I came a cross a “Youtube” video that suggests a cougar in my area. I know the video is old, but I have always wondered if it was really a cougar, as it is hard to tell. I didn’t post this on “Inaturalist” because the video is not my own, so therefore it is not my observation. I would highly appreci…

Depends on your area. Possible or even likely in some places, not so much in others.

I totally forgot to paste the link! I am editing my post right now! So sorry!

This looks like a domestic cat to me. In my experience cougars near people are far more alert.This cat is far more interested in what is near to its feet. Nothing suggests it is a cougar.

I highly doubt it. I don’t believe they are that far south. I lived in the Novi Michigan area for decades hearing the sightings of cougars. However there are cougars in northern Michigan. It took years of sightings ( and scat hunts) before the DNR agreed.

The body proportions and behavior all indicate housecat. I’ve reviewed videos and still photos like this before and it’s interesting how, without good reference points in the image to determine size, they are often assumed to be a much larger cat such as a cougar. Many alleged black panthers in th…

Thank you for the input everyone! I highly appreciate it, as I had no clue before this post. It takes a lot of expertise to notice little hints that it is not a cougar, and I don’t have enough knowledge to tell the difference!

If you’re on facebook you can join track identification group of @beartracker “Animals Don’t Cover Their Tracks”, apparently it’s a very common topic, so there’re many posts with photo comparisons and descriptions, so you can check them out!

Is it a Cougar?

Nature Talk

marina_gorbunova March 20, 2022, 10:15pm 6

That’s clearly a domestic cat, other than size, proportions, length of tail, etc. you can also see red stripes on the tail and it’s doing some cat things.

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Is it a Cougar?

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