Have you ever seen a wolverine in the Lower 48?

Have you ever seen a wolverine in the lower 48 states?

  • Yes

    Votes: 66 34.0%
  • No

    Votes: 128 66.0%

  • Total voters
    194
I have not seen one but, Colorado yes 2009. I also remember seeing a trail cam from Northern Colorado a few years ago of one.


 
I thought I also may have saw one in the mountains above Henry's Lake in idaho. I know they released one up there, they even have a wolverine trap not too far from where I thought I saw it. However I cannot confirm it, my wife and mom swear it was a wolverine.20230528_195842.jpg
 
I had a confirmed wolverine sighting in CO in 1979. Wolverine did two passes by my buddy's bear bait located 10 yards or so from me. l was bowhunting outside of Parshall, CO (Grand Co) up toward the lookout tower on the second to last evening of spring bear season, (Friday, June 29). He never did eat, just sniff around the bait a bit, then went down the hill, then walked past going uphill out of sight.

I had hurried into the bait as it was after work and I wanted to get there asap. No camera along, just evening snacks after a long day of work for me. Anyway, Jim Halfpenny, Colorado Division of Wildlife biologist took my written report, visited the bait site with my buddy, etc. He wrote it up as a confirmed wolverine sighting. A CDW (now Parks and Wildlife) soft cover book publication about wildlife in CO later listed it as a confirmed sighting. (I do not have a copy of that book, maybe someone else does, probably was a publication from the 1980s or 1990s?).

As per no confirmed sightings in CO since 1919...BS, some author or even CDW employee didn't do their homework. If it happened prior to the internet, they probably do not know about it!

And as per wolverines I've seen them in Alaska (North slope of Brooks Range where a single wolverine ran a sow grizzly and her two year old cub off a caribou carcass) ) and northern BC since that time. I worked with marmots right outside my 10,300' elevation office parking lot for 30 years in CO. I've seen a ton of pine martins etc. No doubt about it being a CO wolverine.
 
I consider myself very lucky. I've seen two, but only one was in Lower 48. The first was in the WA Cascades about 2010. The year before, my friends claimed to have seen one, and I called BS. Wolverines weren't even confirmed in the state at that point. The next year, I spotted one just off the trail maybe a half-mile from where they saw theirs. Incredible animals. The next wolverines I saw was in southern BC on a goat hunt in 2018. The guide spotted him climbing a steep ridge and lost it with excitement. He said, "You have no idea how rare this is." Oddly enough, he said they travel in a straight line, going up or over anything in their path. Sure enough, as we watched this bugger climb 2,000 or so feet, he never deviated from that line. Not once.
 
I watched a pair hunting the same turkeys as me about 10 years ago in the Pagosa area. Close enough to spit on and unfriendly, well past 1919 or whatever.
 
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