First Cougar Kittens Spotted in Minnesota in Over a Century

UNDATED (WJON News) -- A remarkable discovery in northern Minnesota was made recently.

Video footage from the University of Minnesota's Voyagers Wolf Project has captured extremely rare evidence of cougar reproduction in the state.

The video shows a female cougar with three large kittens. It's the first evidence of cougars reproducing in Minnesota in more than 100 years.

Researchers with the Voyagers Wolf Project placed cameras over a GPS-collared deer they suspected was killed by the cats. The video shows the kittens up close and feeding on the carcass.

Officials say the cameras have captured lone wandering males eight times since 2023, but none of the cameras have ever captured cougar kittens.

The kittens are estimated to be between seven and nine months old, suggesting they were born last fall.

The Department of Natural Resources says cougars were native to Minnesota before becoming locally extinct. There hasn't been evidence of reproduction east of the Dakotas and Nebraska in more than 100 years, until recent reports in Michigan and now in Minnesota.

Cougars almost always avoid human contact or confrontation and are rarely seen.

The species are protected in Minnesota with no open harvest season.