Cougar captured — on film
BY JOHN WELBES
Pioneer Press

04/27/2002
St. Paul Pioneer Press (MN)


1A
(c) Copyright 2002, St Paul Pioneer Press. All Rights Reserved.



The urban legend of mountain lions lurking near populated areas is shedding its mythology and becoming verified fact. Images of a cougar captured on film earlier this month show at least one wandering the Minnesota River Valley in Savage.
Kerry Kammann, an employee at Cargill's grain elevator in Savage, heard rumors of a mountain lion sighting earlier this month. The rumor received more fuel the morning of April 9, when Kammann and another employee found cougar tracks and a deer's carcass in freshly fallen snow near the elevator.


The deer "was roughed up pretty good," Kammann said. "There were puncture marks and clamping on the throat. It looked like they had a pretty good tussle."
He and his co-workers talked about it for the rest of the day. "The cougar hadn't feasted on (the deer) yet," he said. It seemed he had killed it early in the morning and hadn't had the opportunity to feed on it."

Kammann, an amateur photographer, impulsively decided that same day to buy a camera with an infrared motion detector. The purchase would prove his theory about the cat's unfinished business. The 51-year-old utility man for Cargill is still excited he was able to get the shots.

"We've heard about one lion over here, and one over in the western suburbs," he said Friday. "But you know, nobody's ever got pictures."

Kammann put the camera, which takes flash photos when its motion detector is tripped, in a tree about 10 feet from the deer. The next morning he returned to find that the camera had snapped a few shots. He recorded shots of the cougar that night and the next two nights. The camera's clock mechanism indicated the shots were taken between 8 and 10 p.m., usually at about 10- to 20-minute intervals. He thinks that may indicate that the flash momentarily frightened the cat.

The cougar photos have been the talk of Cargill's Savage facilities this month, Kammann said, and the state's Department of Natural Resources was notified. Con Christianson, a specialist on fur-bearing animals for the DNR, said there aren't easy answers about what to do with a verified cougar sighting.

"I wouldn't say it's dangerous. I wouldn't say it isn't," he said. There's no definitive way to tell if the animal is wild or an escaped pet, he added, which would change the way it relates to humans.

Two incidents in the same week Kammann took his photos indicate how the cat responds to people. Early one morning, Dan Marquardt, who works at the nearby Cargill fertilizer plant, was driving a truck on a dike behind the plant and spotted the cougar lying in the snow. "It stared at us for three or four minutes and then it got up" and ran away, he said. Another worker spotted the cougar the next morning when it also ran away.

Christianson said a range of opinions will likely surface on what to do about the cat. "Some people would like to have it removed. Some would say leave it alone completely," and there will probably be variations in between, he added. But even trapping the cat alive brings complications. "If you live trap it where do you take it?" he said. "No one's asking for it to be brought to their area."

Christianson also cautioned any would-be hunters pondering a trip to the river valley: Cougars are protected animals in Minnesota and it's against the law to trap or hunt them.

He added that Kammann's photography is the "first well-substantiated sighting that we've seen." Over the years the DNR has received reports of cougars in the metro area, from Anoka to Washington County and the Minnesota River Valley, he said. But the DNR knows of no breeding population of mountain lions in the state.

Knowing where the Savage cougar came from or where it's going would be hard to determine, he added. The animals roam wide areas and "30 miles is nothing to a critter like this," he said.

Kelly Keeler of Bloomington, who frequently runs on the trails on the north side of the river valley, said she had heard rumors of mountain lions in the area before. She hadn't given it much thought, though.

On nice days runners and mountain bikers are on the trails, including routes on the river's south side. "But it's not heavily trafficked by any means," she said.

Word of the cougar sighting in Savage has Keeler's attention but it doesn't have her worried. "I'd be nervous to go in the dark by myself... Not because of wildlife but because of people," she said. As for the cougar, she added, "I think it would be kind of cool to see it, but I'll be a little more wary."

CAT ENCOUNTERS

Cougar attacks on humans are relatively rare. Government agencies reported 55 attacks throughout North America in the 1990s, seven of them fatal.

The most recent fatal attack occurred in Alberta, Canada, in January 2001, when a cougar stalked and killed a 30-year-old female cross-country skier in Banff National Park.

Some safety tips for avoiding trouble with cougars, from the National Park Service:

• Hike in small groups rather than alone. Runners are at higher risk.

• Make enough noise to keep from surprising a cougar.

• Keep children under close control, preferably in view just ahead of you.

• Stay away from dead animals.