This photo was captured on a trail cam on Nov. 19, 2019, in Ontonagon County and was confirmed as a cougar sighting by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. (Photo courtesy of the DNR)

MARQUETTE — In 1892, a woman left her young child asleep in a wagon while she picked blackberries close by in the small town of Fergus in Saginaw County.

She returned a short time later to a horrific scene: Her child was gone and a pool of blood lay in its place.

That story, first reported by the Crawford Avalanche, contains statements from eyewitnesses claiming to have seen a panther-like animal in the area.

That story and others like it make up the heart of a new book, “Silent Springs the Panther: Historic Accounts of Michigan Big Cat Attacks” (Mission Point Press, $17.95), by Aaron Veselenak.

Michigan panthers, also known as cougars, were thought to be wiped out in the early 1900s, with the last known one reportedly killed by hunters. That narrative began with media outlets claiming it to be the last big cat in Michigan, according to Veselenak, who lives in Ocqueoc Township near Rogers City.

However, a century of unsubstantiated sightings has driven controversy over their presence.

Wildlife officials have since confirmed there are cougars in the state but believe they are likely passing through from elsewhere and say there is no growing, native population in Michigan.

Veselenak’s book combines his love for cougars with stories of encounters drawn from newspapers and historical documents.

While the book may seem to portray these animals in a negative light, Veselenak said attacks are a good way to prove the cougars’ existence while catching the reader’s eye.

“I think that it captivates the people more,” Veselenak said. “I think the large majority of people can read this book and conclude that just because it’s an animal that occasionally — but very rarely — harms people, it is worthy of our love, our respect and our protection.”

He said he doesn’t believe cougars should be regarded with contempt and hatred just because they innately lash out on occasion.

Anybody looking to learn more about the animal should be exposed to all the truths about it, even if some are ugly, he said.

“I think they are genetically programmed to mostly avoid people instinctively, but there’s always going to be exceptions,” he said.

Veselenak was inspired to write the book after reading a 2006 study that provided some of the first scientific evidence that cougars still lived in Michigan.

The study, covered in one of the chapters, was led by Patrick Rusz, who is now retired from the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy in Bath. The conservancy looks to fill research gaps between the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and university experts.

“I didn’t have a long lifetime interest in cougars,” Rusz said. “I was asked to do it by some people that were claiming they saw cougars and were being ridiculed by the DNR and local press.”

Rusz said he thought he was wasting his time when he began the study.

But researchers soon found what they believed to be cougar droppings and contacted a lab, hoping to find hair ingested as the animal groomed itself like other cats do, Rusz said.

The lab told Rusz it could do a genetic analysis.

After confirming that some of the stool samples belonged to cougars, he published his findings in the American Midland Naturalist, a scientific journal published by the University of Notre Dame.

Then he pushed for the DNR and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to change their stance on the existence of cougars in Michigan.

“It left no doubt there are cougars in Michigan and now it’s pretty much accepted,” he said. “But at that time, it started a somewhat bitter controversy.”

“Not that many people were interested in biology or anything, but they sure did like the big fight, so most of the articles done were centered on that dispute we had,” he said.

Other researchers who weren’t involved with the study questioned the results.

A critique published the following year in the same journal agreed that genetic evidence supported a single cougar in the Upper Peninsula’s Delta County.

But the authors said problems with the testing methodology meant other species couldn’t be ruled out as the source of other droppings that Rusz’s study claimed came from additional cougars.

Rusz denies that his study was done incorrectly and stands by the results.

The DNR accepts there are cougars in the state but maintains they’re only present through migration, said Brian Roell, the department’s large carnivore specialist.

“We have not documented any breeding occurring or any young animals or kittens or anything like that in Michigan, and neither has Wisconsin or Minnesota,” Roell said. “These cats are more than likely coming out of the Dakotas.”

The DNR isn’t trying to grow the cougar population, but the species is listed as endangered in Michigan and is illegal to hunt, Roell said.

The DNR has confirmed about 120 cougar sightings since 2000 but consistently receives hoax sightings, he said.

He said that 99.9% of sightings are reported in the Upper Peninsula, and “people still try to hoax us, a lot of times with pictures from other states.”

Running into a cougar is highly unlikely but awareness of the species is still important, said Drew Monks, director of the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy’s Institute for Rare Mammal Studies.

“It’s important that we understand the population of an apex predator, especially because it’s an endangered species, so we are legally obligated to protect this species,” Monks said.

Veselenak said he continues to believe that cougars have always inhabited Michigan, arguing that if even a small fraction of reported cat sightings over the generations were accurate, it would confirm their ongoing presence.

Through his writing, he aims to raise awareness of these elusive cats and advocate for their conservation.

“There’s no reason to eradicate this animal, to hunt them down and kill them because of what they might do,” he said. “Animals are innocent. Their souls, their hearts, their minds are innocent.”

Anna Barnes writes for Great Lakes Echo.