Great article about wolverines from the Mountain Journal . . .
Mist rises off the river, wetting our faces as we ford with chunks of slush bouncing off our waders. Stabbing the riverbed with ski poles, Mike Schadell and I struggle through the swift current, trying to find purchase on slimy river cobblestones. Our packs are weighed down by skis, dangling boots, three days of gear and a deer’s hindquarter.
We’re in Glacier National Park for an ongoing, multiyear, parkwide, noninvasive citizen science wolverine study in January 2010. Biologists had gathered data to estimate how many wolverines reside within the protected area’s boundaries. We each carry deer hindquarters to lure the largest mustelids to a post where steel wool brushes snag the animal’s hair, which we will gather and use to collect DNA.
Once across the river, we ski the undulating terrain through a mosaic forest of burnt black lodgepole pine, Douglas-fir and still-living, needleless larch trees. A fire raged through here years ago charring most of the woods. Deer, moose and wolf tracks punctuate the snow. A pine marten, a smaller member of the mustelid family, scampers from behind a tree. Its curiosity outweighs its elusive nature for a moment before it darts back into a dark hole at the base of an upturned root wad.
