[drm]

https://www.nps.gov/mora/learn/news/second-family-of-wolverines-documented-at-mount-rainier-national-park.htm News Release Date: August 24, 2021 Contact: Mount Rainier National Park Media Information Line, 360-569-6510 Contact: Jocelyn Akins, Cascades Carnivore Project, 541-399-6348 Mount Rainier National Park and Cascades Carnivore Project are pleased to confirm a second litter of wolverine offspring (called kits) has been born in the park. This is only the third wolverine family documented in Washington’s South Cascades in a century and the second family documented in Mount Rainier National Park. Researchers retrieved photographs and video from cameras set in a remote area of the park where they believed a female wolverine likely denned in 2020. They discovered this wolverine with her two young kits while visiting the area during June 2021. The study is a collaboration between Mount Rainier National Park, Cascades Carnivore Project, and the United States Forest Service to document the natural recolonization of wolverines into southern Washington and improve scientists’ understanding of how climate change threatens this rare and elusive carnivore. “It’s great news to learn that we have our second documented wolverine litter in the park,” said Mount Rainier National Park Superintendent Greg Dudgeon. “It helps us confirm that the park’s wilderness is excellent habitat for wolverines, and that protection of these wild areas is important to the success of many species of wildlife." “Wolverines returning to and reproducing in their historical range is huge for wolverine conservation,” said Jocelyn Akins, founder of Cascades Carnivore Project. “However, there are very few wolverines in Washington. Globally, wolverines face new potential threats from climate change and increased recreation in wilderness areas.” Akins stated “In Washington, connectivity, particularly across I-90 is key to healthy wolverine populations. ”This female wolverine was first detected at Mount Rainier National Park in late 2019 and is only the second female wolverine documented in Washington’s South Cascades in modern times. Her DNA, from hair samples collected at several wolverine monitoring stations, confirmed she is part of the recovering wolverine population in Washington and that she did not disperse from a neighboring state. Wolverines are native to Washington’s Cascade Range but are believed to have been extirpated by the 1920s, most likely due to unregulated trapping, shooting, and poisoning associated with predator control efforts. Individual wolverines moved south out of Canada to recolonize the North Cascades. Surveys by a collaborative group of researchers for more than 20 years have documented wolverines reoccupying their former habitat throughout the Cascades. For more information on Mount Rainier National Park, please visit www.nps.gov/mora. To learn more about Cascades Carnivore Project and their opportunities for community scientists to participate in carnivore conservation throughout the Cascade Range in the field and from home, please visit www.cascadescarnivore.org.

[Ski]

cool. probably going to require a much longer recovery time (for the population to rebound and stabilize) than for the fisher.

[gb]

How cool is that. From documentaries wolverines seem to be pretty amazing animals with a ton of personality.

[puzzlr]

That's good news. We ran across one of Cascades Carnivore's trail cameras on a cross country route near Rainier last year.

Trail Cam (no metadata / GPS in this photo)

There was a note next to it: PLEASE DO NOT DISTURB. This is a temporary motion-activated camera deployed by the CASCADES CARNIVORE PROJECT in collaboration with the UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE and the NATIONAL PARK SERVICE to study RARE CARNIVORES that might use this trail, such as WOLVERINE, CASCADE RED FOX, CANADA LYNX, and PACIFIC MARTEN. All human photos will be deleted. Please direct your feedback and REPORT YOUR CARNIVORE sightings at www.cascadescarnivore.org. Thank you!

[timberghost]

Heard of a guy seeing 2 in GPW chasing each other around.

[Exmoor]

Might have been me? I spooked a pair hunting in a snowfield in GP meadows in 2018. I believe it was a mom and young. It ended up as an Everett Herald article.

There's a more recent spring trip report from that same area with footprints, but I've been back every summer and haven't come across them again, sadly.

[ozzy]

Hell yeah...that's so badass!! When we climbed Bedal last year we came across some wolverine tracks! So cool, they were probably no more than an hour old! It would be a once in a lifetime to actually see one, cheers!

[cdestroyer]

wow. that is great news. wolverines are a really smart if tough as nails animal. I recall seeing a photo of a wolverine with its jaws clamped on the nose of a large grizzly bear, both were dead laying in water. the griz killed the wolverine and the wolverine drowned the griz.

[Slim]

I bet this has helped .... https://i90wildlifebridges.org/

[Eric Hansen]

Very cool! I saw one from the west ridge of Mt. Siyeh in Glacier NP years back. I was looking down from a clifftop and the wolverine (back markings clear) was two hundred feet below.

[Exmoor]

Sounds like Wolverine populations are doing pretty well in the Glacier Peak Wilderness: https://nwsportsmanmag.com/washington-deer-hunter-describes-rare-run-in-with-3-wolverines/ Wish they'd give a little more specific location than the GPW, but I suppose Wolverine's range is so large it kind of doesn't matter.

[jinx'sboy]

I cant recall the exact particulars, now….but I talked with FS biologists doing some of the first wolverine trapping in the State. This would’ve been about 2000-5, starting up at Harts Pass. I remembered they had one individual that had been trapped and tagged, there. And then was trapped up in BC in Manning Park, off BC Hwy 3, in something like 5 or 6 days later. Those guys flat get around!

[cdestroyer]

updating and keeping sightings listing active: Wolverine was sighted in butte montana early may passing thru a cemetary. photo from montana standard

[HikingBex]

Video of a wolverine in MRNP from twitter: https://twitter.com/MattHagen/status/1545884353216991234 Very cool to see - maybe someone more knowledgeable than me can infer where it was in the park based on the peaks in the background

[bk]

Based on the text in the tweet, it was Pebble Creek....just above Paradise. PeakFinder app. seems to sort of support that. Dotted line is Google's Pebble Creek trail:

Per shadows...maybe looking a bit southwest....in a very early morning, height-of-summer, early sunrise, with sun rising out of the northeast.