From the Idaho Panhandle
Inlanders Are Keen on Wolverines
By Cate Huisman, 3-01-11
A fisher finds what was left for wolverines. Photo courtesy Idaho Department of Fish and Game.
An animal usually associated with the distant University of Michigan and a superhero movie has seemingly suddenly assumed popularity in the inland Northwest: Wolverines are medium-size mustelids that are furry and reputedly feisty, definitely not seekers of the limelight, but they appear to have captured it anyway.
These animals are not considered endangered, but conservation groups have petitioned for their listing three times, and the wolverine is now considered a candidate for protection under the Endangered Species Act. Several studies are underway that may help determine whether such a listing is justified.
The Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness spurred some of the local interest when they helped Idaho Fish and Game set up a monitoring site as part of a larger study of wolverines in the West Cabinets. Wolverines require deep snow for dens in which to give birth to their young, and the intrepid skiers/snowshoers of the FSPW traveled on foot into the winter wilderness to set up a motion sensitive camera, gun brushes to snag identifying bits of fur from visiting animals, and bait in the attractive (to wolverines) form of a frozen beaver carcass.
No sooner had the friends gotten their carcass and camera in place than a report came in from wolverine enthusiasts to the west about their excitement over Mattie, a possibly pregnant wolverine trapped (and released after being measured and fitted with a radio collar) at Hart’s Pass in the North Cascades. No doubt this happy possibility helped assuage the loss of Eowyn, trapped and fitted with a radio collar last year near the Twisp River, only to be discovered to have met her end in British Columbia last spring.
Meanwhile, an ecologist and writer in Wyoming has given wolverines their own blog, on which the buzz last month was that young F3, a Montanan wolverine, may have been pregnant. If so, her two white, helpless kits must just about now be snuggling with her in her den under the snow. This is an exciting possibility, as wolverines are slow reproducers—females don’t produce kits until they’ve lived three or four of their ten or so likely years, and thereafter only once every two years. They need deep snow through mid-May for their dens, too, so low snow years and global warming are not conducive to reproduction.
So far the Scotchman Peakers have snagged photos of a flying squirrel, an ermine, and several fat and attractive fishers (or perhaps repeat visits from the same fisher). You can see these photos on their Facebook page.
But no wolverines. Yet. We’ll keep you posted.
Clark Fork watershed residents interested in wolverines can hear about them from Doug Chadwick, author of The Wolverine Way, at one of his series of presentations in Sandpoint March 17 and over in Montana at Trout Creek or Troy on March 18 and 19, respectively.
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Its one thing to take some hair samples from a nonevasive snag. Its another to drug an animal. All this has been done before.
Leave the wolverine alone. They will be here long after mankind is gone, and putting them on the endangered list is ridiculous. Just an excuse to tie up more land for the cc skiers.
Which is precisely why the caption under the photo reads:
"A fisher finds what was left for wolverines. Photo courtesy Idaho Department of Fish and Game."