A Tale of Two Weasels

A female wolverine lived in Michigan’s “Thumb area” of the Lower Peninsula for at least six years before being found dead this past March.  (See related story below)  Our state’s Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DNRE) incorrectly called it “the first live wolverine documented in the wolverine state,” ignoring a well-documented wolverine shot near Lansing in 1932.  The agency provided mixed messages about its significance.  The DNRE initially moved to protect the animal with an Executive Order; however, wildlife officials also suggested publicly that the wolverine was likely an escaped or released pet.  The agency conducted no research on the Thumb area wolverine, even though the animal stayed mostly on state-managed land.  The only studies done were by local citizens—Jeff Ford, Jason Rosser and Steve Noble—with the help of out-of-state experts.  

All this contrasts sharply with the response of state and federal officials to the discovery of a wolverine in February of 2008 in California’s Tahoe National Forest.  An unexpected photo of a wolverine was taken by a Katie Moriarty, a graduate student at Oregon State University, who was hoping to document pine martens and certain bird species.  

Within a week of the initial photograph, researchers, biologists and volunteers intensified the search for more detections in the same general area, north of Truckee, California.  Dogs trained to identify wolverine scat were used to search the area.  A large grid (approximately 150 square miles) with remote cameras and hair snares was established and monitored.  Ground searches were made looking for wolverine tracks.  Flights were conducted to detect possible radio telemetry signals from wolverines previously fitted with radio transmitters in studies in Montana.  Approximately 50 scat and hair samples were found and sent to the Forest Service Rocky Mountain Research Station’s Genetic Laboratory for genetic analysis.  

An interagency wolverine team was initiated to include the U.S. Forest Service and the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) in consultation with wolverine experts from Idaho, Montana, and Washington.  Through regular conference calls and meetings, this group developed a coordinated strategy to search for additional wolverine evidence.  Funding was obtained for monitoring and data gathering by the Forest Service and DFG.  Groundwork was laid for a long term wolverine survey by DFG.  

“These confirmations of a wolverine in the Tahoe region have prompted us to dust off previous survey plans for the entire Sierra Nevada that were not implemented because of the uncertainty in detecting the species,” Eric Loft, chief of DFG’s Wildlife Branch told Science Daily, an Internet science news source.  

Despite the government efforts, the wolverine proved elusive.  Ms. Moriarty got no more wolverine photos, but the animal started showing up on trail camera photos taken by Sierra Pacific Industries on the company’s timber lands.  Sierra Pacific was conducting carnivore studies and documented the wolverine “by accident” in three consecutive years.  Like the wolverine in Michigan’s Thumb, it clearly took up residency.  “A wolverine with no potential mate should keep on going,” says Ed Murphy, an inventory forester with Sierra Pacific.  “But this animal has a home range.  Either our surveys are missing other wolverines, or there are obstacles to movement, such as highways, we don’t understand.”  

The researchers in California have since concluded that their wolverine likely came from the western edge of the Rocky Mountains.  The wolverine population there was not thought to have a historical connection to the population once found in California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains.  In a 2009 paper published in Northwest Science, Moriarity and nine co-authors stated: “This current observation provides hope that dispersal to, and even recolonization of, long-vacant portions of a species’ range is possible.”  

Their implication that habitation of part of California by wolverines would be a good thing is in stark contrast to the attitude of Michigan’s DNRE which clearly wants nothing to do with wolverines.  The six- year occupation of the Thumb by the wolverine showed that wolverines can live in Michigan and that the species does not necessarily require “huge expanses of wilderness” as many biologists have assumed.  However, “the DNRE is adamant that it will not allow any wolverines to be brought into Michigan,” said Ford during a presentation this past winter in Saginaw.  “We asked the DNRE about a project to bring in a mate for the wolverine in the Thumb, but they said ‘no way.’”  

The bottom line is that when rare wildlife such as wolverines, cougars (mountain lions) or lynx show up in Michigan they are treated by the DNRE as public relations problems.  There is no hope expressed for the future, just nervousness about what trouble or expense the species might cause.  Is this really the kind of state we want?  Michigan’s Endangered Species Act was based on the notion that we should protect and try to understand our rarest life forms, even when they show up unexpectedly.  They get that in California, but we don’t seem to get it in Michigan.  

The wolverine is a powerful predator despite weighing just 25-40 pounds.  It is the largest member of the weasel family, known to attack animals much larger than itself.  

[Return to Newsletter Index]