Three Cougar Kittens Caught on Camera in Minnesota for the First Time in 100 Years

A set of trail cameras in northern Minnesota recently captured something researchers hadn’t documented in over a century: a wild cougar raising three kittens. The footage shows the animals feeding and interacting at a deer carcass, providing the first sign that cougars may be breeding in the state again.

The videos were recorded by researchers with the Voyageurs Wolf Project and shared with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Based on their size and behavior, biologists estimate the kittens are about 7 to 9 months old, meaning they were likely born last fall.

“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 a press release. “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.”

How Researchers Captured a Cougar Family in Minnesota on Camera

The Voyageurs Wolf Project uses hundreds of trail cameras across northeastern Minnesota to study wolves and the broader ecosystem. Those cameras have picked up lone cougars — eight times since 2023 — but never kittens.

In this case, researchers placed cameras near a GPS-collared deer they suspected had been killed by a cougar. When they reviewed the footage, they found not just a single animal, but a full family returning to feed.

The sighting also raises questions about how cougars might fit into Minnesota’s ecosystem if they begin to establish a population. That will depend on factors like how many cougars the landscape can support and how prey populations change over time. In areas where the two species overlap, wolves often dominate due to their pack structure, sometimes displacing cougars from kills or shaping where they can live.

“Cougars are tough, stealthy, capable of capturing diverse prey, and can climb trees to avoid wolves (plenty of trees in northern MN). Though less likely, cougars have been documented to kill wolves as well. As out west, I suspect coexistence could occur here, but with wolves remaining much more abundant,” John Erb, research biologist with the Minnesota DNR, told Discover.

Read More: Watch a Mischievous Wolf Pup Run Off with a Park Sign In Yellowstone National Park

Why This Sighting Matters for Cougars in the Midwest

Cougars were once native to Minnesota before becoming locally extinct. In recent decades, sightings have become more common across the Midwest, though most have been traced to males traveling long distances from western states.

Cougars can travel more than 40 miles in a single day, and animals documented in Minnesota are typically transient, moving in from states like South Dakota, North Dakota, and Nebraska.

From 2004 through early 2026, about 180 suspected cougar detections have been recorded in Minnesota, according to the Minnesota DNR, though many likely involve the same animal appearing in different places.

Additionally, misidentification is frequent as animals like bobcats, coyotes, and even domestic dogs are sometimes mistaken for cougars.

What Could Happen Next for Minnesota’s Cougar Population

It’s still unclear whether this marks the start of a stable cougar population in Minnesota. Young cougars face a range of challenges, especially in areas where the species has not yet established itself.

“Possible risk factors based on other cougar studies include being killed by wolves (even potentially black bears), starvation, infanticide (killed by male cougar to reduce competition or encourage a female to breed), and several types of human-caused mortality (vehicles, illegally killed, killed due to concerns about public safety). In Minnesota, perhaps half or more of all wolf pups do not make it to adulthood, I suspect (but don’t know) that it may be similar for cougars,” Erb shared with Discover.

Read More: Red Fox Caught on Camera Preying on a Wolf Pup in First-Ever Video-Documented Case

Article Sources

Our writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:

• This article references information from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources: Cougars in Minnesota