California records second wolverine sighting in 100 years

By Dennis Romero - NBC News

Spring sightings of a mysterious animal in the mountains of the eastern Sierra Nevada have been confirmed by California wildlife authorities as likely a single, rare wolverine.

The news, revealed Thursday by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, describes the second time such a mammal has been seen in the California wild in nearly 100 years.

"These latest detections are exciting," environmental scientist Daniel Gammons of the Department of Fish and Wildlife said in a statement.

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Last month's sightings include two in the Inyo National Forest and one in Yosemite National Park, the department said in a statement. Images and videos sent to state wildlife officials were analyzed for telltale attributes such as size, proportion and movement, and then confirmed, according to the agency.

Although some of the places are far apart from each other, wolverines are known to roam 15 miles (24 kilometers) a day in search of food, experts say. Last month's discoveries follow a flurry of sightings of what was believed to be the same wolverine from the mid-2000s to 2018.

Wolverines in the snow at Mount Rainier National Park, Washington state, in 2021.NPS file

Experts believe the two groups of sightings this century tracked two distinct animals because they typically live only a dozen years or so. The last confirmed sightings in California occurred in the 1920s, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

The news follows similar discoveries in Washington state, where in 2020 the National Park Service announced the first sighting of a gluttonous mother and her calves, two "kits," in Mount Rainier National Park in more than a century.

The following year, the park service claimed that a second litter of wolverine pups had been born in Mount Rainier National Park.

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These animals, members of the weasel family that resemble small bears that stay close to the ground when not climbing trees, may have been largely exterminated and chased away in California and other parts of the 48 states due to unregulated trapping and overzealous predator control.

National Park Service officials have stated that there are likely 300 to 1,000 wolverines in the nation's 48 lowest-lying states. The decline of their population in the United States has made them candidates for protection under the federal Endangered Species Act.

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In California, they are listed as threatened by the state's Endangered Species Act, which gives them legal protection against capture, export or sale.

Wolverines have thrived in Canada and Alaska. It is not entirely clear why they are reappearing in the south. In 2021, Mount Rainier National Park Superintendent Greg Dudgeon said the sightings were a sign that the park's environment was healthy.

"It helps us confirm that the park's wilderness areas are excellent habitat for wolverines, and that protecting these wilderness areas is important to the success of many wildlife species," he said in a statement.

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It's also possible that record winter snowfall in the Sierra Nevada helped long-distance travelers cross rivers and other borders, while also providing an attractive habitat for would-be wolverine families.

The National Park Service notes that births occur in burrows dug in the snow. "Almost all verified wolverine burrows are under a snow cover of between three and five meters, and their snow tunnels can last until mid-May," he said in 2012 in a white paper on wolverines and the climate crisis.

The state Department of Fish and Wildlife hopes to track the last wolverines by collecting hair and droppings and analyzing more photos and videos of the few Californians who have seen these mammals in the wild.