cougars can reach eight feet in length from nose to tail and can weigh up to 200 pounds. Their tracks are 3-1/2 to 4 inches wide.

The DNR said it has not confirmed a breeding population of cougars in Michigan.

Contact Beth LeBlanc at (517) 377-1167, eleblanc@gannett.com or on Twitter @LSJBethLeBlanc.