ESCANABA - Reports of a cougar roaming the outskirts of Escanaba have been received recently by Escanaba Public Safety and the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

"The last couple weeks we've received several sightings in the area," said Bill Rollo, a DNR wildlife technician at the Escanaba office. "We have yet to get any physical evidence of a mountain lion being there."

The most recent sighting called in to public safety was shortly before midnight Monday, Capt. Al O'Dell. The few reports that were received involved sightings near the Bishop Noa Home and OSF St. Francis Hospital, O'Dell said.

Rollo said this area on the edge of town, where there is a lot of brush and woods, is a good place to find animals, including deer, coyote and bear, and there is a family of red foxes living there. Last year, a wolf was sighted farther north behind Walmart, O'Dell said.

"It is possible to have a mountain lion in the Upper Peninsula," Rollo said.

Two sets of cougar tracks were found last year in southwest Delta County and east Delta County.

Physical features of a cougar are a white facial mask and a long tail with a black tip, Rollo said.

"They're a large animal, almost the size of a deer. Their tracks are absolutely huge," Rollo said, adding the chance of seeing a cougar would be a "jaw dropper."

Cougars are large predatory animals that prey mainly on deer, Rollo said. Mountain lions are also secretive animals that usually live in a 60-square-mile territory. Transient cougars moving through an area have been tracked with radio collars in the western U.S., with some traveling up to 700 miles, he added.

"It's pretty hard to gather any physical evidence of a cougar. It would be great to have a photo of one," Rollo said. "But seeing a cougar is like finding a needle in a haystack."