Wolverine surprises North Fork campers

Sandy Ott has seen a lot of interesting animals in her six years as the host at Big Creek Campground - moose, elk, black bears, grizzly bears, beavers and otters, just to name a few. But on Aug. 17, she had the sighting of a lifetime - a wolverine.

The animal was spotted in the campground after a camper's dogs treed it. After giving the campers a talking to about unleashed dogs on the site, Ott got a good look at her first live wolverine. The wolverine later came down the tree and hung around the campground before climbing a cottonwood tree.

Ott called Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists, who also viewed the wolverine and were able to get scat samples and hair samples from the tree bark.

The wolverine came down the cottonwood but was later spotted in a tree close to the river. After that, it apparently left the 15-acre campground.

"It was a memorable thing for me," Ott said. "I've seen pretty much everything up here now."

Ott oversees the North Fork campground from spring to later in the fall. She said the wolverine was likely a young animal - it wasn't very big. One theory is that perhaps it was setting out on its own.

A full-grown wolverine is a formidable beast, with razor sharp claws and a powerful jaw designed to snap bones in two. It would have little difficulty mauling a domestic dog.

Wolverines are rare creatures. The largest member of the weasel family, they're known for their tenacity and ability to live in harsh environments like Glacier National Park, where visitors occasionally see them in the Many Glacier and Logan Pass areas.

Previous studies have estimated the wolverine population in Glacier Park at 45 to 50 animals. They are known to travel great distances for a 35-pound animal. One young male wolverine born in the Park ended up dead in a trap in Libby - about 120 miles away. The Big Creek campground is just outside the Park, across the river from Huckleberry Mountain.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service late last year announced that wolverines should be listed under the Endangered Species Act, but they were "precluded" because other species had more pressing needs.

But this spring, in a legal settlement with environmental groups, wolverines were given a higher priority for listing. A complete analysis of their status in the Lower 48 should be completed by 2013.