I had occassion this week to converse with a Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks Department "official" whom I have known and trusted for some time. The bottom line is its a virtual certainty that Wolverine Hunting and trapping in Montana has now ended forever. Even though the Wolverine population is healthy and stable at around 300 animals (with a yearly quota for Hunters and trappers of 4 or 5 animals) the state has apparently chosen NOT to "fight" the current, expensive and ongoing court battles any longer! Sad this. I hope my interpretation and conjecture are wrong but reality is starting to set in over this situation (obstructionism by the greenies)! Hold into the wind VarmintGuy
There aren't too many wolverines anywhere they live. Let's do the math:
Most biological surveys, including those in the far north, estimate 5-15 wolverines per 1000 square kilometers. (1000km2=386 square miles.) That's not a lot of animals, but the country they inhabit has very low biological productivity, because it's either high in elevation or very far north, and wolverines reproduce slowly.
Only the western third of Montana has any wolverines, and 1/3 of Montana is about 50,000 square miles. At most about 1/4 of that 50,000 (12,500 square miles) is the real wilderness where wolverines can live. Given 5-15 wolverines per 386 square miles, that means about 162-486 wolverines, an average of 324. Which may or may not be where the Montana game department got their estimate.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
Mule Deer: Yeah... HOW do you count Wolverines??? I was staying a night in a motel (showering) in Buffalo, Wyoming some years ago. I was on a spring Varmint Safari and had 12 Varmint Rifles along. One of the fellows in the room next door saw me unloading my Rifles and struck up a conversation with me. Turns out he was a Wyoming Game Warden biologist and he and his pilot were staying there for several days while working. Turns out they were flying the nearby Bighorn Mountains searching for the distinctive "tracks" of Wolverines in the snow fields of those mountains! Apparently they do this every couple of years or so and they "compare" notes over time for population trends. I had seen their plane flying back and forth in the mountains as I had been Hunting in the high country for Rock Chucks thereabouts over the previous two days. I do remember asking him "how many Wolverines are in Wyoming" and he avoided answering directly but said the population "was stable". A local lady professional photographer here in Dillon got three pictures of a Wolverine this early spring on the road from Silver Star, Montana over the pass (Pipestone?) to Butte and she relayed to me the Wolverine was just a couple miles west of the last homes on the east slope of that range/pass of the Rockies. Anyway I hate to see western Hunters and trappers loose ANY opportunities - the "anti's" and the "greenies" just keep chippin away at us! I especially hate to see lost opportunities for PC type motivations (not based on sound biological reasoning). Hold into the wind VarmintGuy
There aren't too many wolverines anywhere they live.
I am lucky to actually see one in the wild then. Riding back from a point I was hunting from after dusk I saw one scurrying along a tree line before he ducked into the timber.
I've seen two, though only tracks in Montana, and I've spent plenty of time in wolverine country all across North America.
The first one was on a spring brown bear hunt in Alaska a dozen years ago, and the second was on a caribou hunt in the Northwest Territories--when I had a wolverine tag. Made a half-mile stalk and managed to get within 200 yards or so, and the hide is now on my office wall. It was an old male, with some broken teeth, so probably wasn't going to last much longer.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
I'm fine with this. Wolverines aren't hurting anything, and there aren't many around to begin with. We don't need to kill every [bleep] thing in the hills, just because it's there.
For those interested in Wolverines, The Wolverine Way is a really interesting read on these guys.
Prairie_goat: Then I hope YOU will also be "fine with" THIS, when the greens and the anti's come forth with injunctions, lawsuits and the like that stops YOUR favored type Hunting! Wolverine trapping and Hunting is well regulated and has been going on successfully for decades! Your philosophy is short sighted and idiotic as well as being self defeating and self destructive of the Hunting and trapping culture/traditions! Again I hope YOU are going to be fine with any future restrictions and banishments of your favored outdoor recreations! Sheesh! Hold into the wind VarmintGuy
Trail/game cams are proving wolverines are more widespread than believed. They've been caught on camera in Nebraska, Utah, Washington and Michigan and probably more that I don't know about.
"I was born in the log cabin I helped my grandfather build"
Trail/game cams are proving wolverines are more widespread than believed. They've been caught on camera in Nebraska, Utah, Washington and Michigan and probably more that I don't know about.
I agree. I became one just after Obama's second term election success.-Mike
A PHD Won't help you if you don't know what the hell you are talking about.
I've seen two, though only tracks in Montana, and I've spent plenty of time in wolverine country all across North America.
The first one was on a spring brown bear hunt in Alaska a dozen years ago, and the second was on a caribou hunt in the Northwest Territories--when I had a wolverine tag. Made a half-mile stalk and managed to get within 200 yards or so, and the hide is now on my office wall. It was an old male, with some broken teeth, so probably wasn't going to last much longer.
I remember you writing about that. If memory serves you shot it with a Merkel?
BGG insists he saw one this spring. I was inclined to believe him because I have never seen him run so fast.
But at the end of the day I decided he was FOS.
Travis
Originally Posted by Geno67
Trump being classless,tasteless and clueless as usual.
Originally Posted by Judman
Sorry, trump is a no tax payin pile of shiit.
Originally Posted by KSMITH
My young wife decided to play the field and had moved several dudes into my house
I'm fine with this. Wolverines aren't hurting anything, and there aren't many around to begin with. We don't need to kill every [bleep] thing in the hills, just because it's there.
For those interested in Wolverines, The Wolverine Way is a really interesting read on these guys.
Good grief! Does this go for wolves too? Only a handful were taken each year anyway! Management by emotion is a poor means of taking care of our wildlife.
Never saw a wolverine but once saw one of their little cousins, a fisher, run two full-grown coyotes off a deer carcase in upstate New York. It hissed like a steam engine!
The only member of the weasel family that doesn't fight like crazy is the skunk. And they don't fight very fair....
Was Mike Armstrong. Got logged off; couldn't log back on. RE-registered my old call sign, Mesa. FNG. Again. Mike Armstrong
Wolverines stink. Back in the mid 1960s my cousin and I were hunting Mule deer out of an old squatters/trapper cabin in the Missouri breaks of Montana. It was on his dad's ranch and we packed everything in and out with horses.
One night we were awakened by a noisy raucous under the cabin floor that lasted for about 2-3 minutes and the place started to stink. We opened the cabin door to get some fresh air and contemplated sleeping outside. The odor was not like any skunk I ever smelled.
We hunted until noon that day and upon our return we decided to investigate under the cabin. We retrieved some hair and a couple pieces of bloody skin. Several days later my cousin gave the material to a warden out of Lewistown and he thought it was from a Wolverine and said he would send to a lab for identification. The warden called my cousin later and said the lab results showed a Wolverine.