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Contents
Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………………..1
Safety Consideration…………………………………………………..……………………...……..2
Camera Trap Site Selection-General Location…………………………………………….2
Preparation for the Field…….…………………………………………………………………….3
Camera and DNA Trap Set types..………………………………………………………………4
Managing Multiple Camera traps in a general area……………………………………10
References………………………………………………………………………………………………10
Appendix 1: Wolverine tracks, scat, and sign…………………………………………….11
Appendix 2: Field team equipment list……………………………………………..………16
Introduction
Once shot on sight, trapped and poisoned as vermin, wolverines were thought to be locally extinct
in Washington by the 1930s. But in recent years Gulo gulo, a member of the weasel family the size of
a small Labrador retriever, has been making a comeback in the North Cascades under state
protections from hunting and deliberate trapping. Genetic data from "hair snares" has linked
Washington's resurgent population to wolverines in Canada.
Today biologists believe Washington's North Cascades wolverine population is estimated to be less
then 40 animals (Inman 2013), with only around 300 wolverines remaining across the lower 48
states (USFS 2013). A lone wolverine was also documented north of Mount Adams and in the Goat
Rocks Wilderness area repeatedly between 2009 and 2012, and a separate animal was documented
in 2016 (CCP 2016), but no wolverine population has been confirmed in Washington south of I-90.
Though wolverines are renowned for being bold and ferocious, they are primarily carnivorous
scavengers, feasting on a wide variety of foods, including carrion from winter-killed deer, elk and
mountain goats. They will also hunt small mammals, including pikas, marmots, ground squirrels,
porcupines and snowshoe hares, as well as eat bugs, berries, eggs and roots. Wolverines are
generally extremely wary of people and do not pose a risk to hikers or backcountry travelers.
Though they're making a comeback in our region, these elusive creatures have slow reproductive
rates and are highly dependent on protected mountain habitats, large wild territories, and a deep
snowpack that persists well into the spring for their breeding dens. While they occupy an important
niche in the mountain ecosystem, wolverine populations are slow to recover from threatened levels,
and are notoriously difficult to study.
There are several goals of CWMP's wolverine camera trapping and genetic sample collections for
wolverines. With the current distribution of wolverines not clearly defined in the region, CWMP
deploys camera traps in areas where the current presence of a wolverine population is unknown to
