Very cool critters, and let’s hope the region isn’t closed off to human activity due to their reemergence in the mountains. :)
Elusive wolverine makes its first Sierra appearance in years
By Tom Knudson - tknudson@sacbee.com
Published 12:00 am PST Wednesday, March 5, 2008
TRUCKEE – The high school mascot in this mountain town may be the wolverine, but none of the students has ever spotted one of the elusive forest carnivores, known for their voraciousness and distaste for civilization.
Even scientists who have looked far and wide, tromping almost the entire span of the Sierra Nevada from Mount Whitney in the south to Mount Lassen up north – have found nothing. The last confirmed Sierra wolverine was shot as a scientific specimen in 1922.
Last year, a team of scientists reported that the wolverine – a chocolate-brown weasel the size of a border collie but as vicious as a grizzly bear – had apparently vanished from the Sierra long ago, squeezed out by human activity.
Now one has been found in the Tahoe National Forest north of Truckee. The sighting, captured by a graduate student's remote control camera at a rustic field station, could have widespread implications for future land-use decisions ranging from logging to ski-resort expansion in the fast-growing Truckee region.
Coincidentally, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently reviewing whether to place the wolverine on the endangered species list – a decision that could lead to a new round of spotted owl-style development conflicts.
Potential controversy aside, the discovery was greeted with enthusiasm around Truckee.
