Glacier hopes to get a better count of resident wolverines

Biologists in Glacier National Park this winter are looking to build on the information gathered during a 2016 study as they once again measure the distribution of wolverines with the help of funding from the Glacier National Park Conservancy.

Along with scientists from seven other states, the park’s biologists are using scent pumps and bait stations to attract the animals in the hopes of collecting hair samples and trap camera images to determine which areas are home to wolverines.

While the overall study uses a grid made up of 15 square kilometer cells to gather occupancy information, Glacier Park biologist John Waller plans to use a smaller grid to help better determine the population of wolverines inside the park.

“The big, multi-state cell will tell us occupancy, but what I am interested in is abundance,” Waller said. “If we can get individual ID off the DNA from the hair samples, then we can use that data to estimate population in an area.”

The largest member of the weasel family known for their powerful jaws and sharp claws, wolverines prefer subalpine fir forests in isolated, remote areas with ample spring snow cover, making Glacier National Park and the surrounding wilderness a near perfect habitat. With 40 to 50 of the animals believed to occupy the Glacier National Park and Bob Marshall Wilderness complex, northwest Montana is thought to have the most dense population of wolverines in the Lower 48 states.

“It’s just such a great habitat for them here. It’s cold. It’s mountainous. It’s relatively free from disturbance. The wolverine population also seems to be really tied to mountain goats, and we have a lot of them here,” Waller said. “They take advantage of that food source as well as marmots. There seems to be a lot of food available for them here that you don’t really find in a lot of other places in the Lower 48 states.”

With the help of volunteers, Waller and his team of two paid park employees have already placed bait stations at 30 of the study’s 34 collection points inside the park so far this winter, but the group has faced some unforeseen obstacles.

“It’s been challenging this year, for sure,” Waller said. “For example, I did the two sites in Goat Haunt in a day trip in 2016. It was a long day, but it was doable. This year, Covid kept us from just driving across the border, so what was a day trip suddenly became a three or four day expedition. We also had trouble with all of the strong winds we had this fall. I had a crew that was trying to get down in Nyack and it took them 14 hours.”

According to Waller, the collection stations need to be set up as soon as possible, as they need to be retrieved before bears begin emerging from hibernation in March and interfering with the bait.

“We are trying to recruit as many people who can to go out and help, but that is another challenge,” he said. “We got going a little late and by the time we were ready, the holiday season was here and it was tough to find volunteers. We have some starting to filter in now, though.”

With an estimated population of just 300 in the continental U.S., wolverines are a rare sight, but are not currently listed as an endangered species.

“Wolverines appear to be pretty widely distributed and they are turning up in some interesting places, like North Dakota and Colorado. There was a time up until the 1960s when predators were poisoned pretty extensively across the West. That really hit the scavengers hard and I think it hit the wolverines pretty hard as well, but they are coming back from,” Waller said. “Wolverines actually seem to be doing pretty well. They are a cold-adapted species, so there is a lot of concern about climate change. We are pretty confident they will always do okay here because our winters in the park are so cold. There is concern in other parts of their range, though.”

Those looking to volunteer can contact the program via email at glaciergulo2022@gmail.com