Study gives updated estimate for wolverine population on Alaska’s North Slope

A wolverine walks crossed nan snowfall successful 2018 adjacent nan Toolik Field Station connected Alaska’s North Slope. Wolverines are elusive and request a batch of space, truthful they are difficult to count, but a caller study gives an updated organization and density estimate for nan North Slope. (Photo by Peter Mather/Provided by Martin Robards)

Wolverines, wily animals that are nan subjects of legend, person a patient organization successful Arctic Alaska, but they request a batch of undisturbed residence for their organization to enactment that way.

That was shown successful a precocious published study in nan Journal of Wildlife Management, which gave nan first estimate of North Slope wolverine numbers and densities successful respective decades.

The study, by Thomas Glass, a University of Alaska Fairbanks biologist, and Martin Robards, a Fairbank-based biologist pinch nan Wildlife Conservation Society, tracked animals that were fixed power collars aft being lured by bait stations. The biologists observed animals done prepositioned cameras.

The operation of radio-dollar and camera information collected from 2017 to 2022 led to a mean estimate of 488 wolverines connected nan North Slope, pinch an estimated density of 2 wolverines per 1,000 quadrate kilometers.

It is simply a patient capable number to support nan magnitude of hunting and trapping that occurs there, nan study concludes. But it is overmuch little than nan densities measured nan past clip specified investigation was conducted to estimate North Slope populations, which was 4 decades ago, successful the PhD dissertation by biologist Audrey J. Magoun. That earlier estimate was for a North Slope organization of astatine slightest 821, pinch arsenic galore arsenic 20 wolverines per 1,000 quadrate kilometers.

Estimating wolverine organization sizes and densities successful Alaska is challenging, Glass said. It has to beryllium done successful winter, and since location are not galore wolverines, scientists person to screen a batch of ground, he said.

The caller study uses information from 3 areas connected nan cardinal North Slope. The 1985 study that recovered a higher wolverine density focused connected a somewhat different portion of bluish Alaska.

“I deliberation immoderate clip you effort to study wolverines, it’s a immense logistical undertaking,” he said. “Fortunately, they are beautiful responsive to bait erstwhile you do get retired there.”

The differences could bespeak an wide organization decline. Wolverine populations spell done cycles, arsenic do those of different mammals, and those cycles are linked astatine slightest successful portion to abundance of prey, Glass and Robard said. Caribou dress up a batch of nan fare of North Slope wolverines, and nan caribou organization declines of caller years whitethorn person affected wolverines, they said.

Despite nan quality successful nan caller study’s numbers and nan numbers calculated successful nan 1980s, nan wolverine organization connected nan North Slope is healthy, they said.

“The emotion correct now is we’re successful a reasonably bully position. That doesn’t opportunity that they can’t beryllium overhunted,” Robards said.

The study’s accusation points to wolverines’ request for undisturbed residence and abstraction arsenic an important information for guidance decisions.

Habitat degradation and fragmentation led nan U.S. Fish and Wildlife past twelvemonth to categorize nan Lower 48 wolverine organization as threatened.

And successful Canada’s Yukon Territory, biologists discovered that patterns of hunting and trapping – pinch immoderate places that are intensely harvested and others skipped complete – person produced areas that are serving arsenic de facto safe refuges for wolverines.

For nan wolverines successful Arctic Alaska, nan improvement interest that is “front and center” has been nan projected Ambler Access Project, Robards said. It would punch an astir 200-mile roadworthy from nan Dalton Highway done nan confederate Brooks Range foothills to nan isolated Ambler mining territory successful Arctic Northwest Alaska.

“The much you unfastened up this environment, nan much astatine consequence those refuges are for group to overexploit, either done trapping aliases hunting,” he said.

Though wolverines are important to Indigenous residents of nan North Slope, they person been somewhat neglected successful world and agency science, Robards said. “Our ain benignant of occidental position connected this is they haven’t been a privilege type to study,” he said.

That little privilege position shows up successful immoderate pre-development studies for projects successful known wolverine territory.

In nan Trump administration’s 2020 record of decision that approved lipid leasing successful nan Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, nan connection “wolverine” appeared conscionable once. The Bureau of Land Management’s 2019 biology effect connection connected which that determination was based besides had scant mention of nan species. Most of it was successful an appendix that identified wolverine information arsenic a knowledge gap.

The supplemental biology effect connection for nan Ambler roadworthy task released earlier this twelvemonth by nan Biden administration’s BLM does see wording considering really nan roadworthy would impact wolverines, Glass said – thing he knows because he submitted information.

A transition in one of nan document’s 4 volumes discusses roadworthy impacts to wolverine residence and wolverine activity patterns. That study and those that preceded it, however, focused overmuch much attraction connected nan road’s imaginable impacts to caribou.

The Biden management successful June rejected the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority’s scheme to build nan Ambler road.

In summation to presenting a caller estimate for numbers and densities, nan study by Glass and Robards sheds much ray connected wolverine behavior.

The animals are not arsenic solitary arsenic they are reputed to be, Glass said. The thought that they are unsocial, they said, is changing, and their search produced grounds backing that alteration of thought. Males and females were spotted together connected camera, arsenic were adults playing their young, he said. “It’s not excessively uncommon to spot a group of wolverines walking together, usually a family group retired connected nan landscape,” he said.

Wolverines, which are members of nan weasel family and not related to wolves aliases bears, are nan taxable of intrigue beyond Alaska’s borders.

In Canadian Innu culture, nan wolverines are clever tricksters. The Canadian Space Agency named 1 of its moonrovers Kapvik, nan Innu connection for wolverine, an animal known to beryllium “pint-sized but powerful,” according to nan agency’s website.