Mechanisms influencing the winter distribution of wolverine Gulo gulo luscus in the southern Columbia Mountains, Canada

Kortello, Andrea; Hausleitner, Doris; Mowat, Garth

doi:10.2981/wlb.00480

Cited by 21 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…3C) and the functional nature of this relationship is perhaps even less well understood than spring snow. Other workers have reported similar relationships for wolverines , Fisher et al 2013, including an occupancy-based analysis of our West Kootenay data (Kortello et al 2019). The simplest explanation for this result is the tendency for wolverines to select high elevation areas, which are mostly found above the road network (Inman et al 2012b, Kortello et al 2019; however, trappers use roads to access their trapping areas, so this relationship may be partly explained by the recent or historical effects of trapping.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…Other workers have reported similar relationships for wolverines , Fisher et al 2013, including an occupancy-based analysis of our West Kootenay data (Kortello et al 2019). The simplest explanation for this result is the tendency for wolverines to select high elevation areas, which are mostly found above the road network (Inman et al 2012b, Kortello et al 2019; however, trappers use roads to access their trapping areas, so this relationship may be partly explained by the recent or historical effects of trapping. Then again, only about 70% of the traplines in the Kootenay are trapped in any year (A. Reid, personal communication), and few trappers try to catch wolverines, though some wolverines are caught as by-catch in traps set for other species.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

“…The circumpolar distribution of known wolverine den sites was related to spring snow in a multi-continent scale analysis (Copeland et al 2010). Other studies have examined the relationship between spring snow and habitat selection and most find some positive relationship (Copeland et al 2010, Heim et al 2017, Kortello et al 2019, and these relationships appear to be stronger in more topographically complex environments (Webb et al 2016). Our results demonstrate that spring snow is related to density in montane environments, which suggests a functional relationship with wolverine ecology.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Sustainability of Wolverine Trapping Mortality in Southern Canada

Mowat

Clevenger

Kortello³

et al. 2019

J Wildl Manag

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Range declines, habitat connectivity, and trapping have created conservation concern for wolverines throughout their range in North America. Previous researchers used population models and observed estimates of survival and reproduction to infer that current trapping rates limit population growth, except perhaps in the far north where trapping rates are lower. Assessing the sustainability of trapping requires demographic and abundance data that are expensive to acquire and are therefore usually only achievable for small populations, which makes generalization risky. We surveyed wolverines over a large area of southern British Columbia and Alberta, Canada, used spatial capture-recapture models to estimate density, and calculated trapping kill rates using provincial fur harvest data. Wolverine density averaged 2 wolverines/1,000 km 2 and was positively related to spring snow cover and negatively related to road density. Observed annual trapping mortality was >8.4%/year. This level of mortality is unlikely to be sustainable except in rare cases where movement rates are high among sub-populations and sizable untrapped refuges exist. Our results suggest wolverine trapping is not sustainable because our study area was fragmented by human and natural barriers and few large refuges existed. We recommend future wolverine trapping mortality be reduced by ≥50% throughout southern British Columbia and Alberta to promote population recovery.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 74%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Sustainability of Wolverine Trapping Mortality in Southern Canada

Mowat

Clevenger

Kortello³

et al. 2019

J Wildl Manag

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“…Other environmental variables that we investigated (i.e., conifer cover, forest edge habitat, elevation, and road densities) showed statistically significant, but relatively weak, relationships with genetic distances. However, these results do not contradict previous studies that identified these variables as important for wolverine occurrence and movement ( Aubry et al 2007 ; Copeland et al 2007 ; Inman et al 2013 ; Webb et al 2016 ; Kortello et al 2019 ; Sawaya et al 2019 ), because these studies were conducted more locally or in different regions.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 48%

“…However, in addition to its narrow bioclimatic niche, gene flow in wolverines likely can be predicted by other landscape variables; for example, those related to terrain or anthropogenic infrastructures (e.g., May et al 2006 ; Webb et al 2016 ; Heim et al 2017 ; Kortello et al 2019 ). To understand landscape effects on wolverine dispersal and gene flow, and to effectively maintain meta-population connectivity (e.g., through conservation corridors), it is therefore important to evaluate the influence of additional landscape variables on wolverine dispersal and gene flow.…”

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confidence: 99%

Landscape genetics of wolverines (Gulo gulo): scale-dependent effects of bioclimatic, topographic, and anthropogenic variables

Balkenhol

Schwartz

Inman

et al. 2020

Journal of Mammalogy

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Abstract Climate change can have particularly severe consequences for high-elevation species that are well-adapted to long-lasting snow conditions within their habitats. One such species is the wolverine, Gulo gulo, with several studies showing a strong, year-round association of the species with the area defined by persistent spring snow cover. This bioclimatic niche also predicts successful dispersal paths for wolverines in the contiguous United States, where the species shows low levels of genetic exchange and low effective population size. Here, we assess the influence of additional climatic, vegetative, topographic, and anthropogenic, variables on wolverine genetic structure in this region using a multivariate, multiscale, landscape genetic approach. This approach allows us to detect landscape-genetic relationships both due to typical, small-scale genetic exchange within habitat, as well as exceptional, long-distance dispersal among habitats. Results suggest that a combination of snow depth, terrain ruggedness, and housing density, best predict gene flow in wolverines, and that the relative importance of variables is scale-dependent. Environmental variables (i.e., isolation-by-resistance, IBR) were responsible for 79% of the explained variation at small scales (i.e., up to ~230 km), and 65% at broad scales (i.e., beyond ~420 km). In contrast, a null model based on only space (i.e., isolation-by-distance, IBD) accounted only for 17% and 11% of the variation at small and broad scales, respectively. Snow depth was the most important variable for predicting genetic structures overall, and at small scales, where it contributed 43% to the variance explained. At broad spatial scales, housing density and terrain ruggedness were most important with contributions to explained variation of 55% and 25%, respectively. While the small-scale analysis most likely captures gene flow within typical wolverine habitat complexes, the broad-scale analysis reflects long-distance dispersal across areas not typically inhabited by wolverines. These findings help to refine our understanding of the processes shaping wolverine genetic structure, which is important for maintaining and improving functional connectivity among remaining wolverine populations.

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How to find a wolverine: Factors affecting detection at wolverine (Gulo gulo) bait stations in western Canada

Kortello,

Hausleitner,

Mowat

et al. 2024

Ecosphere

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High individual detection success enables precise estimates of density and the ability to monitor trends in abundance for wolverine and other low‐density species, information that is critical for the implementation and assessment of conservation measures. We evaluated a dataset that included six different wolverine capture–recapture studies over a large gradient in wolverine (Gulo gulo) density to provide recommendations for increasing detection. We examined factors related to bait station components, habitat, and seasonal timing. Accounting for variation in wolverine density and trap duration, our results suggest that bait stations setups having a run pole, frame, and camera to photograph unique ventral color patterns, in addition to hair snag devices, identify more individual wolverine than those without. The presence of snow is a habitat feature that also increases individual detection. Female detection rates were lower than male detection rates at the onset of the reproductive denning season in late February and early March compared with January and early February. We found latency to detection was independent of wolverine density, but greater in areas with human influence. Relatively high rates of genotyping success (55%) were predicted by even a single guard hair left at bait stations, while underfur required ~15 hairs for similar success. Longer sampling intervals reduced genotyping success in spring, more so for underfur than guard hair. Hair samples acquired from barbwire were of higher quality than those from either alligator clips or gun brushes. To improve individual detection for wolverine inventory and monitoring, we recommend deploying run pole setups in areas with low human disturbance that will retain snow into late spring. Extending the winter trapping effort into April and May could increase the chances of detecting denning females. Latency to detection suggests that traps should be active for more than a month, especially in human‐influenced areas, but genotyping success suggests that traps should also be cleared of hair samples at smaller intervals of a month or less, during late winter/spring.

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Mechanisms influencing the winter distribution of wolverine Gulo gulo luscus in the southern Columbia Mountains, Canada

Abstract: BioOne Complete (complete.BioOne.org) is a full-text database of 200 subscribed and open-access titles in the biological, ecological, and environmental sciences published by nonprofit societies, associations, museums, institutions, and presses.

Cited by 21 publications

References 67 publications

The Sustainability of Wolverine Trapping Mortality in Southern Canada

The Sustainability of Wolverine Trapping Mortality in Southern Canada

Landscape genetics of wolverines (Gulo gulo): scale-dependent effects of bioclimatic, topographic, and anthropogenic variables

How to find a wolverine: Factors affecting detection at wolverine (Gulo gulo) bait stations in western Canada

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