RESEARCHER GOES INTO THE WOODS TO STUDY THE WOLVERINE
BANFF NATIONAL PARK — Mirjam Barrueto snowshoes through knee-deep snow into the backcountry just off the Icefields Parkway, breaking a trail as she pinpoints the spot with a hand-held GPS. She carries a large pack with a frozen, skinned beaver on her back.
As she trudges along, she hunts for animal tracks After trekking for about 600 meters, Barrueto, a research associate with Wolverine Watch, finds the tracks she's seeking. "Those look fresh," she says, suggesting they're only a few days old.The wolverine tracks — about the size of a large dog — lead directly to the Bow River site, one of 51 locations being studied as part of an ongoing research project.
It's an extensive survey of the elusive animals that spans 6,000 square kilometres in Banff, Kootenay and Yoho national parks.
The $1.7-million project, which includes Parks Canada, the Miistakis Institute in Calgary and the Western Transportation Institute at Montana State University, concludes this year after starting in 2009.
For a rare and important species, it's been vital work.
"We don't know how many we have and we don't know whether we have a well-connected population or whether it's being split in half by the Trans-Canada Highway," says Trevor Kinley, a road ecologist with Parks Canada. "Of course, it's absolutely critical to maintain those populations together.
"As populations become smaller, they are much more susceptible to disappearing."
Wolverines, elusive carnivores known for being a sly predator, are the largest member of the weasel family. They weigh between six and 16 kilograms, and have razor-sharp teeth and strong jaws.
The western population is listed as a species of special concern by the federal Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada because of their low reproductive rate and the amount of space they require to maintain viable populations.
Alberta also acknowledges that they could be at risk and require special management considerations.
This month, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would consider protecting the North American wolverine as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. There are between 250 to 300 wolverines in the U.S., but climate change is reducing their habitat and threatening the species with extinction.
Not much is known about the wolverines living in Canada's Rocky Mountains.
They are rarely seen in the wild.
Since 1970, however, there have been four wolverines killed on highways in the parks — including two on the Trans-Canada Highway in 1988 and 1997, and two on Highway 93 in Kootenay National Park in 1990 and 2012.
Wolverines have also been captured on remote cameras 14 times as they use the wildlife crossings (mostly underpasses) in Banff National Park, all west of the Sunshine road turnoff.
The research has so far identified at least 22 different wolverines in the Rockies — although they expect to have better numbers once this year's field work is complete. "That's not the entire population, obviously," says Tony Clevenger, project manager and senior wildlife research scientist with the Western Transportation Institute. "But, just with those numbers, it suggests it is a relatively healthy population. He estimates there's about 30 wolverines in total.
The project, which includes four researchers, relies on the work of volunteers to go out to each of the 51 hair trap sites four times this winter. It's gruelling work.
Barrueto, who's responsible for co-ordinating volunteers, spends several days a week in the field — skiing up to 20 kilometres in difficult terrain and even camping overnight to work at some of the sites.
On this particular day, she snowshoes into the Bow River site, relatively close to Highway 93 North.
Barrueto breaks the trail with ease — despite carrying the 10- to 15-kilogram frozen beaver carcass in her backpack for the 600-meter trek.
It's immediately clear at least one wolverine has been in the area.
In addition to the tracks, the beaver carcass left a month earlier as bait has been completely devoured.
Barrueto drops her pack, retrieves some equipment from the pack carried by a volunteer and starts looking for hair samples on the tree, which is wrapped in barbed wire.
"There isn't much hair, but we'll find some," she says, finding about a dozen samples that are carefully placed in small envelopes for DNA testing.
The barbed wire, which doesn't hurt the wolverines, is cleaned before putting up new bait.
Barrueto prepares the beaver on the ground, hammering large nails part of the way into carcass and tying a rope around it to raise it almost two meters up the tree.
"If it's low, wolves and lynx get at it," she explains.
The beaver is then hammered into the tree and wrapped in wire to make it difficult for the wolverines to pull down and ensure hair samples are collected on the barbed wire as they go up and down the tree for the food."This is a really good one. There's lots of fat," says Barrueto. "They can just lick it off, like beaver ice cream."
To ensure they return, she adds a lure — a strong skunk-like scent used to attract wildlife — on a nearby tree.She then checks the remote camera set up on another tree and makes sure it's operating properly to capture images of any animals, preferably wolverines, visiting the site.
The photos, which are later uploaded at the Parks Canada wildlife lab in Banff, show at least one wolverine has visited the site several times in the previous month.
Barrueto says it's exciting to see the elusive animal in photos, but she'd love to be able to observe one in the wild. "I do all of this work and all I get to see is photos, which is good enough," she says, noting she likes that the research isn't bothering the wolverines. "But still, as a biologist often you love animals, and it would be cool to run into one at one point."
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