TINA L. SCOTT
EDITOR
Several City of Merrill residents are reporting sightings of a cougar within the City limits on Riverside Avenue according to Rachal Sandas, who lives on Riverside Ave. Sandas said she was standing in her driveway with her children as they waited for the bus nearly two weeks ago when one of her neighbors pulled up and told her another neighbor had seen a cougar in the neighborhood. “She said she wanted to warn me because I have kids,” Sandas said.
“I was concerned for a few days, then figured it had moved on,” she said.
Until Tuesday, Oct. 19. That day, “I was outside in the front yard when I heard strange noises from bushes across the street, right by my mailbox. Close to the dam. At first I thought it was a strange bird I had never heard before, a weird screeching noise,” she said. “By the third time we heard it, we ran inside.”
“I did not at first think it was a cougar,” Sandas said, “because I thought cougars growled like lions, but after looking up cougar screams [online], I am sure that’s what I heard.”
“Later that evening I was on the front porch and saw a cougar dash into the bushes across the street,” she said. The firsthand sighting prompted Sandas to call authorities. “I called the cops,” she said and “They said they couldn’t do anything unless attacked.”
“I want to let people know because cougars can be very dangerous,” Sandas said. “People are always walking down my street, walking dogs, and I feel like they should know. As for me, I feel very nervous, I have a bat with me when my kids and I wait for the bus in the morning, and I will not let them play in the yard right now.”
Sandas said she also called the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR), but the game warden she spoke with “kept trying to convince me it was a bobcat even though that’s not what i saw and heard.”
“He did tell me there was a confirmed cougar sighting in Gleason two weeks ago,” she added. However, “I felt he didn’t take my report seriously.”
“I’m frustrated with whole situation,” Sandas said. She just wants people in the area to be forewarned and on alert for everyone’s safety, she said.
Curt Butler, the WDNR Conservation Warden for the Merrill field station confirms he did “receive a phone call from a Merrill resident who believes they observed a cougar in the city of Merrill.”
Butler said that unfortunately he was unable to substantiate any physical evidence to confirm the presence of a cougar. “The DNR commonly uses photos, trail camera photos, tracks, fur, or other physical evidence to verify a sighting of a large mammal,” he explained.
“The DNR has not received any further information or reports of a cougar sighting in this area,” Butler confirmed.
“A cougar was captured on trail camera on Oct. 3, 2021, in rural Lincoln County near Gleason and was later verified by a DNR biologist,” he added. That incident “is the sixth verified cougar report of 2021 (statewide).”
People who wish to report a cougar or large mammal observation can do so by filling out a “Wisconsin large mammal observation form” available on the DNR website at https://dnr.wi.gov/topic/WildlifeHabitat/MammalObsForm.asp he added.
More information on cougars can also be found on the WDNR website at https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/topic/WildlifeHabitat/cougar.html.