January 2025 - 15

The same adult female from 2023 and an
adult male were caught and collared with GPS
transmitters in January 2024. Although specific
analysis with the GPS data has yet to be
completed, the female's 2024 territory size and
location is similar to the 2023 territory. This
female again had a natal den site in 2024 at a
different location, with one kit documented
during June. A total of 579 locations were
recorded from the male wolverine during
a two-month period with most movements
overlapping within the territory of the collared
female, corroborating the suspicion of
this male being the breeding male within this
female's home range.
More wolverines
Past wolverine surveys, photos from this
project trap site and miscellaneous observations
suggest other occupied wolverine territories
may exist in the Wind River Range. Game
and Fish conducted wolverine surveys during
the winters of 2016-17 and 2021-22 and has
identified up to four unique individuals on
the west side of the range.
Past wolverine surveys, photos
from this project trap site and
miscellaneous observations suggest
that other occupied wolverine
territories may exist in the Wind
River Range.
Photo documentation collected from the
2022-24 project trap site has identified three
individual wolverines, as well as an additional
wolverine that was not documented in the
previous survey from 2021-22. Random wolverine
observations within the Wind River
Range and surrounding ranges have increased
in recent years, indicating an increase in the
presence of wolverines in Wyoming.
Although the majority of wolverine observations
reported and confirmed are from
the northern half of the Wind River Range,
many recent observations have come from
the southern portion of the Wind River
Range. Recent wolverine observations also
have been reported in the north portion of
the Wyoming Range, on private land west of
Pinedale and in the Hoback drainage where
Rusty Kaiser, left, a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist, and Dean Clause, a Wyoming Game and Fish Department biologist,
prepare a GPS collar to be placed on an adult female wolverine in March 2023. (WGFD photo)
few historic observations exist.
Some uncertainty exists to the extent of
which recent wolverine observations correlate
with increased occupancy or expansion of
wolverines. Improved documentation with the
technology of smartphone cameras and videos
may result in increased reporting of observations,
accompanied with increased human
backcountry use of remote and high-elevation
environments in western Wyoming.
What next?
Ongoing and additional data analysis will
focus on the significance of food sources, in
particular hunter harvest carcasses, through
investigation of location clusters and scat analysis
from previously collected information.
Some detailed analysis to document movement
patterns also will be useful.
Several DNA samples have been collected
at various locations and results are pending
to identify individual wolverines and possible
relationships of those wolverines. Future
wolverine data collection efforts will most
likely target efforts on the north and south
portions of the Wind River Range, outside
the documented territories from the previously
collared female and male. These data
collection efforts may include photo documentation
and DNA collection from bait
stations or movement, behavioral and spatial
data through GPS transmitters.
- Dean Clause has been a Game and Fish wildlife
biologist in the Pinedale Region for 21 years.
Wyoming Wildlife | 15

January 2025

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January 2025