The wolverine just may be the sasquatch of Central Oregon — rumored to be here, but no evidence to prove it.
A pair of wildlife researchers are three-quarters of the way done with a two-year project aimed at capturing a photo and snagging a fur sample from carnivores in the Cascades from the Three Sisters to Mount Jefferson. Their main targets are foxes, martens and wolverines.
Among the more than 62,000 photos collected by motion-triggered trail cameras so far they’ve seen foxes and martens, among more than a dozen meat-eating species of mammals, but still no wolverines. Their field season goes until May and Jamie McFadden-Hiller, a research assistant at Mississippi State University, said she hasn’t yet given up hope of finding wolverine evidence.
Even if the project doesn’t yield photo or fur from a wolverine, McFadden-Hiller said it wouldn’t rule out that wolverines are lurking in the high Cascades.
Tim Hiller, a researcher trying to find evidence of wolverines in the Central Oregon Cascades, sets a ground station on April 13, 2013, in the woods burned by the 2003 B&B Complex Fire near Santiam Pass. The station includes bait held up by chicken wire, in this case salmon from a hatchery, and gun brushes affixed to plastic looped around a tree. The brushes catch fur from animals brought in by the bait, while a nearby digital trail camera captures photos and video of the creatures. Courtesy Jamie McFadden-Hiller
“Just because we haven’t detected one doesn’t mean they are not here,” she said.
The last known wolverine in Central Oregon was killed by a hunter near Broken Top in 1969. Each year there are about four or five reports of people seeing a wolverine in the Central Oregon Cascades, said Corey Heath, Deschutes district wildlife biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Bend. But no one has yet to turn in a photo, a tuft of fur or other evidence of the animal.
It’s hard to prove there are wolverines here without a photo, he said.
“And that is what (the researchers) are trying to get,” Heath said.
McFadden-Hiller and her husband, Tim Hiller, a research scientist at Mississippi State, set up 32 cameras for their first field season — which started in October 2012 and ended last May — and 25 cameras this season. With the help of volunteers they’ve checked the cameras regularly to see the resulting photos.
“Just because we haven’t detected one doesn’t mean they are not here,” she said.
The last known wolverine in Central Oregon was killed by a hunter near Broken Top in 1969. Each year there are about four or five reports of people seeing a wolverine in the Central Oregon Cascades, said Corey Heath, Deschutes district wildlife biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Bend. But no one has yet to turn in a photo, a tuft of fur or other evidence of the animal.
It’s hard to prove there are wolverines here without a photo, he said.
“And that is what (the researchers) are trying to get,” Heath said.
McFadden-Hiller and her husband, Tim Hiller, a research scientist at Mississippi State, set up 32 cameras for their first field season — which started in October 2012 and ended last May — and 25 cameras this season. With the help of volunteers they’ve checked the cameras regularly to see the resulting photos.
There are two types of camera stations: an elevated station and a ground station. Both stations have bait, often meat from road-kill deer, to bring in hungry carnivores. Last year they had more elevated stations than ground stations. This year it’s the reverse.
The researchers switched to focus on ground stations after finding evidence of a rare red fox. The foxes appear to be the Sierra Nevada red fox, which Hiller said is under review for federal endangered species act protection. They only visits ground stations, and the researchers wanted to collect more evidence of them this year. The wolverine will visit either type of station.
Audrey Magoun, a wolverine expert who used to study the elusive animal in Alaska, developed the design for the elevated station. About six years ago she moved to Flora in far northeast Oregon and went out in search of wolverine after seeing terrain where she thought they might be found. In the winter of 2011 she captured evidence of three male wolverines in the Wallowa Mountains, one of which appears to be a resident. She said in an email Thursday she keeps finding signs of one of the animals, including tracks last October. The other wolverines may have just been passing through the Wallowas.
If there are wolverines in the Central Oregon Cascades, they may also be on the move and have simply not come across one of the stations. The stations are set at high elevation, where snow is deep, and in terrain conducive to avalanches. Hiller said wolverines seem to like the disturbance caused by the slides.
Hiller used to work for ODFW and his wife was on contract with the state agency. They’ve continued their research despite starting their new posts at Mississippi State in August. They still live in the Salem area and plan to move to Mississippi in the summer, although they’ll continue research in the Northwest.
Oregon Wildlife, a Portland-based foundation aimed at preserving wildlife in the state, is helping fund the project. The foundation gave $10,000 each year to it, which also had $40,000 in federal funding the first year and $20,000 this year, said Tim Greseth, executive director of Oregon Wildlife. He said there is still a good portion of winter left, during which the researchers could find a wolverine.
“I do believe they are looking in the right place, if there were wolverines,' he said.
— Reporter: 541-617-7812, ddarling@bendbulletin.com
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Wolverines in California
source-California Dept. of Fish & Wildlife
A series of wolverine photos taken in the Tahoe National Forest on March 16, 2008 by a remote sensor camera. This represents a third wolverine location where a wolverine was photographed. This camera station is part of the collaborative effort to obtain additional information on the whereabouts of the animal and to collect genetics samples. Visible in the photographs are the bait (deer) and the wire used to attach the bait to nearby trees.
A photo taken by a motion-sensitive camera on the Tahoe National Forest provides verifiable evidence of a wolverine in California, according to scientists at the Pacific Southwest and Rocky Mountain Research Stations. Wolverines have not been scientifically confirmed in California since the 1920s. Forest Service, Oregon State University photo.
Side view of a wolverine photographed by a remotely triggered camera at a snare established, by another study, for the purpose of collecting hair from American martens. The snare is comprised of a black plastic base from which brass gun-cleaning brushes are attached. Bait, which is normally attached immediately above the marten hair snare, had already been removed by another animal prior to the wolverine’s arrival (Photograph courtesy of the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station and Oregon State University)
Top view of a wolverine photographed by remotely triggered camera at a snare established, by another study, for the purpose of collecting hair from American martens. The snare is comprised of a black plastic base from which brass gun-cleaning brushes are attached. Bait, which is normally attached immediately above the marten hair snare, had already been removed by another animal prior to the wolverine’s arrival. (Photograph courtesy of the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station and Oregon State University)
Wolverines are known to mark food they scavenge on by leaving scats (feces) or hair nearby. This portion of a road-killed deer carcass is wired between two trees to prevent animals from prematurely removing it. A remotely-triggered camera (not visible) takes a photograph when animals visit this detection station. If a wolverine is photographed, scats and hair are collected for genetic analysis. (Photograph courtesy of the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station).
Wolverine hair snare, consisting of a barbed wire-wrapped wooden fence post strapped to a tree. Bait (raw chicken) attached to the top platform entices an animal to climb the post and rub against the wire, leaving tufts of hair that are collected and analyzed for genetic information relating to the animal's species, sex, and lineage. (Photograph courtesy of the USDA Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station).
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