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Coyotes-Wolves-Cougars.blogspot.com

Grizzly bears, black bears, wolves, coyotes, cougars/ mountain lions,bobcats, wolverines, lynx, foxes, fishers and martens are the suite of carnivores that originally inhabited North America after the Pleistocene extinctions. This site invites research, commentary, point/counterpoint on that suite of native animals (predator and prey) that inhabited The Americas circa 1500-at the initial point of European exploration and subsequent colonization. Landscape ecology, journal accounts of explorers and frontiersmen, genetic evaluations of museum animals, peer reviewed 20th and 21st century research on various aspects of our "Wild America" as well as subjective commentary from expert and layman alike. All of the above being revealed and discussed with the underlying goal of one day seeing our Continent rewilded.....Where big enough swaths of open space exist with connective corridors to other large forest, meadow, mountain, valley, prairie, desert and chaparral wildlands.....Thereby enabling all of our historic fauna, including man, to live in a sustainable and healthy environment. - Blogger Rick

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Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Wolverines are typically the same weight as a mid-sized dog and live mostly by scavenging from dead animals.................... The largest land-inhabiting member of the weasel family, the wolverine also has a reputation for fierceness.................. There have been reports of wolverines killing caribou up to 10 times its size, according to the Columbia Mountains Institute of Applied Ecology..........For the first time, two Wolverines are now living on an island off of British Columbia's Central Coast(up to 4000 Wolverines live in the interior of British Columbia) and dining on Salmon,,,,,,a new foodstuff for this scavenger..............Love to hear about carnivores finding ways to adapt in an ever changing ecological world



http://www.montrealgazette.com/technology/First+documented+evidence+Wolverines+Great+Bear/9381575/story.html


First documented evidence of

 wolverines in The Great Bear 

Rainforest published

First documented evidence of wolverines in The Great Bear Rainforest published

This undated file image provided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows a wolverine. Evidence shows the often-reclusive wolverine has taken up residence for the first time on an island off British Columbia's Central Coast and the animal's eating habits have changed along with its relocation. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

VANCOUVER - Evidence shows the
 often-reclusive wolverine has
 taken up residence for the first
 time on an island off British
 Columbia's Central Coast
 and the animal's eating habits
 have changed along with its 
relocation.

The study, published Monday
 in The Canadian Field-Naturalist, 
shows that at least two wolverines
 inhabit Princess Royal Island, part
 of B.C.'s Great Bear Rainforest.

There are about 3,000 to 4,000 
wolverines in B.C., but most of 
them are in the Interior, in snowy
 habitats and higher elevations, 
the study said.

Department of Fisheries and 
Oceans biologist Tom Shardlow,
 who authored the report, said it 
was the first proven sighting of
 a wolverine in the area."The
 main thing is it's an oddity," said Shardlow. "It's the first time
 anything has been published that indicates wolverines occupy these islands."

Wolverines are typically the same 
weight as a mid-sized dog and
live mostly by scavenging from
 dead animals.
The largest land-inhabiting member 
of the weasel family, the wolverine
 also has a reputation for fierceness.
 There have been reports of 
wolverines killing caribou up to 
10 times its size, according to the Columbia Mountains Institute of
 Applied Ecology.

The animal is rarely sighted on 
the coast, and while there have
 been occasional stories of the 
animal being spotted on the 
islands of The Great Bear 
Rainforest, none have been 
verified and published until 
now, he said.

The study also marks the first
 time the animal has been 
documented eating salmon.
 "Wolverines found in coastal
 watersheds of British Columbia
 would be expected to encounter
 moribund salmon ... from 
spawning runs in many of the 
streams. However, there are no 
records of salmon consumption 
by this scavenger," the study said.

Shardlow said many other animals
 eat fish on the island, but he 
didn't expect wolverines to do so. 
"Those kind of species that we 
expect to see using salmon were 
all there," said Shardlow. "But 
there was one nobody would 
ever expect to see — and that's a wolverine."
Wolverines typically live off the
 carcasses of wild game such as 
deer, but hair samples indicated
 that one of the wolverines 
documented in the study had 
marine protein in its diet.

To make this discovery,
 Shardlow created cage-like
 structures with bait inside. 
When the wolverines took 
the bait, their fur was 
snagged on the barbs of the
 structure.
Shardlow removed the hair,
 tested the samples in a lab 
and found carbon-13 and 
nitrogen-15 isotopes, which
 are associated with marine 
protein.

The wolverine inhabits an 
area close to a watershed
 filled with salmon, so that's
 probably the source of its 
marine protein, he said.

Cameras were also set up 
at each of the stations so 
the animals could be identified.
Shardlow said his discovery
 adds yet another animal to 
the long list of those that 
depend on the province's
 salmon for survival, placing
 even more importance on 
the need to preserve the
 fish stock.

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