The Gulo gulo gets a safety net.
Wolverine news!
Once upon a dreadful time, I worked for the Helena National Forest, and had the job of being the first person people interacted with. Unfortunately people treated me as the proxy for the agency, which meant a lot of anger, harassment, and assumptions that because I was a woman I knew nothing about everything. I disappeared into reading scientific articles, maps, and everything I’d digitized for my job. Many of these works were academic theses from biologists, and one about wolverines stayed with me, because it opened with this sentence from a poem, “For the Last Wolverine”, by James Dickey (of Deliverance fame):
Lord, let me die, but not die out.
(I don’t personally find the poem very good but I love that this wildlife biologist was also reading poetry. Sadly I can’t find the actual thesis that gave me this nugget. I am a sucker for good openings to any academic work.)
I became entranced learning about these amazing animals, with their special back molars that are twisted 90 degrees to allow them to eat flesh that is frozen solid. Wolverines are, like vultures, are one of nature’s recyclers, feeding on found frozen carcasses. They are not passive creatures though, and their ability to defend themselves and go after animals much larger than them is legend. Their sturdy bodies, thick fur, and ability to survive in some of the roughest territory in America is remarkable. (They’re also cousins of the very cool, very scary Giant otter that lives in the Pantanal in Brazil and the Amazon. They’re called ariranhas in Brazil, and they’re basically massive water dragons. We love a big mustelid!)
Wolverines are extremely secretive. They go up to high altitudes where there’s heavy, stable snowpack at least one meter deep to dig their dens, have their kits, and wean them. However, snowpack in the Rockies has been unstable for years now because of climate change, and this threatens the wolverine’s ability to raise their young. In addition, mothers will abandon their dens if they are disturbed enough by humans. With encroachment and resource extraction like timber sales going deeper, higher, and more frequently into these places, wolverines face more threats than ever.
Their new label as “Threatened”, however, has a loophole. There will be no punishment for “incidental trapping.” The wolverine doesn’t know that a leg snare trap is not meant for it. While my home state of Montana banned trapping of wolverines in 2012, five wolverines were reported to be caught in traps between 2012 and 2017 (via an FWP paper), and of those five, three died. When you have an estimated population of only 300 in the entire lower 48 states, any human-caused mortality is hugely detrimental. (I personally think trapping is cruel to begin with.) When you factor in habitat fracturing and genetic diversity issues due to roads (and vehicle mortalities as a result), encroachment on territory, climate change, their need for a massive range for finding food, etc. and you allow incidental trapping, all together it doesn’t sound great for the wolverine even if it is now on the docket as Threatened.
What this status will hopefully spur is more long-term studies. We don’t have a lot of consistent data on these amazing animals. They’re not money makers like elk and deer, they don’t have the charisma and connection of wolves, the power of grizzly bears, or the cuteness of otters. They’re so secretive that not many people get to encounter them in the first place. Wolverines occupy a more distant place in the wildlife landscape imagination. Which, they shouldn’t. They’re scrappy, tireless, and fascinating. Look at this wolverine caught on a wildlife cam trying to access food in a trap! (The wires are to grab hair from each wolverine that visits for studying. Image from the awesome folks at Wolverine Watch in Canada.)
The estimate for their population in the lower 48 stands at about 300 but that’s not based on a lot of recent information. Rather, that estimate is pieced together by different federal and state agencies like Fish Wildlife and Parks, the USDA Forest Service, university-funded studies and theses, and data from non-profits that do wildlife monitoring like Swan Valley Connections in Montana. Hopefully, with their new status, we can find out more about wolverines and maybe even make a push for our Canadian neighbors to ban trapping and get them protected as well. (Before trapping was banned, a 2007 study in Western Montana found that it was the number one cause of mortality for wolverines that didn’t reside in protected spaces like Glacier National Park.)
A couple of years ago I found out that we have wolverines on the Helena National Forest, high up near the Continental Divide. Whenever I’m home and driving up MacDonald Pass, I always think about the wolverines there, and I hope they’re doing okay.
If you love wolverines or want to learn more about them, here are some awesome places doing field work and research worth checking out.
With that, I’ve got tickets to a show at a dive bar downtown (my first live music show in Calgary!). I’m stoked to people watch, listen to some local bands, and see the nightlife a bit. Have a great weekend y’all.