Tuesday, March 25, 2008

Update 4-4: Wild Wolverines in California

Updated below

Wow. A U.S. Forest Service automatic camera meant to photograph martens has now taken three photos of a wolverine near Lake Tahoe. They haven't been seen - conclusively - in the wild in the Sierras since the 1920s. (Via)

I've always been fascinatd with wolverines, since my Wild Kingdom days and the tales of their ferociousness. Just for that reason I can gleefully say that I came face to shoes with one - within ten feet I'd say - while walking the tundra above Chignik Bay while working in a cannery there in the 1980s. I didn't see him long; I went one way and he the other in a large hurry. Wished I'd just stood and watched him - but those stories...

Check out this video: two wolves; one wolverine; one deer carcass. (And a guy in head-to-toe white in the snow nearby.)



Update, 4/4: Calif. to expand wolverine search.

Also: Genetic tests on scat show that spotted wolverines are not descended from last known natives (gone 1922), but from a group that ranges the Rockies from Colorado up into Canada and into Alaska.

Digg!

3 comments:

Mark Prime (tpm/Confession Zero) said...

Sweet video. That ending shot of the wolf thinking better of his attack and jumping over the viscious jaws of the wolverine was great.

LT said...

Yeah, I love that. It almost seemed playful on the wolverine's part. But it wasn't.

Bpaul said...

I'm excited about the wolverine reports. And that video is badass -- love the bad word usage in the beginning too, classic.