They’re few and far between locally, but they are out there.

A trail camera near Friberg Township in Otter Tail County (western Minnesota) captured an image of cougar (mountain lion), which Department of Natural Resources personnel suspect may have been traveling from the Black Hills in South Dakota.

“This is the first (cougar) verified in Otter Tail County,” said DNR Area Wildlife Supervisor Don Schultz, who has seen the photo and has visited the location where the photo was taken.

Jeanine Vorland, DNR area wildlife manager in Owatonna, said she agrees a cougar in that area likely came from the Black Hills. She also mentioned the DNR suspects some cougars move down the Minnesota-Dakotas border from Canada.

Earlier this spring, two separate residences west of Austin reported cougar attacks on horses; however, the DNR could not confirm the work of a big cat. In one attack an adult horse was mauled and received multiple scars and a swollen ankle. In the latter, a five-day-old foal appeared to have been killed by a large animal and had a hole in its neck.

Vorland said since those two incidents there have been one or two more cougar sightings reported to her office, but officials determined they were dogs after they identified nearby tracks.

— The Fergus Falls Journal contributed to this report.