The Department of Natural Resources has confirmed the sighting of a cougar in Lincoln County. A trail camera on private land captured this image on July 30, and the property’s absentee owner first discovered the image Sept. 5. Credit: Department of Natural Resources

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The Department of Natural Resources on Tuesday said biologists have confirmed two cougar sightings in northern Wisconsin in recent months.

Including a cougar sighting in January in Bayfield County, DNR biologists say there have been three confirmed reports of cougars in 2014.

The two most recent cougar discoveries came from photographs from trail cameras on private land in Lincoln and Marinette counties. They follow a string of such observations since 2008. The big cats disappeared from Wisconsin in about 1910.

A study in the Journal of Wildlife Management in 2012 reported that cougars have spread across the Midwest landscape in recent years. The study showed 178 cougar confirmations in the Midwest and as far south as Texas between 1990 and 2008.

In the latest cases in Wisconsin, the cougars could be the same animal, according David MacFarland, a wildlife biologist with the DNR.

He said the locations were about 90 miles from each other in a straight line.

"It is very possible that a cougar could have covered the distance in that amount of time," MacFarland said.

In the first case, a cougar was sighted in Lincoln County, east of Merrill, on July 30. A Minnesota man, the owner of the property, reported the photo to the DNR onSept. 5, MacFarland said.

In the second case, the cougar in Marinette County was photographed with a trail camera on Sept. 1 near Middle Inlet, north of Crivitz, and reported to the DNR on Sept. 30.

In both cases, personnel from the DNR visited the sites, inspected the images, interviewed the landowners and concluded the photos were legitimate.

The DNR received 240 reports of cougars in 2013. Eight of the reports were confirmed as probable and three were verified — in Bayfield, Sawyer and Florence counties.