iStockphoto / AndreyKrav / twildlife
Mountain lions, or cougars, can be found all throughout North America though they are primarily concentrated on the West Coast. Florida is home to the Florida Panther which is a distinct subspecies of cougar, but for the most part Mountain Lions are found from Texas to the west and north/south between Canada, the US, and Mexico.
So to capture this scene below, the first-ever recorded mountain lion in Minnesota with kittens, is something truly spectacular!
First-Ever Footage Of Mountain Lion With Kittens In Minnesota
For those that are unfamiliar, the Voyageurs Wolf Project is a team that has set up remote trail cameras throughout a remote region of Minnesota to track local gray wolf and timber wolf populations across their packs. They have captured absolutely stunning footage of gray wolves and other wolves throughout the past several years but this is the first time in Minnesota there has been documented footage of a mountain lion with cubs (or kittens).
Check it out:
Not for nothing, that is a LOT of shed hair/fur on the ground in front of the trail camera. The Minnesota DNR’s website and the video’s description states that the mountain lion kittens and the mama were feasting on a dear carcass northeast of Orr in St. Louis County. They claim this is “the first confirmed evidence of cougar production in Minnesota in more than 100 years.” Incredible stuff!
The curious cougar kittens seem to be quite playful and social with one another, true to their nature.
How Common Are Cougars In Minnesota?
It now remains to be seen if this will cause the state of Minnesota to update its mountain lion / cougar population numbers. According to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources “they are rarely seen but occasionally do appear.”
Their database lists 180 “detections” between 2004 and 2026, the time period since they’ve began gathering data. It is near impossible to confirm sightings without video or photographic evidence which complicates the process. They believe that “many of these sightings” the 180 over that span, are sightings of the same animal(s) repeatedly by separate parties.
As rare as these big cats are, with this being the first confirmed evidence of a breeding population in Minnesota in over 100 years, even in California where they are prevalent they are rarely seen. There are an estimated 5,000+ mountain lions in California and the Minnesota DNR states “a person is 1,000 times more likely to be struck by lightning than attacked by a cougar.”
That said, while mountain lion attacks are extremely rare they are not unheard of. A woman in Colorado was killed at the start of the year in the first deadly cougar attack since 1999. Then in February, a mountain lion in California attacked a woman’s dog while they were on a walk together.
Here is that Minnesota mountain lion cub footage via Instagram so you can go smash the ‘follow’ button on the Voyageurs Wolf Project account:
Toss them a follow!