MINNEAPOLIS — A cougar that was struck and killed on an interstate highway in suburban Minneapolis Wednesday was more than likely the same animal captured on home security video sauntering across a driveway earlier this week, a Minnesota wildlife official said.
State Patrol spokesperson Lt. Jill Frankfurth confirms that troopers responded around 2:15 a.m. to reports of a single-vehicle crash near the junction with Theodore Wirth Parkway in Minneapolis. Upon arrival, they found a 53-year-old man had struck the cougar, swerved, and then careened into a concrete barrier.
A video posted on Facebook shows a smashed SUV with a trailer hitched to it on the median of I-394, then pans to the lifeless body of a cougar lying on the shoulder.
Dan Stark, a large carnivore specialist with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, said the cougar that was killed was almost certainly the same one since the animals are exceedingly rare in that area. Until this week, a cougar hadn't been seen in Hennepin County in nearly 20 years.
Stark said the cougar that died had an ear tag placed on it in northwestern Nebraska in 2021, when it was a kitten. He said male cougars sometimes wander off in search of females in areas not dominated by other males.
“It's not the first cougar that wandered from those populations in western states,” Stark said.
Wednesday's incident on I-394 follows the buzz created by a surveillance video posted on Nextdoor showing what appears to be a cougar slinking across a driveway in the Lowry Hill neighborhood of Minneapolis early Monday. The video was posted by resident Robyn Bruggeman, who told KARE 11 she'd be on the lookout.
"On one hand it’s kind of cool! It’s a beautiful animal. On the other hand it’s kind of scary," Bruggeman said. "Knowing it’s around kind of makes us look around before we let our dog in the backyard."
Another neighbor who saw the footage, Dan Bruggeman, said he was shocked to see the cougar on his block.
“There’s a sense of excitement, to have something like that in your neighborhood, but also a sense of concern,” he said.
The Minneapolis Animal Care and Control, along with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) issued a warning about the cougar, advising people in the area to "pay increased attention when outside." City officials added they believe the big cat could be traveling along the Cedar Lake Trail system near Lake of the Isles, as it was also seen near Kenwood Park.
The DNR has cited more than 80 verified cougar occurrences in Minnesota since tracking began around 2007, but seeing one in a densely populated urban area such as Minneapolis is highly unusual, Stark said.
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