Wolverine: A marvelous mammal

In this episode of Rarefied, we delve into the world of one of nature's most elusive and powerful creatures, the Wolverine. Joined by Matthew Scrafford, a conservation scientist with Wildlife Conservation Society Canada, the episode explores Matthew’s work with Wolverines. The conversation covers the Wolverine's behavior, distribution, and the challenges they face, including climate change and industrial development. Matthew shares insights from his extensive fieldwork and research, detailing methods such as radio telemetry, camera trapping, and aerial surveys. He also discusses the importance of public involvement in conservation efforts and shares personal anecdotes from his work. Listeners are encouraged to appreciate the Wolverine's story and the need to protect their habitats.

00:00 Introduction to the Podcast

00:35 Meet the Wolverine

02:06 Wolverine Behavior and Characteristics

07:52 Wolverine Habitat and Distribution

10:41 Researching Wolverines: Methods and Challenges

18:23 Fieldwork Experiences and Wolverine Personalities

24:30 Adventures in Wolverine Tracking

26:55 Conservation Challenges and Climate Change

29:06 Industrial Development and Its Impact

32:32 Best Practices for Trappers and Recreationalists

38:20 Community Involvement and Policy Advocacy

42:08 Personal Stories and Career Path

46:05 Final Thoughts and Outro

Transcript

Theme Song 0:00

In every stream, in every tree, a story lives, a legacy. Let's listen close, let's take a stand, to keep the wild across the land. In every stream, in every tree, a story lives, a legacy.

Meredith 0:24

Welcome you found us. Let the adventure begin. This is rarefied the podcast where we're going to learn to love some of our rarest and most imperiled species. Today we're strapping on some snowshoes, maybe hopping on a snowmobile. And heading into the boreal forest to learn more about this circumpolar superhero. Of course, that means we are talking about the Wolverine. This threatened mammal is related to otters and weasels, but you don't want to mess with this guy. He's definitely not a friend, even though he's friend shaped. But we do have Matthew scrapper joining us. Uh, conservation scientist with wildlife conservation society, Canada, and a definite friend to the Wolverine. Matthew works with government industry, indigenous groups and trappers to advance the understanding and conservation of Wolverines and caribou in Ontario. As a scientist with WCS, Canada, Matthew has led Wolverine radio, telemetry and camera trapping studies. And winter aerial surveys for Wolverine and caribou tracks. Top understand the longterm changes in their distribution. So put on your snowsuit and join us as we learn more about the elusive and powerful Wolverine. Awesome, and we're chatting about the Wolverine today. I'm very excited. I think I first found out about Wolverines was through this like super cheesy 90s movie Iron Will and it's like a dog sledding movie and there's a Wolverine in it. A taxi in it, actually. So that's how I got introduced to wolverine, but perhaps not everybody listening is super familiar with wolverine. So could you tell us a little bit about what is a wolverine?

Matthew 2:09

Yeah, so wolverines are a mustelid, so they're a weasel. Same family as, for example, an otter or a fisher. They actually look quite a bit like a, like a fisher. Kind of a very small fisher. But they, you know, they've been called kind of a small bear. They, they do resemble a bear. They're they're very low to the ground. When you see them run, they kind of look like you've ever watched National Geographic and seen like a, a like a hyena running across the prairie, they actually kind of have a similar gait as a hyena, but they, they move very you know, very low to the ground and low center of gravity and they're, they're very active. You know, when you see them moving through the forest, you know, they're constantly sniffing and,

Meredith 2:49

the.

Matthew 2:50

and

Meredith 2:51

let's

Matthew 2:52

their environment and looking for for food. But they, they weigh like a male is, say about. Average about 35 pounds

Meredith 3:01

Okay.

Matthew 3:02

Say 20 pounds. So they, they're sexually dimorphic. They have the males are bigger than the females. But they, in the wild, they probably live somewhere between nine and 11 years.

Meredith 3:13

I,

Matthew 3:15

to day for a wolverine, you know, I think for most of the year, you know, males are very and females as well. They have an intersexual territoriality so they're very Keyed into defending their their home range. So a male has a range that's almost a thousand square kilometers and he patrols that and and keeps other out of there so basically he has kind of exclusive breeding rights with the other females that are within his territory and he There might be maybe two females. That live within his home range and they'll have a,

Meredith 3:47

So I'm

Matthew 3:47

you know, a home range of somewhere between three and four hundred square kilometers. So are also very territorial. So they, they're not letting other adult females into their range. But yeah, I mean, their strategy is to move, you know, they're, they're a generalist species. They're, they're a scavenger. They're also, they're pretty good at hunting as well, but. you know, they're moving. The more they move, the more they defend their territory, the more they have a chance of,

Meredith 4:12

you

Matthew 4:13

to eat. For example, let's say a wolf,

Meredith 4:15

decade,

Matthew 4:17

you know, a pack of wolves killed a caribou or they killed a moose. You know, the, the remnants of that meal is, is, is something that the wolverines would focus on.

Meredith 4:26

Let's see.

Matthew 4:31

what's left of the scraps. Males and females will do that. But you know, we see some evidence that, you know, females like to kind of key in on, for example, killing snowshoe hare. So we'll get into a a wolverine will, for example, spend a whole bunch of time in one specific area. And my crew and myself will, will go into that area after, after they've left. And, and a female, for example, might go into a real thick, you know, black spruce or early sorrel vegetation forest. And she'll live in there for, for days on end hunting snowshoe hare. And you'll go in there and you'll see her tracks moving around.

Meredith 5:05

and I'm going

Matthew 5:06

piles of,

Meredith 5:08

you

Matthew 5:09

fur. And you'll see her little the, the female's beds. Where she's kind of rested and, and kind of digested her food, she'll have a latrine and a bed. And yeah, she'll spend a whole bunch of time in there just hunting snowshoe hare. Males will do the same thing grouse, for example, they'll hunt grouse in Snow Shire, but You know, we see a lot of evidence that males are pretty good at killing beavers And, again, you know, their strategy is to move around a lot Try to find some opportunistic food resources,

Meredith 5:37

No, no.

Matthew 5:54

by a wolverine, and,

Meredith 5:56

we're

Matthew 5:58

idea, but a lot of times in the spring, you know, there'll still be ice on a beaver pond, and the The, the beaver might have exhausted its food supply, its cash that's under that ice, so it actually is forced to come out onto the snow

Meredith 6:12

we're

Matthew 6:14

to eat you know, take down an aspen tree or something like that. And, and wolverines, males particularly, really key in on that time in, in And killing and killing the beavers that aren't because at that point, those beavers, they don't even have a lake open water to escape to from the, from the wolverines or, or wolves do the same thing to these beavers. So

Meredith 6:33

and

Matthew 6:35

we've tracked a wolverine. Got out to a beaver pond and the wolverines actually been inside the lodge

Meredith 6:40

day.

Matthew 6:42

as we stood on the lodge. We had no idea it was in there, but you know, it actually sounded like an airplane was flying overhead, you know, and it's happened multiple times. But it's just a deep kind of, the coral growl and the wolverine was actually in the beaver lodge and, and they'll reside in those lodges. I mean,

Meredith 7:01

Okay.

Matthew 7:07

Yeah, I mean, that's kind of their, you know, that's, that's the day to day for much of the year. I think when you know, reproduction is different you know, they're going to be mating sometime in the early summer and they've, they have a pretty long mating season. And then you know, the female will go into her den sometime in February And continue that through, through the spring, but, so, so she has a little bit of a different life history at times,

Meredith 7:32

So, obviously carnivorous creatures, sounds like they're pretty fierce. They've got a growl that sounds like an airplane going So is this a pretty species? Like, what's their range look like? Where could you find a wolverine? Can you find a wolverine? Are they difficult to find?

Matthew 7:52

Yeah, so they are difficult to find and wolverines have a circumpolar Circumboreal distribution, so you'll find them in northern, northern latitudes. You'll find them in Scandinavia, Russia, Mongolia, you know North, northern parts of Asia and then northern parts of North America. So in North America, for example, they'll extend all the way down into the contiguous United States in those high elevation alpine habitats. As you move and they'll continue up that kind of spine of the Rockies into northern BC and Alberta. And then they start becoming more of a boreal species. So, you know, in the mountains they're, they're getting that cold, snowy habitat that they need by going high up in elevation. But as you go northern, to northern latitudes that kind of comes down in elevation into the boreal, right? You have colder climates, more snow as you get further up into the boreal forest, say north of like 56 degrees latitude in a place like Alberta. In, in Ontario where, where I work there, there's you know, you'll find them north about 52 degrees north latitude, you can kind of think of them as existing in, in three primary ecosystems. You have the alpine and the alpine tundra. You have the boreal which, which is a pretty vast portion of their range. And then you have the arctic tundra but those are, and they have a slightly different ecology in each of those areas.

Meredith 9:12

I actually didn't know that they had a range outside of North America. So they're circumpolar. That's very cool. And and the fact that they're even in North America, they have these three different habitats. So do you focus your work on one of the habitat ranges or do you work with wolverines throughout their range?

Matthew 9:33

yeah, when I first started working with wolverines I worked on a study in Yellowstone in the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness, and me and the crew, we worked in live trapping wolverines in the Absarokas and, like, Cook City to Gardner, Montana,

Meredith 9:48

going

Matthew 9:49

of winters with the U. S. Forest Service. So that's kind of how I got introduced to working with them. Then I, I started working with them in, in Northern Alberta so in the Boreal Forest, and I did a study there as part of my, my PhD so the Boreal Forest, and then I, I moved to Ontario and I continued doing work with wolverines in Ontario and that again was in the boreal forest. So I'd say in the last 10 15 years I've started to focus on wolverine ecology in the boreal forest relative to the mountains or the arctic tundra.

Meredith 10:24

I mean, it sounds like you've been working with this animal for a long time. What does studying these animals actually? Look like, like, is it remote? A lot of remote field work. do you find these animals? What equipment do you use?

Matthew 10:41

I think it depends on your question, you know, exactly the methods that you're going to use for, for studying the species, but it's very true that there are difficult species to study in many places. They are considered data deficient which, you know, in particular, we, we really lack data on abundance distribution and, and these fitness metrics that are very important for understanding wildlife populations. What is their survival, for example, and how and their reproductive output and how maybe reproductive output changes with the condition of habitat. We don't have a lot of that information because of how difficult the species is to study. For example, you take a species like moose or grizzly bears or caribou. You can.

Meredith 11:23

do

Matthew 11:24

aerial surveys and you can look at you know, if you're, if you're talking about caribou, you can look at cow calf ratios, but with a grizzly bear, you can see a sow and cubs in the Alpine. You can get, you can get metrics to look at reproductive output and, and the health of the population that way. You can't really do that with wolverines. A lot of times we have to look at. Metrics that are surrogates for fitness,

Meredith 11:44

have.

Matthew 11:45

Occupancy or distribution or, or some, some sort of estimate of abundance. But you know, maybe partition the Wolverine research into kind of invasive and non invasive methods. You have Radio telemetry work and I've done quite a bit of that. In, in the boreal forest, we've, we've cracked upwards of 100 individual wolverines with iridium GPS collars. And with that, those types of data, you get a very fine scale understanding of movement, habitat use, you can understand what they're eating, because you can track them and you know, track them after they've given you GPS points you can understand their survival you get very, very good level data but, but still it's, it's somewhat limited in your sample size and the number of individuals that you're able to capture. and, and track. And you're also often limited in your scale. When you, when you're doing live trapping, you, you have a system of live traps and you have to maintain these live traps on a 24 hour basis. So if you spread your live traps too far, you can't get to those traps quick enough to work with the animals and release them. so you have to kind of keep the, keep the study area focused to what your crew can, can do and, So, so it limits you to some extent. There's tradeoffs. may, you might not be able to sample as many individuals, but you get much more fine scaled information on how they're using habitats. Camera trapping is something that I've done quite a bit with as well. And that's setting up a big grid of, of motion sensor cameras. And you bait these, you know, Camera sites, oftentimes with a lure or you bait them with chunks of meat, track the animal, the wolverine into it, and when it comes into those sites, it, it'll provide you information on its ID. So it might provide a bit of hair. for DNA,

Meredith 13:38

for participating. Okay.

Matthew 13:41

pattern. Wolverines have unique chest patterns. It's kind of like a human fingerprint. Each wolverine has one, a different one, and you can tell individuals based on that chest picture. And you can also look at sex and reproductive status. These wolverines, we use these things called run poles. So there's some beaver bait hanging from a wire and the, and there's a pole that's aimed right at that beaver bait. there's a motion sensor camera behind the, behind the bait. And the wolverine hops onto that pole to access that beaver bait. And as it reaches up to grab the bait, we get the picture of the chest. We also get a picture of its

Meredith 14:13

to take that

Matthew 14:14

So you can see if there's, for example, teats You know, you can see the reproductive organs, for example, and you can, and you can, tell effect. So those camera type studies, I mean, you, you can ask a lot of different questions if you have If you have enough of those cameras, you can look at distribution you know, what habitats are associated with where these wolverines are showing up, and you can look at information like abundance or density.

Meredith 14:35

the

Matthew 14:36

if you repeat those surveys over time, can get an idea of trend. So if you do one survey in 2020 and another survey in 2030, you can look at changes in density or distribution over time, which is a really key. Metric for monitoring the species and and for providing information for things like population status assessments You can get the same thing with radio telemetry data You can look at the survival of the animal over time and if it has a very low survival then likely the population trend is Is is negative. It's going down. If you have high survival, then the population is probably doing okay. So it's just kind of two different ways of getting at the same thing. We've done quite a bit of aerial surveys for Wolverine tracks in the snow. And right now we're. We're doing these surveys in Northwest Ontario and they were first done by Justina Ray with Wildlife Conservation Society Canada 2004 to 2006 Around Red Lake, Ontario and it was about a 60, 000 square kilometer space flying these surveys looking for

Meredith 15:41

coming

Matthew 15:43

other wildlife tracks to get an idea of The Wolverines distribution over that time and correlates of that distribution, for example, road density or

Meredith 15:51

you

Matthew 15:52

something like that, or other wildlife distribution. How that relates to where wolverines are. We're actually repeating those surveys. We started it last year and we'll finish it again this year. To see if we can look at some sort of change in distribution or occupancy over that 20 year period. Super important for informing population status assessments. But yeah, that's, that's a very different work. You're in a, you're in a plane. Sometimes eight hours, hours a day, very cramped into that plane with a GPS in your hand and a, and a notebook you're just, and you're flying transects and you're looking, you and an observer are looking out either side of the plane, looking for the telltale, Track of a Wolverine, which is generally a three by three gate. And they're often moving on their own. You know, wolves are generally moving in packs, so they're pretty easy to differentiate. Plus, they have a different gait. You know, moose and caribou are also quite a bit easier to tell from a wolverine. So yeah. Yeah, you know, there's genetic work that's done, you know, but as far as the kind of three primary field methods that I can think of, it'd be radio telemetry, these camera trapping projects, and then a these aerial surveys,

Meredith 17:06

You get to see doing these aerial surveys, or does it take a special type of person? Like, I love traveling, I hate flying, so it kind of like it would be my least favorite of the three.

Matthew 17:18

I like to move, you know, on a daily basis. So I think, as do most people, I would imagine, but just sitting cramped in a Plane, I think is the hardest part of doing those surveys. But no, my stomach doesn't doesn't, isn't affected by the moves and turns, but what's interesting as you're going down a transect and say, you look to the left and on a lake you see a Wolverine track along shore, you have to go verify those tracks. So you peel off and then the pilot will do circles around those tracks for maybe a minute or so until you feel very comfortable that it's a Wolverine track. And during those circles, that's, that's probably the time when people who are queasy with flying might find that that method unsettling.

Meredith 18:01

Yeah, I mean, I just think it's impressive that you can tell from a plane what kind of tracks you're looking at. You must have very good eyes.

Matthew 18:09

Flying very low and very slow.

Meredith 18:12

And then for the you must have to wrap the wolverines to be able to put the collars on. Have you touched a wolverine before? Like, what do they feel like? They look so soft.

Matthew 18:29

They are,

Meredith 18:29

Yeah.

Matthew 18:31

You know, it's, it's interesting. I, you know, I think they're all. You know, there's different and it kind of there's differences between the different ages and sexes, you know, a younger Wolverine is, is kind of scrawny like a teenager. They're very, you know, they're using better term but their butt hair is like very long and scraggly. They're not filled out quite yet, and they're a little bit lighter usually than an adult. But the same is said for a really young. female wolverine. They have a different body composition different look than the mature individual, which is, you know, a mature male and a mature female. They are very robust. I mean, they are thick and they are very strong. They have necks that are just about as wide as their heads. So that's what makes, in particular, wolverines very hard. collar is because they can slip these collars so effectively. And you need very, very small collars in order to of make it so the Wolverine's okay with them. So and then you, then you kind of, you kind of get these older Wolverines that,

Meredith 19:33

Okay.

Matthew 19:39

They get very, they're incredibly strong pound for pound and, and their necks are always just crazy to look at. And

Meredith 19:46

Okay.

Matthew 19:50

you know, footage of Mike Tyson when he was younger,

Meredith 19:53

let's

Matthew 19:56

His neck was almost, I think it was almost wider than his ears And that that sometimes is what you get with a Wolverine. And yeah, I kind of compare them to like a, a linebacker in football. You know, they're, they're kind of that body build, but yeah, they're all different and

Meredith 20:10

I'm

Matthew 20:11

In, in Northwest Alberta, I worked with about 45 different individual wolverines. And so I we would live trap those wolverines and, and put collars on them and track them. And in Northwest Ontario, I worked with about 53. Different wolverines. So and you interact with those wolverines on multiple occasions. It's not just a one and done. Oftentimes you will recapture them and later in the winter or later and in subsequent field seasons. So you, you start to know these animals and and Yeah, you get to know them pretty well. A lot of them develop pretty significant scarring on their faces, particularly in the spring when these young wolverines are they, you know, they start kind of getting some pressure from the adults to disperse and, or they disperse and,

Meredith 21:03

And,

Matthew 21:05

resident males, the resident females and

Meredith 21:07

And,

Matthew 21:10

on these young wolverines.

Meredith 21:11

It's going

Matthew 21:14

these older, older wolverines you know, they've had a lifetime of these skirmishes. And they get pretty beat up as they get older.

Meredith 21:22

And

Matthew 21:23

I think you, you find that particularly in a dense population, say for in the Northwest and now Northwest Alberta, there's a much higher density population there. And I think they, the wolverines interact with each other much more often. And, and we noticed a lot more scarring and, and, and, and things like that in, in Alberta, it was in Ontario is a much lower density population. And we didn't notice that as much. We still, it was still. And we still saw it in the population, but not nearly to the extent that we saw in Alberta.

Meredith 21:52

Working with individuals, not to anthropomorphize too much, but like, do you notice their personalities? Do they have a personality? Like, are they cheeky? Are they like weasels in that sense? Or are they just thugs?

Matthew 22:18

are. Very dominant. I mean for example, we'll put a jab stick in through the trap to try to immobilize these wolverines and a big dominant male will just take that jab stick. And just slam it into the slam it into the wall of the live trap. They're just extremely strong and and have a lot of attitude. The younger ones are, they, you know, it's, they don't have that kind of attitude. They're much more submissive. But, you know, there's, there's always certain wolverines in both of those field telemetry studies that I did. The crew, we all started to, you know, realize they had unique personalities. And it was usually based on their level of aggression

Meredith 23:00

Okay, last kind of off the cuff question. Very curious. Do they smell?

Matthew 23:06

You know, if you were to walk into our Wolverine camp, you know, in the middle of a live trapping season after we've been at it for a few months, they would probably be taken back by the smell of our house. Cause all of our gear just smells like Wolverine yeah. I, I might be biased, but I don't find it to be a repulsive smell. It's kind of a sweet kind of Yeah, I mean, it's maybe a little bit of a, yeah, maybe a little bit of a skunky, but not really. It's, it's not a, it's a musky, musky kind of smell. And it's not terribly strong. No, I don't, I don't think it's that bad.

Meredith 23:43

Okay, because sometimes with like, kind of, I mean, I guess maybe it's the comparison to hyenas. Cause I was like shocked when I saw hyenas for the first time and I was like, wow, they They really have an odor, like you could, and I was shocked that you could smell them. So an animal must, they're musculates, right?

Matthew 24:02

They're mustelids, yeah.

Meredith 24:04

so I was like, maybe they have an odor, but I mean, I guess that's nice that they're not too pungent, or at least. Not to somebody who works with them all the time, maybe the uninitiated might detect a smell, but what's your favorite thing about working with wolverines?

Matthew 24:19

Well Yeah, I guess from a personal perspective, I I very much enjoy being in wild places and being in the bush. I love driving snowmobiles. I love running chainsaws. I love snowshoeing and you know,

Meredith 24:34

going to

Matthew 24:36

around out there, being a part of the bush.

Meredith 24:38

A

Matthew 24:40

You know, I've had the,

Meredith 24:41

Okay.

Matthew 24:42

fortune of being able to do that for a career.

Meredith 24:44

Okay. Okay.

Matthew 24:46

and I think one of the

Meredith 24:47

Okay. Okay.

Matthew 24:50

parts of the work is, you know, you get these collars on the wolverines, for example, and, and they, these iridium collars, so they transmit GPS locations to us on a daily basis. then we go and we visit those locations and these locations can be in the middle of nowhere. so the crew you know, we'll wake up in the morning and we'll look the wolverines were the prior day. we'll come up with a plan on how to get into some of these spots. And it usually requires, you know, a truck drive followed by a snowmobile ride followed by a pretty, you know, long snow too. So it's an adventure getting into these spots and then you get into them and you never exactly know what you're going to find. Wolverines always surprise you. And sometimes the scenes are quite gory. I mean, it's the Wolverine has.

Meredith 25:36

you

Matthew 25:38

and you are there kind of doing CSI and trying to figure out exactly what happens. Sometimes you get there and it's just a dead site, but you're always, it's just every single time you went out to those sites,

Meredith 25:50

last

Matthew 25:51

of wolverine ecology. Increased substantially and I think we visited, I bet we visited close to a thousand sites between the two locations over the course of those studies and got a very good understanding of their ecology by this, this backtracking work. something you can't really do with cameras so well and you can't really do with aerial surveys so well, you really get that information from from tracking them on the ground. Yeah, I think from a conservation perspective, I, I feel privileged to be able to work, you know, with a species like Wolverine and you know, I like, I like being able to, know, be an ambassador for them and, and speak for them when policies or, initiatives are put forward that I don't agree with or that go against the science that I that I have I, I try to you know, be an ambassador and speak up for them. So. You know, I take that role seriously and I, and I enjoy being able to you know, aid in the conservation of the species you know, species that I respect immensely. So,

Meredith 26:55

So I guess on that note, what are the threats this like pretty tough animal?

Matthew 27:02

yeah I guess I kind of think of it as Of threats, and I think it depends on

Meredith 27:07

going to

Matthew 27:13

exist is, is climate change and global warming. They are cold snow adapted species. They have big paws, allow them to float over the surface of the snow. They have a thick hide, stocky build. They have jaws that are just made for crushing through frozen meat and bones. You know, they're physiologically adapted to those types of environments. They like to den, have their reproductive dens in these snow caves. You know, the timing of reproduction is very much timed with the the, the weather patterns and, and when there's lots of snow to make these snow, snow caves. So Yeah, it is a serious concern climate change and that might be affecting the ecology of the species and the stress that it's putting on those species. You know, they have all these other threats they're dealing with, trapping they're dealing with industrial development, they're dealing with recreation, but, but add on top of that, climate change, and maybe physiologically they're not quite as robust anymore, and the reproductive output isn't quite as great anymore. Add, add on to that, you know, lots of local harvest. Add on to that an industrial footprint that's changing the, the community of other wildlife in that area. Maybe there's a few more competitors that are The wolverine has to deal with, or there's a few more predators, or maybe they're one prey species is, is kind of changing and distribution because of human activities or even because of climate change add, you know, recreation to that know, and you have,

Meredith 28:41

for being

Matthew 28:42

Going out and you know, getting into these high elevation basins, for example, to, to back country ski or, or going down seismic lines and winter roads on their snowmobiles. All these things add up and you know, global warming and climate change is just kind of like, you know,

Meredith 28:59

job, you gotta find

Matthew 29:01

it adds to it and it just makes them weaker. But I'd say.

Meredith 29:05

get. You know?

Matthew 29:06

Industrial development is also just something that is affecting particularly at the southern end of their distribution in the, in the boreal forest say up to 58 or 60 degrees north latitude. You know, you also have industrial development down through the mountains into the contiguous United States where the species is threatened. Actually, it was just recently listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in the contiguous U. S., not in, not in Alaska, but Yeah, you know, an industrial development has a lot of different effects on the species but one of them is

Meredith 29:38

to see.

Matthew 29:40

changing land cover. You're putting roads out there. You're putting seismic lines, oil and gas wells.

Meredith 29:46

com And

Matthew 29:50

avoid them. So you're reducing the amount of habitat available to them. And you're you're also reducing the quality of that habitat. So that could be affecting reproduction.

Meredith 30:00

a

Matthew 30:03

of industrial development is just creating access. Thank you. to wolverine habitats that never existed before. Wolverines generally like intact landscapes with few people. And so you have this industrial development, you have roads, you have seismic lines, pipelines you know, it's rails. You're getting people that are moving into these things. It's creating an interface for interactions with wolverines, which don't always end up well for the species. For example you might get more people moving into wolverine habitats and setting up traps traps for wolves, traps for fishers, traps for lynx. Wolverines get caught in those as well. So you're increasing their mortality. It's a species that has a very low reproductive rate. It's a species that moves a lot and exists at very low densities. If you increase that mortality just a little bit, And lots of research has shown what effect that has on the population trend, because the margins are so thin with the species. can't take much extra mortality above kind of baseline natural mortality and industrial developments

Meredith 31:08

yeah, I'd

Matthew 31:09

oftentimes will create. interface for additional mortality for wolverines. Recreation is a big issue for the species. That's, you know, that's not only on trails, but that's also off trails. So this is kind of a unique, you know, high elevation mountain habitats. They, at one point, those were de facto wilderness for the species. That has changed now. You know, people are moving into these for and things. females in their denning habitats. Yeah, and just reducing the quality of habitat. is a particular concern in the, in the, in the mountain habitats for wolverines because That habitat is not nearly as continuous as you might when you get up into the boreal. It's, you know, it's pretty much forest and habitat everywhere you go besides some lakes, at least in the summer. They're not great habitat in the winter. Wolverines move across them all the time. But

Meredith 32:03

you

Matthew 32:05

edges of their distribution, you, you see, You get into mountain habitat, and that becomes very patchy in distribution. So the species is existing in lower densities, and it's,

Meredith 32:16

kind

Matthew 32:18

high quality patches

Meredith 32:19

you

Matthew 32:21

You know, going in there and disturbing those areas has a much wider, larger effect on the, on the species.

Meredith 32:28

So, two part question to follow up. Are there best practices for people who are recreating in these areas? Or is it there just needs to be exclusion areas to protect these species? Or are there best practices for people who Who are trapping?'cause I'm assuming these are for the most part, legal trappers who are out there and wolverines are, you know, incidental are unfortunate casualties of their activities. So are there best practices Yeah. For people who are out in this space? And then some, are there things that people can do who maybe aren't out in the wilderness to, to help the species?

Matthew 33:13

Yeah, in regards to trapping there, there is legal commercial harvest for the species in many areas. In Alberta, you can harvest one legally. In, in BC, for the most part, there is no quota on the species. Region four, the Kootenai region just recently did get rid of wolverine harvest. Throughout much of their range, there is, there is no quota for this species. Saskatchewan Manitoba. When you get to the eastern edge of their distribution, and the southern edge of their distribution, that changes because but, in, in Ontario, for example, where I'm based in the, in northwest Ontario, there is no legal commercial harvest. They're considered a threatened species, just like caribou. There's still Indigenous people are still allowed to harvest the species, but there is no commercial harvest. So, you know, in a place like Alberta or Ontario, that's where you start having this issue with incidental harvests, you know, bringing trappers above what their quota is. Not always, yeah, and it's often not purposefully, they don't, they get their quota, they're not trying to crop another one, but sometimes wolverines will go into lake snares. Or they will go into wolf snares, or even get their paw stuck in a martenset. So yeah, there, there are best practices trappers can use to reduce that incidental harvest. For example are very height dependent and that's the height above the snow to target.

Meredith 34:44

and

Matthew 34:45

travel at a different height above the snow than a wolverine does. keep those snares maintained well with new snow pack, then you have a much higher chance of, of getting, getting your target species like a like wolf versus a version of the wolverine. You know, you can, you can your traps better to trees and things so that the wolverine can pull itself free. It's incredibly strong and it can break snares. It can, it can potentially even pull itself out of a martin a martin set. So there's also these breakaways that trappers can use. So at a certain pressure you know, wolverines are pulling harder on traps than a lynx does. And at a certain pressure, if you have a snare a link snare, it might break for a Wolverine, but it'll keep your target

Meredith 35:34

how

Matthew 35:37

are ways, and and most of the trappers I work with are, are very cognizant. of this, and they do not want to trap extra wolverines, and they, they go through a lot of effort to to reduce that incidental harvest.

Meredith 35:51

called

Matthew 35:52

right? I mean, wolverines are a scavenger, and they are putting, trappers are putting stinky things,

Meredith 35:58

about

Matthew 35:59

meals on the landscape for the species, for wolverines to go after. So,

Meredith 36:03

way

Matthew 36:04

it happens. And it's just trying to reduce that. have very low reproductive rates, so we have to be really careful about that incidental harvest. Thanks. So those are some best management practices for trappers you know, as far as like recreation, you know, if you're skiing up into a drainage and, and you see a concentration of wolverine tracks somewhere while there's, and it's, and it's during the denning seasons, say mid February to mid May. It's, it would be best if you just turned around and left that drainage and left that to the wolverine to have her kit and you know, you can return in the summer. So it's, it's an idea of like a timing restriction and, and applying that to heli heliskiing companies, that to other backcountry recreationalists. Hey, stay out of these areas.

Meredith 36:46

need to

Matthew 36:47

the time when we know these females are having their kits and we don't want them to have to move because if they move it's stressful on the female, stressful on the kits, and it has the potential to affect the female's reproductive success and her reproductive output.

Meredith 37:04

The kids vulnerable when the mom is moving them. If she has to move them. Or is she pretty fierce?

Matthew 37:13

yeah. I mean, they're altricial when they're born. So they're, they're blind and they're they don't have a lot of, you know, fur and things like that. So they are very vulnerable. And as they get older, they get a little bit more robust, like later in that they grow very, very quickly. But

Meredith 37:28

going to

Matthew 37:30

you know, that female is probably picking a site to set up that initial,

Meredith 37:33

end

Matthew 37:35

for a reason. It's probably very robust. It's a very good structure. In the mountains, for example, it might be a

Meredith 37:41

U.

Matthew 37:44

a big rock.

Meredith 37:47

Okay,

Matthew 37:49

avalanche debris. Tons of structure, tons of deep burrowing areas. You know she, she picked that area. She created that site because it's secure and it's, and it's good for her kits.

Meredith 38:00

Okay, we'll just

Matthew 38:05

but you would imagine that her

Meredith 38:07

through

Matthew 38:09

secure as the one that she picked originally. So, so yeah, I think there is a risk to those, to those females by forcing them to,

Meredith 38:17

you

Matthew 38:19

Disturbance.

Meredith 38:20

And then for people who aren't in the backcountry landscape, what can those people do to help the species perhaps from afar? Is it voting, climate change activism?

Matthew 38:32

Yeah, you know, I think, So, for example, when, when policies are, you know, enacted for the species to, to speak up about them if you think they're detrimental to the species you know, to, to speak up about them and let your legislature or, or a minister or whatever know that, that you disagree and, and that you care about the species and

Meredith 38:54

to,

Matthew 38:55

and, and just

Meredith 38:56

To,

Matthew 38:58

support initiatives that

Meredith 39:00

To,

Matthew 39:02

in a smart and sensible way at very broad scales with, with Wolverines, we,

Meredith 39:08

to,

Matthew 39:09

scales, they move over large distances, they need lots of good habitat, you know, small piecemeal conservation of land and stuff isn't, doesn't, it helps, but it doesn't do a lot.

Meredith 39:20

Okay.

Matthew 39:22

in larger land use.

Meredith 39:23

you all

Matthew 39:25

For example forest management plans. Citizens have lots of people have lots of opportunities to, to comment on forest management planning processes. They have

Meredith 39:36

me?

Matthew 39:37

parks are managed and, and how industrial development is laid out

Meredith 39:41

Yes.

Matthew 39:42

You know, in wolverine habitats, those all can be caught. Those are all often based on policies that can be commented on and

Meredith 39:51

Okay.

Matthew 39:54

on them and, and, and just expressing interest in the species and the health of the species. I really do think That helps quite a bit. they are a species that flies under the radar. They're not a polar bear. which gets lots of attention. They're not a caribou, which gets lots of attention. People are always paying attention to moose because they like to harvest them. Or elk. Or deer. But wolverines really fly under the radar and I think making sure that they are top of mind for people who are making these big decisions about how large swaths of habitat are recreated in how they're

Meredith 40:30

Yeah.

Matthew 40:33

For example, the ring of fire region in northern Ontario. There's a lot of interest in building roads into northern Ontario. That is a vast roadless habitat right now. There's, there's a few roads that go to indigenous communities. Communities up there, but for the most part it is intact and is one of the last intact boreal landscapes on the globe. And there's lots of interest in going up there to take out take out mineral resources in places like Webiquay and Martin Falls. And so, yeah. We need to just, lots of land use planning initiatives going on at various scales to try to plan for that development. And I think having an active voice in that trying to be an ambassador for wolverines I think is, you know, is an important way to help the species.

Meredith 41:20

Yeah, I think that that is great. And I've heard of these ring of fire. Like, they've been talking about this for so long and it definitely needs to be, you know, not further explored, but the consequences need to be further evaluated. It feels like before people start rushing in and trying to extract all the minerals there. so yes, definitely keep a, keep a finger on that. And also if there's any. You know, management plans that are coming up, and you want to share them, like, place them in my way, and I will, you know, try and get those out too, because I do think it's really important to try and stay on top of, but sometimes there's so much to stay on top of, you know, and wolverines definitely deserve a voice just like all the other boreal species. Do you have a favorite memory from working with wolverines?

Matthew 42:12

You know,, it's hard to say. I I will say that when I worked in northwest Alberta, I worked quite closely with the Dene, Dene Tal First Nation. They were based out of Assumption, and to the west, a high level Alberta and so I worked a lot with their, their their students and we would come out and they'd come out in the field and help build live traps or they'd I'd give presentation to the students or they were involved in various ways in the research because it was great. It was right on their traditional lands. And I think one of the more powerful experiences was you know, we, we had a trap go down one morning. And so the field crew and myself went out to this down trap and we saw it was a Wolverine. We, we had an agreement with with the school that, that a busload of kids might come out if there was a trap that was close to assumption and And the wolverine had just gone in so we, so it wouldn't have to stay in that trap very long. And so we were kind of, as we, the, the kids came from Assumption as we were getting ready to, to do an immobilization. But

Meredith 43:15

be

Matthew 43:17

there's just a really powerful thing to see these, these kids like, look know, look directly at this wolverine because just the history between those people and that species is just so rich and just amazing. And I think to see them. Interact in that way was just, it was very powerful for me. And I hope there's, you know, powerful for them too.

Meredith 43:38

Maybe you sparked, you know, some more Wolverine activists with, you know, getting people out and getting to help with your work, I guess, last sort of question, not so much about the Wolverine, but more about you. How did you even get involved working with Wolverines? I know it was back in the States, but what, what put you down this path? Yeah.

Matthew 44:00

Yeah, I mean, I, I do think I, I, I have you know, I have a passion for the environments where the species exist. I feel like that's kind of a, a bit of a generic answer to that question. But I I love spending time in the bush. And, you know, in the forest, I, I love to hunt, I love to fish. And, you know, having a career,

Meredith 44:21

friend.

Matthew 44:23

wolverines and in the places that they exist, which is very enticing to me and, you know, I, I think a science career is very interesting because it, an ecology career is interesting because it does, if you, if you play it right, you, you can both spend a lot of time out in the bush

Meredith 44:39

that was an

Matthew 44:41

to know your species and collecting data. Having adventures in that way. But you also, I really like the technical aspect of science and the writing and the, the analyses and things like that. And the conferences and working with other scientists and you know, communicating your research. So it's kind of a, it's a great meld of both worlds. At another level, you know, when I had done my master's at Montana State University studying beavers and I, you know, during that time I had,

Meredith 45:10

trustees

Matthew 45:11

a researcher from the University of Alberta, Mark Boyce, a number of times. And so I was very, I knew a lot about his research and

Meredith 45:17

board

Matthew 45:19

interested in what he was doing and you know, I, I happened, he happened to post a job ad or a PhD opportunity for a Wolverine researcher Wolverine PhD opportunity. And I was like, well, this is perfect. I get to work with this species that. You know, I'm very interested in, but I also get to work with, you know, Dr. Boyce, you know, up in, up in Alberta. So it just kind of worked really well. And then, you know, it's kind of snowballed from there. And you know, I work, I still work quite a lot with wolverines and, you know, I work with caribou a bit too, and beavers. But For the most part a lot of my work is focused on Wolverines.

Meredith 45:53

And sometimes it just comes down to timings and then, you know, looking back, it looks so straight forward, but getting yours feels usually a little different and it's a little bit of chance, but that's great. And then last question before I let you go, how do you feel about Wolverine, the comic book character? Okay.

Matthew 46:11

You know, I do not watch those I don't watch the, you know, the Marvel, I think it is series. So I but yeah, I mean, he's got, you know, huge claws, and he's got, you know, he's got the fur, he's got the hair, so.

Meredith 46:24

from Northern Canada,

Matthew 46:26

Yeah, to be honest, I'm not that tuned into that that, that part of it, but yeah, and I don't know how much the the, the Marvel guys tuned into the Wolverine, the actual species. I think there is a disconnect between, between the two, but

Meredith 46:42

some people might know more about the comic book character than they do about the actual Wolverine that inspired character.

Matthew 46:50

I think that's very true.

Meredith 46:52

this will change that.

Matthew 46:53

Yeah, that'd be great.

Meredith 46:55

Okay. Well, thank you so much for, for taking the time to chat with me.

Matthew 46:58

Thanks a lot for having me, Marnus.

Meredith 47:00

That's a wrap on the Wolverine, a massive thank you to Matthew Strafford for taking the time to share his research with us. And if you loved this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review. It helps rarefied reach more people who care about the planet. It's rare creatures. And don't forget to follow us on Instagram at rarefied dot pod and sign up for our newsletter on our website for updates and behind the scenes content, we'll be taking a short break over the holidays. But when we come back in January, we aren't wasting any time. We will be introducing our first rare reptile. You won't want to miss it. So until next time, get out there and explore the wild because every species has a story and every one of us can make a difference.