Where would you set for this critter?

[JonnyA]

Hey all,

Just got a picture of a wolverine from my collaborator in AK. It was taken with a trail cam trail in the floodplain of a stream, on a game trail of sorts. In a month I'll be up there and have a couple weeks to camera trap.

If you were going for wolverine, where on this landscape would you set?

Last year I found wolverine tracks on the silty edge of an alcove, so I set on a gravel bear nearby. Put out scent and feather visual lure but no takers. Only had about a week and it was raining hard, so was slim odds.

The gravel bars are appealing cause you can get a nice view of the mountains, elsewhere along the river the tall grass and thick willows make it tough to set. The alpine ridgelines would be cool but I have no idea how often they get traveled, not easy to access either cause the thick alder on the approach.

Any ideas appreciated!

thanks
Jonny

[Kalon]

Hey all,

Just got a picture of a wolverine from my collaborator in AK. It was taken with a trail cam trail in the floodplain of a stream, on a game trail of sorts. In a month I'll be up there and have a couple weeks to camera trap.

If you were going for wolverine, where on this landscape would you set?

Last year I found wolverine tracks on the silty edge of an alcove, so I set on a gravel bear nearby. Put out scent and feather visual lure but no takers. Only had about a week and it was raining hard, so was slim odds.

The gravel bars are appealing cause you can get a nice view of the mountains, elsewhere along the river the tall grass and thick willows make it tough to set. The alpine ridgelines would be cool but I have no idea how often they get traveled, not easy to access either cause the thick alder on the approach.

Any ideas appreciated!

thanks
Jonny

Wow, great landscape and wolverine image!

That looks like ideal wolverine habitat. You'll be there during the summer, maybe you'll get images of an adult traveling with kits. Here are some thoughts to consider for determining a suitable location for your camera: Sounds like you have already found wolverine tracks in the area from a previous trip. That is an excellent place to start. Based on wolverine reports and personal experience, wolverine will often travel ~9-14 day circuits. Males have territories ~250 square miles and females half that size. I have logged hundreds of miles backtracking wolverine with GPS. It is truly amazing to view many years of backtrack data layered with GIS and learn empirically that wolverine maintain regular trails throughout their territories. This is why your wolverine track is a good starting place. Secondly, consider locating a boulder nearby with an overhang or niche located under it that has evidence of wolverine visits....scat and/or prey remains. Wolverine seem to key in on these boulder overhangs for thermal regulation during summer, caching food, stashing kits, scent marking and overall rendezvous sites. These boulders sites are not easy to find, but if you do locate one you have hit the jackpot for setting up a camera station. The landscape photo you attached looks intriguing and I suspect there are such boulders or rock overhangs within the area. Regardless, that is classic gulo country!!!

Wolverine video link illustrating one of several boulder sites I have found over the years. (No bait or lure used):
https://www.dropbox.com/s/gh2s64vo9vx0o ... s.wmv?dl=0

The really good news is there is a very high density of wolverine in this region of Alaska. One report that I read, Magoun et al, cites 9.7 per 1000 sq killometers. WOW! "Magoun et al. (2010) used a remote camera array and a spatial capture-recapture model to estimate 9.7 (5.9–15.0) wolverines/1000 km2 in southeast Alaska."

Your visual lure sounds like a great idea too. Maybe a good long distance call lure would help too? Though, not sure what a good lure would be for Alaska.

I can hardly wait to see the gulo-riffic images!

Cheers,
Kalon

[JonnyA]

Thanks a ton Kalon!

I'll try to get my friends up there to scout out some boulders with overhangs. That video was awesome! It'd be really cool to take a picture of one boulder overhangs with a thermal infrared camera and see the temperature patterns.

I visited this area on a snowmobile in March 2013 and saw a wolverine perched on top of a massive chunk of ice in an avalanche debri flow--couldn't see it well but seeing it's tracks go up the avalanche was really cool.

I'll try some gusto this time, last year I used castoreum and violator-7, which is like gusto but not as strong and somehow smells even worse.

Thanks a lot for the info.

[cameratrapcodger]

Don't know how I missed this exchange, but how exciting to see you guys going for wolverine. Kalon's video is a real treat, and Jonny's landscape is awesome. Good luck to both of you.

[tiger hunter]

Jonny,

That looks like some truly amazing country to do a camera trap project after wolverine and other species that inhibit the area...wish you luck with your project...!