Every morning, Laura DeJune would hear the quacks from her pet duck.
But when the Battle Creek resident woke up to silence a month ago, she knew something was wrong.
"When I got up, the duck would always hear me," she said. "The first thing I would hear is the duck going 'quack, quack.' Then I saw the mutilated duck."
She found her duck in its pen, neck broken. Blood and feathers covered the floor.
DeJune has seen attacks from other animals over the years but never saw anything similar to what she found. She said she believes a cougar cub is responsible for the attack. Her evidence — a photo of a bloody paw print. She said she's also seen the animals around her property before.
"It wasn't a weasel, and it wasn't a mink," she said. "It ate the duck right to the bone."
Although DeJune is certain cougars are responsible for a number of animal deaths in her area, there's a debate whether there even is a population of cougars in the state.
The Michigan Wildlife Conservancy has researched the presence of Michigan-based cougars and found evidence of the mammals in eight areas, Director Dennis Fijalkowski said. Researchers went to 12 areas, mostly in the Upper Peninsula, that had numerous cougar sightings. There have been cougar sightings in every county in Michigan, he said.
"We're saying there's about 100 adults," he said. "But I'm starting to think that number's conservative. There's five sightings a day from all over the state."
Raymond Rustem, supervisor of the Natural Heritage Unit of the state's Department of Natural Resources, or DNR, said there's not enough evidence to be concerned about a cougar population.
The conservancy and Michigan residents have accused the DNR of not recognizing the presence of cougars in Michigan.
"What we have said is there may be cougars ... but the majority aren't accurate sightings," Rustem said. "All we really get is sightings."
Rustem said hairs examined from a car bumper in Menominee County were proven to be from a cougar, so there may be a couple in the state. But the evidence to the contrary is overwhelming, he said.
Dave Townshend, an employee at MSU's Physical Plant, said he was traveling to work early in the morning and saw a cougar running along Hagadorn Road, north of Jolly Road, in April.
"It was running straight at me on the left side of the ditch," he said. "I wasn't scared. It's not the first time I've seen one. I saw one in the U.P. back in the '80s. They have ears as big as your hand. When you first see it you're like, 'No, there's no way.'"
Fijalkowski said the Michigan cougars' interbreeding habits have caused genetic deformities, like odd coat colors, that contribute to a low survival rate. But he said cats from other states are making their way to Michigan, and the introduction of new genes could lead to a jump in the population.
"We could have too many cougars too fast," he said. "That's what we're worried about."
Fijalkowski said cougars' diets are 70-90 percent whitetail deer, but sometimes they eat other small animals, including dogs and cats.
The Battle Creek Police Department announced a cougar warning to its residents Friday after an officer on the police force spotted the evasive mammal. DeJune is glad someone's taking the initiative to inform the public, but more needs to be done.
"I'm sitting up half the night," she said. "I can't live this way. It's physically killing me."
