For the first time in more than 100 years, evidence of cougars reproducing in Minnesota was documented in video captured by the University of Minnesota’s Voyageurs Wolf Project (youtu.be/7EL1FRB11DU). The videos, shared with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources by the project researchers, show a female cougar with three large kittens.
The high-quality video shows the kittens up close and feeding south of Voyageurs National Park in northern Minnesota. 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. 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.
“Looking at the footage was and still is surreal. We never anticipated seeing four cougars together in northern Minnesota,” said Thomas Gable, project lead of the Voyageurs Wolf Project. “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.”
