The Michigan Wildlife officials confirmed the presence of a cougar in Clinton County on Thursday, marking the first ever sighting of its kind in the state's Lower Peninsula.

A resident of Bath Township photographed the mountain lion on June 21. The man took a photo from his car after spotting it in his headlights as the cougar was crossing a road near the Rose Lake State Wildlife Area.

The Mountain Lions are an endangered species and they are banned from being hunted in Michigan.

Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) launched a field investigation after receiving the picture on June 26. A team from DNR visited the site and confirmed the animal in the photo was a cougar.

“Even with this verification, questions remain, especially regarding the origins of the animal,” Kevin Swanson, DNR wildlife specialist and a member of the agency’s Cougar Team, said in a release.

“There is no way for us to know if this animal is a dispersing transient from a western state, like cougars that have been genetically tested from the Upper Peninsula, or if this cat was released locally.”

The DNR is encouraging resident of the Lower Peninsula to submit pictures of possible sightings for verification and said landowners near Clinton County may want to place trail cams on their properties.

There have been prior sightings of this wild animal in the region, but the DNR was not able to verify them.

A former deputy sheriff and another resident reported seeing a mountain lion in the  Milford Kensington Park area in Oakland County. But Bobcats are usually found in those areas and people often mistake bobcats for cougars.

The Mountain Lions were native to Michigan but were driven out of the state more than a century ago. Since 2008, there have been just 36 cougar sightings in the state, in the Upper Peninsula.

AMandeep