Distinctly Montana Magazine

D I S T I N C T LY M O N TA N A • W I N T E R 2 0 1 9 28 THEY ARE NATURALLY RARE BEASTS, OFTEN RECOGNIZED AS A SYMBOL OF WILDERNESS FOR THE REMOTE PLACES IN WHICH THEY LIVE. Marvel at a Wolverine's strength! www.distinctlymontana.com/wolverine191 DISTINCTLY MONTANA | DIGITAL Wolverine in Pintler Range slowly began to recolonize historic ranges and are now widespread in northcentral Washington, north and central Idaho, western Montana, and northwestern Wyoming, though they have yet to move back to California, Colorado, and the Great Lakes states. Much of what is known about the wolverine is the result of many years of sometimes vexing research. Kimberly Heinemeyer, based in Bozeman, is a lead conservation scientist for Round River Conser- vation Studies. Having participated in wolverine captures and many remote camera studies, she says in a series where thousands of photos are captured, perhaps only a handful will include wolverines. "You'd better get pretty excited for every success you have," she said. Capturing a wolverine on camera is one thing. Capturing a wolverine in a trap for purposes such as GPS collaring can be something else entirely. Researchers take advantage of Golo golo's scavenging nature in the winter and bait them into traps designed to look like holes in the snow. Due to their leery nature and the strength of a wolverine's jaws, traps are made of wood, built on-site before it snows, and resemble mini-log cabins, Heinemeyer said. Once trapped, remote sensors send a signal to the researchers. Specifically, Heinemeyer has used GPS tracking to look at the impacts of backcountry winter recreation on wolverine range in the Teton, Centennial, and Henry mountains of the Greater Yellow- stone ecosystem. She's found that both snowmobiles and skiing can disrupt wolverines, further limiting their remote range. In addition to GPS tracking, researchers are identifying individ- uals with the help of DNA analysis and biometrics—the measure- ment and statistical analysis of unique physical characteristics. Montana wildlife photographer and artist Kalon Baughan has worked on this latter strategy as a field technician for the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative as a way of giving back, he says. He's photographed a number of individuals many years in a row and is helping to develop noninvasive strategies that can improve the way researchers monitor wolverines. By placing bait on a wooden stand situated in front of a remotely triggered camera, Baughan is able to photograph wolverines stand- ing upright on two legs, allowing him to tell if a female is lactating, and also identify the individual based on unique throat-patch fur patterns, which biologists have found to resemble human finger- prints. is strategy has been confirmed by DNA from hair samples captured by brushes mounted to the bait stand. For Baughan, the most important aspect of this research is the ability to tell if a female is reproducing, as it provides critical infor- mation about how the population is doing. "You can't get that infor- mation through any other methodology that I'm aware of," he said. Bob Inman, the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks Furbearer Coordinator, estimates there are between 250 and 300 wolverines in the lower 48, a number the biologist says he wouldn't expect to ever be much higher. "at's just the way they live and exist," he said. "ey're like a needle in a haystack." In 2016, the states of Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Wyo- ming launched an unprecedented monitoring program through a partnership with state universities, as well as the Northern Arapaho, Eastern Shoshone, and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai tribes. Called the Western States Wolverine Conservation Program, this initiative looks at wolverines as an entire population and main- tains the conservation goals to connect, restore and monitor. "Because they live in high elevation areas, they need to disperse out of the mountain range they were born in, so they disperse

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