The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service describes the elusive, solitary, feline known as the Eastern Cougar (Felis concolor couguar) as follows:

Ghost cat. Catamount. Puma. Painter. Panther. Mountain lion. Cougar. The many names given the nation's largest cat convey the mystery surrounding this solitary hunter. But the variety of names also demonstrates the cougar's original distribution across the North American continent and from southern Canada to the tip of South America. ...Although generally presumed extinct in the wild, eastern cougars remain protected by the Endangered Species Act. Eastern cougars historically ranged from Michigan, southern Ontario, eastern Canada and Maine south to South Carolina and west across Tennessee. At one time, they lived in every Eastern state
in a variety of habitats including coastal marshes, mountains and forests.

The GLRC's Bob Allen reports:

Researchers say confirmed evidence of cougars in the Midwest has increased considerably over the last fifteen years, and the number of unconfirmed sightings by the public ranges into the hundreds. But so far, scientists say, the big cats have not settled in the region.

Read or listen to COUGARS PAW THEIR WAY EAST

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Michigan Wildlife Convervancy, Living with Cougars in Michigan
Save The Cougar, The Michigan Cougar Awareness Effort