0:03
Snowcapped peaks, Evergreen forests, frozen waterfalls.
0:10
It's wintertime in the Cascade Mountain Range in northern Washington state.
0:16
We're here to join 2 field biologist Stephanie Williams and Dave Moskowitz.
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They study one of the most elusive animals on Earth.
0:26
We're going to go check two of our monitoring stations for Wolverines by early Winter's Creek water set here in the North Cascades.
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Wolverines are found across the northern parts of America, Europe and Asia.
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Vast, rugged and remote terrains that are difficult for humans to even access, let alone for scientists to study.
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The range of an individual Wolverine can cover hundreds of square miles.
0:53
Finding just one of these carnivores is like searching for a needle in a snowy haystack.
1:00
The trail to Stephen David's Wolverine Research area is up the North Cascades Hwy.
1:06
This road is closed in the winter due to heavy snowfall and the risk of avalanches.
1:13
The best way up is by snowmobile with skis and snowshoes.
1:18
We set out on foot into the base of the watershed hoping to spot one of these elusive creatures.
1:27
Mush.
1:30
Globally, Wolverine populations are stable, but here in the US there are an estimated fewer than 350 remaining.
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Since so little is known about this, solitary animal, conservation efforts are a challenge.
1:46
Dave and Steph are here to change that, to learn all they can by trapping Wolverines.
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But not with a cage, with a camera.
1:55
Oh, I see it.
1:57
This is it Steph and Dave, I found the trap.
2:01
Oh good.
2:01
So before we walked around too much, it's a good idea to like to look around the tracks, see if there's any **** or any sign of an animal being here recently.
2:10
OK, I've already seen tracks coming up through the trees here.
2:14
These tracks don't belong to Wolverines.
2:16
They've been made by another fur covered winter survivor, Martins.
2:23
These forest specialists are best known for their exceptional climbing abilities, and although they're both members of the weasel family, Martins are relatively common compared to the incredibly rare Wolverine.
2:37
Looks like we've got 2 cameras.
2:40
The wolverine's supposed to come up on this pole and come through here, and this one's going to get a photo of it front on its chest place.
2:48
And then this one's a vicinity camera that's just going to get any animals that come around the base of this.
2:53
OK.
2:54
And then the little wire brushes, what are those for?
2:56
For snagging hairs.
2:57
So as The Wolverine comes through, ideally it leaves a little bit of its hair on the gun brushes.
3:04
DNA from collected hair samples and unique chest markings captured by the cameras allow Steph and Dave to identify individual Wolverines without capturing or handling them.
3:15
This noninvasive approach helps researchers understand Wolverine populations, habitats and health, providing vital data for conservation efforts.
3:26
We're not just capturing these animals.
3:29
If they happen to run by, there's actually something luring them to the spot.
3:33
And I imagine it's this above my head.
3:35
But Dave, what is this?
3:37
That's our attractant, in this case, a piece of a road killed deer, which we collect with the help of the Washington Department of Transportation.
3:43
And then we'll apply a trapper's lure as well to it, which is a long-range attractant that smells really bad to us, but really good to Wolverines.
3:50
Their sense of smell is hundreds of times better than ours.
3:54
The camera traps are triggered by any movement.
3:57
Wolverines are primarily scavengers, and sometimes a determined Wolverine will take dramatic steps to try and get the hanging bait.
4:07
We have a dozen overall throughout the North Cascades, and it takes us about a week to get through checking each one of them, which we do once a month over the course of the winter.
4:15
Oh, my gosh.
4:16
How long have you 2 been up to this project?
4:20
Year eight.
4:21
Yeah.
4:21
And we got a Wolverine at this station the first two years of the project.
4:25
We haven't gotten one since, so we're quite curious about why that is.
4:31
Has there been any change in weather patterns and snowfall that might relate to them not being seen the last six years?
4:37
Generally the snowpack average is declining.
4:40
That's the long-term trend and that's why they're listed as a threatened species I see, because we're losing snowpack and temperatures are warming.
4:46
There's snow adapted species that can't survive without deep snow.
4:50
So they're an indicator of the functioning of this ecosystem.
4:53
And if they disappear, that's going to speak to whether or not there's ecosystem level changes going on as well.
5:00
Stephanie removes the memory card from the camera.
5:03
Trout, it's time to see what we've caught.
5:06
And we're just going to scroll through Martin.
5:08
So that matches the tracks.
5:09
I can see that.
5:10
Martin.
5:11
Can you see him bounding through the snow?
5:14
That's right.
5:15
OK.
5:15
Let's see if anybody else showed up.
5:17
Martin again.
5:18
Martin.
5:19
I mean, they're pretty cute.
5:20
So we don't mind.
5:21
Yeah, we don't mind.
5:22
We thought about calling this the Cascades Martin Project because we get 10s of thousands of images of Martin and only, you know, handfuls of Wolverine.
5:31
Oh, is it?
5:31
Nope.
5:32
Beach out.
5:33
Yeah, it looks like everybody.
5:34
Oh, right here.
5:34
Look at that.
5:35
Yeah.
5:35
Pure white snowshoe hair.
5:37
Beautiful.
5:37
Well, this is really cool.
5:39
I'm slightly disappointed, but I also know that we would have been the luckiest team on Earth to actually get a Wolverine.
5:45
Welcome to the club, Ray.
5:47
We're all slightly disappointed but makes the detection extra.
5:50
It's like it's like a lifetime goal.
5:52
That's right.
5:52
No, detection is still data.
5:54
We know that they live here.
5:55
So then the question is, why aren't they showing up?
5:57
Yeah, the fact that we did not capture a single image of a Wolverine demonstrates just how rare and elusive they are here in the United States.
6:07
Well, we did it.
6:08
We did it.
6:09
Yeah.
6:09
Let's get back off the mountain before it gets dark.
6:11
Yeah.
6:11
Racing daylight.
6:12
Sounds good.
6:12
Nice.
6:16
The good part about skiing up to the trap is now we get to ski back down.
6:21
Having too much fun.
