Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board Wolverine in the Sierras

In case you haven't heard, I thought this would interest some folks - A wolverine was captured on film by a remote camera.
I've never actually seen one in the wild. Has anyone here ever seen one locally?

Here are two links of the story.

http://www.livescience.com/animals/080306-ap-wolverine-sighting.html

http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1720068,00.html

Very cool. I wonder if they figured out how to break into bear canisters.

Don: Hey, Napoleon. What did you do last summer again?
Napoleon Dynamite: I told you! I spent it with my uncle in Alaska hunting wolverines!
Don: Did you shoot any?
Napoleon Dynamite: Yes, like 50 of 'em! They kept trying to attack my cousins, what the heck would you do in a situation like that?
Don: What kind of gun did you use?
Napoleon Dynamite: A freakin' 12-gauge, what do you think?

I wonder if there are any ligers up there in the Sierras?

I swear I have not been in Tahoe since January... (Go Blue!! UM 1995)

-L

Here's another link:
http://www.sacbee.com/378/story/761071.html

PCT folk - be careful when you go north of Tahoe! These guys don't take no for an answer. Interesting management problem coming up. Is it alone? etc.

Interesting (and sad) that the last known wolverine was said to have been shot in 1922.

That's the same year the last confirmed California Grizzly was shot too wasn't it?

Maybe a Griz will turn up one day...

Talking to my brother the other night, he brought up the wolverine sighting. He said that about 11 years ago, he was on Tioga Pass road east of the pass where it overlooks Lee Vining canyon. He pulled out on one of the turnouts to take pictures, and walked to the edge and looked down into the canyon.

He says he is certain he saw a wolverine -- maybe a thousand feet below. It had the long black fur down to the ground, and the brown mantle across the shoulders. He didn't have time to take a picture -- it disappeared over a ridge of snow.

He says if he had known it was so rare, he might have stayed a long time waiting for it to reappear, and maybe get a picture.

And by the way, they have taken more pictures of the guy up near Tahoe.
Here is the first picture: http://www.fs.fed.us/psw/news/images/080306_wolverine.jpg
And here's a new picture http://www.fs.fed.us/r5/tahoe/news/08_news_releases/images/08_mar_14_wolverine_1_800px.jpg

That's pretty cool! Thanks Steve. I'd love to see one in the wild.

I wonder how many are out there...one of the reasons I always have a camera with me on any hike (goes way back to the days where, inspired by the weekly episodes of "In Search Of" when I thought I'd run into Bigfoot in the Oregon forests...)

Seriously though, it's a shame that the gov't asserts that "the U.S. population is not significant to the viability of the subspecies as a whole". Let's hope they receive some level or protective status. One thing I imagine that would help in this regard is if it was found that this wolverine is part of a population distinct from other U.S. species such as those in Montana/Wyoming.

Be careful what you ask for. Next thing you know, they'll be closing off big sections of forest. Seems to me the wolverine is apparently doing just fine without special protection. Since they are so stealthy, they're almost never seen by humans.

Regarding my brother's sighting, I emailed the DFG and received a reply that they were getting similar information from other people too. They will use the information in the future to decide where to set up more survey sites.

All the press reports quote biologists that none have been seen since 1922 or so. Unfortunately, wildlife biologists have a pretty high standard of proof -- most seem to want either a dead wolverine or a picture. Both Yosemite and Sequoia Kings have pretty trustworthy observations (Sequoia almost 100; Yosemite, I think, around 70). There have been a handful of observations at both parks in the last 15 years. Hard to tell where they're coming from, but I think there's no question they're around.

The Tahoe sighting is exciting because there have been no sightings up there in a very long time. A long-term (10 years??) photo station in the Sonora Pass area has never found one either.

George

> A long-term (10 years??) photo station in the Sonora Pass area has never found one either.

Maybe they should try baiting the station with raw chicken like they are up at Tahoe.

In the late 50s my scout troop was camped at Golden Trout Lake in the southern Sierras. While boulder hopping on the north shore, a wolverine sauntered out beneath my boulder and without even glancing up it walked slowly northward.

He was three-four feet long, about 2.5 feet high at the shoulder, with thick fur.

As a kid, I was an amateur naturalist and could name and identify every north American mammal larger than a squirrel. Absolutely certain it was a wolverine and not a bear, of which I've seen many.

According to the news article, there have been other sightings of wolverines in the southern Sierras.

He's back. Digging up this old post for new news.
Same wolverine seen three years in a row.
USA Today Wolverine News Article

and video on the lumber company's site
SPI Video

Hey, that's great! Maybe I'll see him in a few weeks when I am out in the area!

When I was about 15 or so, I was hiking near the Bristlecone Pines on the White Mountains. I saw these two animals that looked like really big Badgers in a meadow. Like a 15 year old, I figured I would run, chase them and scare them. They both saw me and started running away. Then after a few yards, they stopped, got up high and stood their ground. I backed off as soon as I saw they weren't going anywhere and that if I kept running, I'd only get closer. I ran back to camp as fast as possible!!! I told my mom, those weren't Badgers, they were Wolverines! To this day, I don't know what they were. All I know is that they scared the crap out of me.

In Sept. or Oct of 2007, I met a ranger on the Youngs Lake hike in the high country of Yosemite. He was on foot and mentioned to another hiker that he had seen a wolverine the previous day near Upper Young Lake. He was very enthusiastic and excited.

You can add my sighting of a wolverine at Wallace Lake over Labor Day weekend in Sept 1962. Also one in Colorado near San Luis Peak in August 1981