The wolverine spotted last Monday along the Columbia River near Portland made an appearance on Wednesday in Damascus and another over the weekend in Beavercreek.
Teri Lysak, wolverine tracking project coordinator with Cascadia Wild, said the sightings have surprised wildlife experts with the Portland-based nonprofit in part because the wolverine population is so small. Only about 300 to 1,000 wolverines still roam the United States.
Last Monday’s confirmed sighting in Oregon was the group’s first of a wolverine since the tracking project began in 2003. Lysak said the wolverine is likely a young adult that recently left home, looking to settle in an area less populated than Portland, in a process called dispersing.
Wolverine wildlife trackers believe the same animal was spotted near Beavercreek, about 13 miles south of Damascus, over the weekend.
Oregon is not typically home to wolverines, as they prefer wide open spaces and colder climates up north. Wolverines protect their dens with deep snowpack, and since they’re scavengers, the snow acts as a sort of ice chest for prey, Lysak said. It allows their food source to remain cool.
This wolverine’s southbound trek is definitely out of the ordinary, she said.
“It’s very unusual that it’s at such a low elevation, out of its usually considered habitat,” Lysak said.
The wolverine tracking project expanded to track other rare carnivores and animals such as birds in the Mount Hood National Forest when wolverine sightings in Oregon proved elusive. Many of the initial reports about wolverines turned out to be unfounded.
The team kept the word “wolverine” in the name because recovering populations in Washington and Idaho would likely trickle down into Oregon over time.
“We always say, ‘maybe this will be the year we find a wolverine,” Lysak said. “So, it’s very exciting.”
Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife officials advise people to keep their distance from wolverines in the wild. Anyone who spots one of these rare creatures can report the sighting to the department via the website iNaturalist.
-- Lisa Moreno; lmoreno@oregonian.com
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