"When you see a species like wolverine that needs openness and connected habitat
coming here all on its own, this is the celebration moment. It's the success, the reward,"
said Jen Watkins of Conservation Northwest, a Seattle nonprofit, as she dunked pine‐
branch tips into a bottle of foul‐smelling scent lure. So foul, she packed it on snowshoes
up the Icicle Creek drainage in a double plastic bag, sealed in a kayaker's dry bag, and
handled it only with rubber gloves. "There!" she said, hastily screwing the top on the
bottle, "Now all we need is a visitor!"
Even as wolverines rebound, threats loom in their future, with climate change over the
next 100 years expected to melt out 63 percent of the landscapes where deep snow that
wolverine need to survive persists into May. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday
proposed listing wolverine for protection as a threatened species under the Endangered
Species Act in at least six Western states, including Washington. Any decision to list
would be at least a year away, after an extensive public comment period.
Gulo gulo
Smaller than a Labrador retriever, Gulo gulo, or "the gluttonous glutton," is pound‐for‐
pound among the most ferocious carnivores in Washington, capable of sniffing out
frozen carcasses and tunneling through five feet of snow to crack open bones and tear
apart even frozen carrion. Their powerful jaws and molars are specially adapted to
shear off chunks of rock‐hard flesh and bone.
Wolverines roam Washington's wildest country in its most punishing weather,
devouring miles with a loping stride and cruising over even deep powdery snow with
oversized, snowshoe‐like feet.
Their long, thick, brown‐and‐gold coat sheds frost and is underlaid with a soft
insulating layer of fur that defeats the most brutal cold. Semi‐retractable claws enable
them to climb trees and scrabble up and down rocky slopes.
"They are the superheroes of the animal world," said Shawn Sartorius, a wildlife
biologist based in Helena, Montana, for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. "When you
follow the tracks of these things, you see they are not taking the easy way around; they
will go straight over mountaintops, craggy peaks, the rockiest, steepest, cliffiest place;
they will go right over that in the middle of winter, at night."
John Rohrer, supervisory wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service, Okanogan‐
Wenatchee National Forest based in Winthrop, has been astounded to learn in his work
on Aubry's research team just how much territory wolverines cover, even in winter.
"They live in places that are frozen in suspended animation more than six months a year
and one of the few animals that is not is the wolverine," Rohrer said. "The North
Cascades in winter are pretty hostile to life. Most animals will avoid it in winter or
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CWMP 2012-2013 Winter Field Season Report
