Global Courant 2023-04-15 05:43:42
A series of confirmed sightings of wolverines in Oregon in recent weeks mark the first time the sharp-clawed creature has been documented in the state outside the northeast corner since 1969, conservationists said Thursday.
A video posted by the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife showed the animal descending a snowy hill and crossing a busy two-lane mountain road shortly before a tractor-trailer whizzed by.
The April 6 sighting, which a department spokeswoman said was videotaped by a bystander, was later confirmed by agency biologists who followed the animal’s footprints along Highway 20 in the Cascade Range.
A wolverine was sighted on March 20 by two people fishing on the Columbia River, near Portland, Oregon.Cascadia Wild / via Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife
It’s not clear if the animal is the same as the one captured in a photo last month by two people fishing on the Columbia River near Portland, the department said in a press release. The animal was seen several times in the following days in areas south of the city.
The mountain pass where the wolverine was seen on video is about 130 miles southeast of Portland. The department said long-distance travel is typical for the animal at this time of year when wolverines, known for their stamina and strength, can travel 30 miles a day in search of new territory.
Outside of the Wallowas, a mountain range in northeastern Oregon where the animal was seen in 2022, a wolverine was last spotted in the state in 1969, when a trapper killed one in the Cascades, the department said.
The animals that is on its list of threatened and endangered speciesare rare in the lower United States.
According to the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit that advocates for endangered animals, there were fewer than 300 wolverines in 2020.
Conservation groups have urged the federal government to protect wolverines under the Endangered Species Actwho argued in federal district court in Montana that threats such as climate change and habitat loss threaten to wipe out the animals.
Last year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said a court ordered it to reassess whether the animal should be protected by law. A decision on the matter is expected in November 2023, the agency said.
It’s not clear whether the agency’s move was in response to the lawsuit from the conservation groups. A spokesperson for the agency did not respond to a request for comment Friday afternoon.
