California wildlife officials confirmed that the spring sightings in the Eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains of a mystery creature were most likely one rare wolverine.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced the news on Thursday. It is the second time in over 100 years that such a mammal was spotted in California’s wild.
In a recent statement, Fish and Wildlife senior environmental scientist Daniel Gammons said that “these latest detections are thrilling”.
In a press release, the Department of Forestry and Wildlife said that two sightings were made in the Inyo National Forest last month, while one was in Yosemite National Park. The agency stated that images and videos submitted to wildlife officials in the state were examined for telltale characteristics such as size and proportion, and confirmed.
Experts say that wolverines can travel up to 15 miles per day in search of food. The discovery last month follows a series of sightings from mid-2000s until 2018.
Experts believe that the two clusters of sightings in this century were two distinct animals, because they usually live only for a few years. Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed that the last confirmed sightings of the Californian grizzly bear were in the 1920s.
In Washington State, the National Park Service reported in 2020 that it had spotted a mother wolverine and two of her young, called “kits,” for the first time in over a century in Mount Rainier National Park.
The park service reported that a second litter was born of wolverine pups in Mount Rainier National Park the following year.
Unregulated trapping, and an overzealous approach to predator control, could have led to a large number of these animals being killed and driven away from California and the Lower 48 states.
Officials from the National Park Service have estimated that there are between 300 and 1,000 wolverines living in the Lower 48. The animals are now protected under the federal Endangered Species Act because of their declining American population.
California’s Endangered Species Act lists them as a threatened specie, which gives them legal protection against being taken, sold, or exported.
In Canada and Alaska, wolverines are thriving. It is not clear why the wolverines are making a return in southern states. Greg Dudgeon, Mount Rainier National Park’s Superintendent in 2021, said that sightings were an indication of the park’s health.
He said that “it helps confirm that the wilderness of the park is an excellent habitat for the wolverines and that protecting these wild areas are important for the success of many wildlife species.”
The Sierra Nevada’s record snowfall may have also helped long-distance travellers cross rivers and other borders while providing an attractive habitat for would-be families of wolverines.
National Park Service reports that birth occurs in snow dens excavated. In a 2012 white paper, it stated that “almost all verified wolverine nests are under 3 to 25 feet of snow. Their snow tunnels can last until mid-May.”
The Department of Fish and Wildlife in California hopes to track down the latest wolverine through the collection of hair and scat and the analysis of more photos and videos from Californians that have witnessed the rare mammals in their natural habitat.
