Field Reports

PREDATORS

Wolverine takes a hike

A wolverine wearing a global positioning system collar wandered nearly 550 miles in seven weeks, including a trip from Pocatello, Idaho, to the northern reaches of Yellowstone National Park.

Researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society said they knew that wolverines could cover lots of ground, but they did not expect the elusive animal to travel through parts of three states, two national parks and eight mountain ranges.

“This guy kinda blew the doors open as far as what was known,” said Brent Brock, one of the authors of the scientific paper published in Northwest Science.

Wolverines, the largest member of the weasel family, occur in low densities and are rarely observed.

In one 19-day stretch, the male wolverine, around 3-4 years old, traveled south from Grand Teton National Park to a ridge top east of Pocatello and back to the Teton Range, a distance of about 256 miles. A few days later, the wolverine moved north to Mount Washburn in Yellowstone National Park and back to the Teton Range, a distance of 140 miles in seven days.

After May 2002, the wolverine moved through the Gros Ventre, Wind River and Salt River ranges of Wyoming.

The wolverine was legally killed in January 2004 by a trapper in the Centennial Range along the Idaho-Montana border.

Scientists estimate the wolverine’s home range, at least during his wandering phase, was around 23,000 square miles. The wolverine spent much of his time in forested areas above 7,000 feet but occasionally wandered lower into more open areas and apparently was able to cross a few roads and major rivers.

Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied a petition to list the wolverine as threatened, saying there was too little information about the animal’s distribution and needs.

Associated Press

HUNTING

Hawaii recruits hunters

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is looking for volunteers to help rid the park’s new 116,000-acre addition of feral sheep.

The National Park Service recently acquired the land on the Big Island from Kahuku Ranch, and with it came thousands of mouflon, a sheep native to Corsica and Sardinia in the Mediterranean. The mouflon were brought to the ranch for hunting in the 1960s. With no natural predators, their population has mushroomed.

“Grazing inhibits the regeneration of Hawaii’s endemic plants, which are defenseless against sheep and other chompers and stompers,” said a Park Service news release.

Hunting, normally illegal in a national park, will be allowed as a preferred alternative for removing an invasive species, park officials said. Hunting participants will be selected in a Nov. 8 lottery. The deadline to register is Oct. 25. The project will continue indefinitely and lotteries will be held every six months.

In May and June, 28 volunteers removed 232 feral sheep.

Info: www.nps.gov/havo/index.htm

Associated Press

NATURE

Refuge offers programs

The Kootenai National Wildlife Refuge near Bonners Ferry has launched a series of free programs this month sponsored by the refuge “Friends” group.

The remaining Fall Family Fun Nights for October will be held at the Environmental Education Center (Barn) adjacent to the refuge headquarters as follows:

• “Firewise,” Oct.16 at 1 p.m., by Tina Danforth, Idaho Lands Dept.

• Live Owls,” Oct. 23 at 7 p.m., by Beth Paragamian, Idaho Fish and Game.

• “Garden Song,” Oct. 29 at 7 p.m., by Jerry Pavia, local outdoor photographer and author.

Info: (208) 267-3888, or e-mail: KNWRFriends@hotmail.com.

Rich Landers

HUNTING

Albino bear tagged

A Kalispell bow hunter has killed an albino bear west of Whitefish, in the same area where albino bears were shot in 1983 and 1995.

“I was out elk hunting,” Rob Derby said. “We were trying to get a bull to come in. We were bugling. We started walking to a new place. I looked up and at about 40 yards, it looked like a sheep dog.”

Derby and his hunting partner knelt in the trees watching the animal approach. Derby shot from 20 yards.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks officials extracted a tooth and determined the male bear was 2 years old.

“It’s unbelievably rare,” said Eric Wenum, the state’s area black bear specialist. “Especially true albinism.”

True albinos are all white with pink eyes and noses.

“The problems with true albinos is that they suffer retina damage because the pigment in their eyes that helps protect the retina from ultraviolet light doesn’t exist,” Wenum said. “They typically go blind within a year. And of course if they can’t see, they don’t live long.”

Wenum speculated the bear that Derby shot lived two years because its vision loss was delayed.

The last albino bear shot in northwest Montana was a 4-year-old female weighing only 75 pounds.

The female albino bear taken in the same area in 1983 was a 2-year-old female.

Associated Press