Wolverine researchers in Greater Yellowstone say protecting overlaps between the region’s three populations is crucial to ensuring the species’ long term survival.

The news comes in a research report released by the Wildlife Conservation Society Wednesday.

Greater Yellowstone wolverines consist of three so-called “metapopulations,” one in northern Montana, one in central Idaho and one in northwest Wyoming, according to Bryan Aber, a carnivore biologist with Idaho Fish and Game, U.S. Forest Service, and the Wildlife Conservation Society.

Maintaining connections between these metapopulations is difficult because wolverines rely on high elevation terrain, exist in extremely low densities and maintain huge home ranges. Female wolverines average a 155-square-mile home range, while males average a 460-square-mile home range.

“The overlap of those three populations is critical in ensuring genetic transfer,” Aber said. “Because they exist at such low densities, the area where these three metapopulations overlap is extremely important.”

Besides trapping, wolverines in Greater Yellowstone face a number of impediments to dispersal, including roads and development. If those impediments keep wolverines from moving, they won’t be able to find mates. 

Much of the overlap, called the “central linkage ecosystem,” occurs in central Idaho and Montana’s island mountain chains such as the Anacondas, the Crazies and the Bridgers. The area is a mix of public and private land where roads and development can occur.

Aber said the state of Montana – the only state of the three that still allows wolverine trapping – has already incorporated the research into its hunting regulations. “The state of Montana has shifted the quota in that area to reduce the take of wolverines in that central linkage ecosystem,” he said.

“Their biologists went to the game commission and actually came up with recommendations for the way they would allow trapping to occur and quotas... to support the wolverine population,” Aber said. “The research does not show that trapping on its own is a detriment to a population. It’s they way the trapping occurs that’s critical, and they’ve changed that.”

Aber said regional wolverine researchers will now shift much of their focus to the central linkage ecosystem.

Researchers are also changing tactics for monitoring individual animals. Instead of relying on wolverine traps in the remote, high elevation locations where wolverines tend to live, researchers will now fly the ecosystem with fixed-wing aircraft in an effort to identify wolverine dens from the air.

Technicians will then hike into den sites, capture cubs, and a veterinarian will surgically implant radio transmitters. Aber said wolverines typically cope well with the disturbance and the transmitters can keep sending data for up to four years. “We’re just using some different methods now to get the same information in a cheaper manner,” he said.