Wildlife Not-OT: Wolverines will get no handouts
August 13th, 2014 at 11:03 AM ^
Maybe the wolverine needs to rebrand itself. Some spots on its fur during the fall season would be a nice touch - I hear the kits love it.
August 13th, 2014 at 1:00 PM ^
August 13th, 2014 at 11:03 AM ^
To extend the metaphor, it looks like these wolverines will have to play MANBALL. I think they will be just fine.
August 13th, 2014 at 11:05 AM ^
August 13th, 2014 at 11:14 AM ^
They're extinct in Michigan and the population was once very low in the 48 contiguous states, but I think they've been doing well in Canada and Alaska forever.
August 13th, 2014 at 11:21 AM ^
If anywhere, I believe the only remaining populations in the Lower 48 are in the northern reaches of the Rockies. I believe there was a thread about it, but one was actually spotted in Utah earlier in the year as well, and it was the first sighting in that part of the country since the early 1980s, the article mentioned. At last report, some of the most stable populations of wolverines were to be found in places like Sweden, Finland and, closer to home, parts of Ontario.
August 13th, 2014 at 12:01 PM ^
People thought the one in Utah might have been moved there by humans.
August 13th, 2014 at 1:12 PM ^
Yes, but I don't think that's a deviation from their historical range, and the populations in Washington, Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and Wyoming are, as far as I know, healthy. (A ranger at Glacier National Park told me a couple of summers ago that wolverines were regularly sighted there.)
I used to think that rarely reported sightings of wolverines further into the US were evidence that wolverines were in trouble, but the US Fish and Wildlife Service makes it sound like, for all we know, there weren't ever breeding populations further south than the current range. If you think about it, on the one hand, how long it's been since a wolverine wandered down into Utah or Michigan or California or Colorado does seem like a pretty arbitrary measure of species health. But on the other hand, as we've seen with questions about the health of wolf populations in Michigan, the US Fish and Wildlife Service is not immune to massaging the evidence to support a politically favored outcome.
August 13th, 2014 at 1:16 PM ^
August 13th, 2014 at 1:27 PM ^
Sadly well-played.
August 13th, 2014 at 1:33 PM ^
August 13th, 2014 at 11:48 AM ^
August 13th, 2014 at 11:14 AM ^
But it seems to me that wolverines are more in the business of threatening other species than being a threatened species. Sounds like it's time for the wolverines to execute.
August 13th, 2014 at 11:23 AM ^
Kick ass. Take names. Rinse, repeat.
August 13th, 2014 at 11:25 AM ^
Doesn't seem right. We just need to educate the public a bit. Maybe start by opening a petting zoo or something.
August 13th, 2014 at 11:55 AM ^
An evil petting zoo?
August 13th, 2014 at 12:29 PM ^
August 13th, 2014 at 12:48 PM ^
The ever-so-rare Austin Powers allusion.
August 13th, 2014 at 12:39 PM ^
August 13th, 2014 at 11:27 AM ^
August 13th, 2014 at 12:06 PM ^
They're built pretty low to the ground, so I doubt pad level is a problem.
August 13th, 2014 at 12:10 PM ^
cloaking devices?
August 13th, 2014 at 11:32 AM ^
They gotta show some toughness, and physicalness, as much as anything. That's number one...
August 13th, 2014 at 11:49 AM ^
The FWS director must be a buckeye.
August 13th, 2014 at 10:00 PM ^
Speaking on behalf of all Rocky Mountain Wolverines, this makes us all very unhappy indeed. I am going to find the nearest buckeye tree and gnaw on it for the next hour and a half in protest and disgust. Good day to you.
August 14th, 2014 at 12:16 AM ^
Unprotected??? Damn those sneaky Boilermakers...working behind the scenes on their dasterdly plan to offer up a cuddly Wolverine to their RB/ACL Hating God.