Detection and Classification of Cougars in Michigan Using Low Copy DNA Sources BRADLEY J. SWANSON 1 Applied Technologies in Conservation Genetics Laboratory, Brooks Hall 227, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, 48858 AND PATRICK J. RUSZ Michigan Wildlife Conservancy, Bath, 48808 ABSTRACT .—Sporadic reports of cougars (Puma concolor) have occurred in Michigan since its official classification as extirpated in the 1930s. We collected 297 scats from 12 areas in Michigan with heavy sighting reports of cougars. Ten scats produced DNA profiles consistent with cougars. One scat was identified as having a North American origin; the other nine scats produced no useable sequences. One pre-Columbian sample, from a Native American burial site; also matched the current North American genotype. Based on the distance between cougar scats, we conclude that there were at least eight cougars in Michigan during the 3 y of this study. The mtDNA sequences also suggest that at least some of the matrilines currently and historically found in Michigan are the same as those found in current and historical western populations. INTRODUCTION There has been a recent resurgance in evaluating the status of the state-listed endangered cougar (Puma concolor) in Michigan due to questions regarding taxonomy of the eastern cougar and recent sighting reports (Evers, 1994). Federal protection of cougars east of the Mississippi River is based on range maps that recognize 15 North American subspecies (Downing, 1981; Hall, 1981). Michigan’s Upper Peninsula is within the former range of Puma concolor shorgeri, a subspecies separated on the basis of 3 19th Century specimens from Wisconsin, Minnesota and Kansas (Jackson, 1955). The Lower Peninsula is within the range of the eastern cougar (P. concolor couguar), classified by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as extinct, although there is a recovery plan for this subspecies (Downing, 1981). Several scientists (Jones, 1964; Bowles, 1975; Lazell, 1981; Scott, 1996) have noted that the original separation into 15 subspecies was based on inadequate sample sizes and questionable dif- ferences in morphology. Furthermore, Culver et al. (2000) found only two different mtDNA sequences in all of North America, extending down through Costa Rica and Panama. These samples included six musuem samples from P. concolor couguar ’s range questioning the validity of the 15 subspecies. The cougar in Michigan has been considered extirpated since the 1930s (Baker, 1983) and few historical specimens exist of cougars known to have been from Michigan. We exam- ined records at Michigan museums and gained access to 1 pre-settlement skull that might yield cougar DNA. The skull was from a Native American burial pit excavated (Foster and Hagge, 1975) in 1966 in Saginaw County in the Lower Peninsula (Fig. 1). Its position in the burial pit, which also included the remains of four children, suggested that the skull was 1 Corresponding author: Telephone: (989) 774 3377; FAX: (989) 774 3462; e-mail: brad.swanson@ cmich.edu 363 Am. Midl. Nat. 155:363–372