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REPORTED June 17th 2006 to www.savethecougar.org
Detective reports mountain lion encounter
Article by Trace Christenson
The Battle Creek Enquirer
Battle Creek police today are warning residents in the southwest section of the city that a mountain lion might be loose.
The department issued a warning after a police sergeant this week saw what he believed was a mountain lion, according to Cmdr. Jackie Hampton.
The warning was issued two weeks after more than 125 people gathered at Lakeview High School and heard the director of the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy say that cougars, another name for mountain lions, are likely living and breeding in the state.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have said there is no physical evidence that mountain lions are living in Michigan and have dismissed eyewitness accounts as sincere but wrong.
Mike DeCapita of Fish and Wildlife in Lansing, said recently that no physical evidence has been discovered showing cougars are in the state. And he argued that if the animals were in Michigan, some would be hit by cars or killed by hunters.
"But in Michigan with 10 million people, no dead cougars have turned up in 100 years," he said.
Hampton said Thursday that he issued the warning for residents to be cautious and notified the DNR after Detective Sgt. Todd Madsen and his family reported seeing a big cat and two cubs near their home on Gethings Road.
"We feel it is our responsibility to inform the public," Hampton said. "There have been a lot of allegations that cougars are around, and this is a confirmation.
"There is not a question in my mind," Hampton said. "When I have an officer that said they observed something, I have no reason to doubt it. It is not a question of is this out there, but (a question) of what is going to be done about it."
Madsen said his wife, Christy, their daughter, 11, and son, 8, along with another woman and her two children, saw the cubs playing on a brush pile in a field behind the Madsen house about 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Madsen said the women and children watched the cubs for a half hour before he arrived home.
He said he went into a thicket near a swamp behind his house about 9 p.m. with a flashlight when he realized a large animal was crouched in the thick brush.
"It hunkered down, and I got within 10 feet and was shining my light," he said. "It wasn't a coyote, and a deer wouldn't let you get that close. I was walking up there, and it just exploded out of the thicket. It was low to the ground and in the thick stuff, and I didn't get a 100 percent good look at it.
"It was good sized, and it was fast, and it was close," Madsen said.
He said Thursday that he believes the animal was an adult mountain lion.
"I totally believe it," he said.
Madsen said his wife reported seeing a cougar in a roadside ditch in 2005 in the same area while she was driving a school bus. Several other residents have reported seeing a big cat.
"I am concerned about the kids," Madsen said. "People have been sighting it once every two months, but now it is almost daily."
Trace Christenson covers crime and courts. He can be reached at 966-0685 or tchrist@battlecr.gannett.com .
Originally published June 9, 2006
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