Wolverine—winter recreation research project: investigating the interactions between wolverines and winter recreation

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The authors have completed 5 winters of research detailing the interactions between wolverines and winter recreation, including the GPS tracking of both wolverines and winter recreationists in 3 study areas in central Idaho and 2 in the western Yellowstone area. They gathered movement and habitat use information on 17 wolverines and collected over 4,500 tracks of winter recreationists. A report in 2013 detailed past efforts, and this report updates that information with data and analyses completed in 2014, when the authors undertook a wolverine and recreation monitoring effort across 3 study areas and captured and GPS-collared 8 wolverines. Nearly 2,000 GPS tracks were collected, including for both backcountry skiers in the Teton Mountains and snowmobilers in the Centennial and Henry mountain ranges in areas that overlap GPS-collared wolverines and potential wolverine habitats. These new data were compiled with prior data. As suggested previously, wolverines, including denning females, appear to tolerate winter recreation in their home ranges. Based on preliminary findings, potential wolverine habitats that have even high levels of winter recreation may support resident wolverines despite the potential human disturbance. However, wolverines exposed to higher levels of winter recreation within their home range may show avoidance of these areas of recreation, suggesting potential threshold effects. While these ‘high recreation’ wolverines may avoid recreated areas, they are still found within locally intense recreation areas 22% of the time, but with elevated movement rates. Wolverines that reside in landscapes of lower recreation amounts are only found within high-recreated areas 6% of the time, but show much higher movement rates than their ‘high recreation’ cousins. Additionally, the authors find that denning females show much higher movement rate increases in response to high recreation areas than non-denning females do. There appears to be potential for some level of habituation, but energetic implications are clearly an area of needed additional research and analyses as researchers seek to understand these complex interactions. The authors require an additional year (winter 2014-2015) of field research in the western Yellowstone area and hope also to continue monitoring resident wolverines in the central Idaho study areas. This winter will be followed by a year (2016) of data analysis, reporting, and outreach to agencies and stakeholders.

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ELECTRONIC FILE - Zoology

SWAP (2/19/2016) citation:
Heinemeyer K and Squires J. 2014. Idaho wolverine—winter recreation research project: investigating the interactions between wolverines and winter recreation. 2014 Progress Report. Salt Lake City (UT): Round River Conservation Studies. 18 p. [accessed 2015 Dec 14]. http://wolverinefoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/Wolverine-Wint...