For the first time in more than 100 years, trail camera footage has captured evidence of cougar kittens in Minnesota's Voyageurs National Park.
The videos, taken by the University of Minnesota’s Voyageurs Wolf Project, were shared with the state’s Department of Natural Resources in April of this year. They feature a female cougar feeding three large kittens.
“The Voyageurs Wolf Project has deployed hundreds of trail cameras in northeast Minnesota to help with wolf research. Those cameras have recorded footage of lone cougars eight times since 2023, but none of those cameras had recorded footage of kittens,” a press release from the Minnesota DNR explained.
“The videos of the cougar with kittens were captured by two cameras that researchers placed over a GPS-collared deer they suspected a cougar might have killed.”
Thomas Gable, the project lead for the Voyageurs Wolf Project, decided on a whim to check the cameras, expecting to see a bobcat, which was the animal his team initially believed killed the deer.
He was in for a shock.
“Looking at the footage was and still is surreal. We never anticipated seeing four cougars together in northern Minnesota,” Gable told the Minnesota DNR.
“In total, we captured around four hours of footage of this cougar family at the kill, and it was fascinating to see and hear their interactions — the mother grooming her kittens, the kittens growling and hissing at each other. We feel incredibly fortunate we were able to capture such a wild moment in such detail.”
According to Sierra Club, mountain lions, also called cougars or pumas, used to roam the entire United States but nearly went extinct in most of the country due to deliberate “eradication campaigns” over 100 years ago.
The species has made a comeback in parts of the country, but there hasn’t been a stable population of the cats east of the Dakotas. Some one-off sightings of adult cougars have occurred in Minnesota over the past couple of decades, but this is the first time researchers have proof of breeding in the region.
A 2024 study even predicted only a 30% chance that the species would reproduce in Minnesota in the next 75 years.
“Based on traits observed in the video, we estimate the kittens to be 7-9 months old, so born last fall,” John Erb, research biologist with the Minnesota DNR, said in a statement.
“The only other confirmed kittens in Minnesota turned out to be captive escapees and involved a female with two kittens that showed up and hung around a homeowner’s porch in 2001.”
Because the mother cougar birthed and raised the kittens, experts say it means she’s been in the area for some time and has established a territory.
Gable and his team have also analyzed genetic samples from the family and have a bit more insight into the babies’ backstory, but researchers and officials are eager to learn more.
“Although this is an important starting point for potential population establishment in Minnesota, predicting the future is extremely difficult,” Erb concluded.
“These kittens might not survive, potentially getting killed by wolves, a male cougar, or vehicles. They may also become part of the founding catalyst for a slow but steady increase in numbers. Time will tell, but we are clearly nearing a point where the probability of a self-sustaining population has increased.”
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Featured Image: The Voyageurs Wolf Project/Facebook
