# Wolverine still in Huron County



## Linda G.

Just had this sent to me:

http://www.michigansthumb.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=14354483&BRD=2292&PAG=461

Huron Daily Tribune home : news : news : local news 


It's Back!! Wolverine sighted a few weeks ago 

TRACI ANDERSON & STACY LANGLEY, The Huron Daily Tribune 04/15/2005 


UBLY  For almost a year, wildlife enthusiast Jeff Ford of Ubly quested day in, day out for a single snapshot. Some days, he felt confident of achieving his goal; other days, he felt despondent, thinking he'd never finish his endeavor. The subject of the snapshot he was shooting for was an elusive creature, one very few people have spotted in the wild. 

One day this past March, his hopes became reality  he finally had a picture of the wolverine on his trail game camera.




"The adrenalin surge of finally catching a picture of a wolverine on my game camera after a year of work was an incredible feeling," Ford said. "I love wild things, and this was about as wild as it gets."

Ever since Ford found out about the presence of a wolverine in the Thumb in February 2004, which was confirmed by Michigan Department of Natural Resources Biologist Arnie Karr, he's had a strong interest in following the animal and ultimately getting a picture of it. He first found the wolverine's tracks in the snow, and a few months later made some casts of some tracks he found. He followed the tracks with a video camera.

In June 2004, he started laying his trail game camera in various locations in southeast Huron County, trying to catch the wolverine strolling by.

Ford said a trail game camera is a boxed unit with a 35 mm camera inside with auto focus and flash, which sit in a window. The bottom section of the box had an infrared motion detector that could detect movement of anything rabbit size or bigger in complete darkness. He would attach the unit and lock it to a tree, about 1-2 feet up, facing horizontally where he expected the wolverine to show. When the sensor indicated something was in front of the camera, it took a picture.

Ford said he'd go out once a week to pull out the film and replace the film and battery, sometimes moving the camera to another spot.

Time and time again, Ford would see wolverine tracks by the camera, but never captured the snapshot he was dreaming of.

"Wolverine tracks are so big that I would instantly have positive identification when I came across them," he said. "With a length of nearly five inches and a width just short of four inches, they stand out like an elephant in a swimming pool."

In February 2005, he and friend Steve Noble hiked through areas where they'd spotted his tracks before. No tracks were found. Noble started thinking maybe the wolverine was gone  either killed somehow or had just left the area.

However, Ford and Noble did find some tracks again, and Ford's hopes of finally getting a picture increased. In early March in the middle of a blizzard with sub zero temperatures, he set up his game camera in an area known to have a lot of rabbits, which probably was the wolverines source of food. A fellow wildlife enthusiast, Jason Rosser, offered to aid in the quest to get a picture and set up his digital camera.

"With two cameras, we'd be able to cover a much larger area, and up the odds of getting a mug shot," he said.

On March 6, Ford and Rosser checked Ford's camera. Wolverine tracks were all over the area by his camera.

"He had circled my set-up, checking it out," he said. "The camera had taken two pictures."

He and Rosser had the film developed at a one-hour photo lab and when Ford looked at the pictures, his heart sunk. No picture of a wolverine.

"I had a wolverine on three sides of my camera, but not where he needed to be  in the front of it," he said. "The two pictures my game camera took had nothing on them, but something had set it off."

He said his camera was set on low power mode to conserve battery life. This meant it took a bit longer to power up the flash and take a picture.

"I had a feeling the wolverine was indeed in front of the camera, but went through so fast that he was out of the frame when the camera took the picture," he said.

He changed his camera to high power mode.

"If he came by again, my camera would instantly take a picture, unless my battery went dead first," he said.

About a week later, he and Rosser went back to where the cameras were located to see if they had any luck. They didn't see any wolverine tracks, and Ford's hopes were deflated.

The film on Ford's game camera had all been used up, which usually meant bad news for him. However, he did have a wisp of optimism as he realized snow had fallen a few times during the past week, which could've covered up any wolverine tracks.

Ford dropped off his film at a photo lab again, but didn't have any expectations. An employee at the lab told him he had 22 pictures out of 24 with nothing on them. She then told him the good news he'd been waiting so long to hear  one of the pictures that did have something on it was a great shot of a wolverine.

Ford said he asked the employee, "What did you say?" and she told him, "That wolverine sure is pretty."

"I finally had a picture of a wolverine, and what a rush it was," he said.

Ford said he doesn't want to give the exact location of where his camera was located when it took the wolverine picture. He said if he gave out this location, people may want to go there to try to find the wolverine. He said he doesn't want to endanger the animal's life. He said the animal's core area is in thick woods in southeastern Huron County.

He e-mailed the Wolverine Foundation in Idaho and shared his story. He then sent the picture and received confirmation it was indeed a wolverine.

Ford also was told by the foundation's Administrative Manager Judy Long the picture he took was the first ever taken on a game camera in the continental U.S.

In the meantime, Ford and Rosser continued to have their cameras set up to see if they'd have even more success. Sure enough, on March 17, he found he had another picture of the wolverine. This one was taken in broad daylight at only five feet away.

"Rosser and I had a sudden episode of a different form of March Madness, including high fives and a victory dance," Ford said.

In addition, he found out one of Rosser's digital cameras took 67 seconds of video of the wolverine.

So is this the same wolverine as the one spotted in Huron County in early 2004?

"We can assume it's the same one," said DNR Wildlife Biologist Arnold Karr. "It's highly unlikely that it would be a different wolverine. I'm surprised that someone (else) hasn't found tracks through the winter."

He wasn't surprised, though, that it was spotted in southeastern Huron County.

"It could easily be spotted anywhere in the county," he said.

Karr said this is the first time he's heard of the wolverine being spotted since February 2004.

He said its best to leave the animal alone and hopes anyone who spots it in the future will abide to that recommendation.

Ford said his persistence and patience certainly paid off in the end.

"I've learned that in order to capture a picture worth 1,000 words, I had to pursue him with the same tenacity he uses to satisfy his appetite," he said.

While Michigan is known as the Wolverine state, Ford said this is only the second confirmation in 150 years that wolverines exist in Michigan. In February 2004, hunters in the group called the Thumb Area Coyote Hunters chased a wolverine for several hours and finally got a chance to examine it more thoroughly when the animal climbed up a tree. This occurred southwest of Bad Axe.

The wolverine is on Michigan's endangered species list, which means it's illegal for any hunter to kill the animal.

Ford, who is a science teacher at Deckerville High School, said his story about capturing the wolverine on film will be in the May issue of Woods-N-Water News which comes out today. He said it will be the cover story. He said the magazine Outdoor Life also is planning to run the story and a picture in an upcoming issue.

Ford said he plans to continue tracking the wolverine, taking pictures as often as possible with his trail game camera.

"The ultimate goal would be to document his movements for a couple more years, and write a book," he said. "Otherwise, I have enlarged some pictures for personal use and I have secured copyright ownership at the government library in (Washington) DC so that I can sell some 8x10 (pictures) and maybe recover some of the money I've spent on film and development the last year." 


©Huron Daily Tribune 2005 
Reader Opinions:


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## Steve

That's really something. Makes you start to wonder is there a sustained population of them there?


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## Hamilton Reef

There were several pictures, but not included online.

Tracking a wolverine, in the Thumb, with a guy from Ubly 

Jeff Ford had been on the trail of the wolverine for more than a year and was beginning to wonder if it wasn't a ghost. 

He'd walked miles and miles in search of prints, and had found them in the snow, in the mud, even in the damp underbrush. Sometimes, he hopped in his pickup and drove down the back roads of the Thumb's flat, wooded landscape, scanning the shoulders of highways for tracks in the snow.

http://www.freep.com/news/mich/wolverine22e_20050422.htm


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## Neal

I'm not sure if this is one of the actual pics, but it was printed along with the story in the Huron Daily Tribune.


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## Hamilton Reef

Yes, that is one of the pictures which I had stuck into my MI wildlife photo file. There were two other wolverine pictures and a nice photo of Jeff Ford and his freind Steve Noble.


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## WILDCATWICK

That's awsome! Those pictures that were on the cover of Woods n' Water were great. Very exciting to see this hopefully it sustains.


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## Freestone

That picture could have been taken anywhere! I'm sorry but that's just not acceptable proof of its existence. Just havin' fun with ya.


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## Linda G.

a whole pack of people, including a DNR biologist, saw the animal in the same area a year ago. If all we had was these pictures, I'd agree with you-that's not proof. But a pack of dogs, a whole bunch of coyote hunters, numerous people driving by, and a wildlife biologist all in a very short period of time constitutes proof. 

We don't have that with any of the cougar sightings, do we?


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## Hamilton Reef

Wolverine's a female -- and far from home

http://www.mlive.com/news/sanews/index.ssf?/base/news-20/1158933064235490.xml&coll=9

Friday, September 22, 2006 DEAN BOHN THE SAGINAW NEWS

CASS CITY -- The wolverine roaming Michigan's Thumb likely is Canadian -- probably from Ontario, the animal's trackers say. 

Jeffrey J. Ford and friends have followed the wolverine and filmed it ever since coyote hunters sighted it Feb. 24, 2004, about a mile east of Bad Axe. 

The news excites many in the state because although Michigan has a history of wolverine sightings, wildlife officials insisted none had ever proven true since the Great Lakes State became a state in 1837.

That is, not until now. 

Ford has collected hair samples and sent them to wolverine experts in Alaska and Montana. 

One of the analyses in April showed the critter is female. 

Chris Kyle, a post-doctoral researcher at the Ontario Natural Resources DNA Profiling and Forensics Centre at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario, just released the results of the most recent tests. 

They confirm earlier trials that the animal has "haplotype C genome," which is found in wolverines in the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska, southeast Alaska and British Columbia. 

However, the DNA matched better with wolverines from Ontario and Manitoba. 

"Since Michigan is surrounded by Ontario, it's a safe bet that she got here by walking across the ice from Ontario," Ford said.

The tests compared hair from the Michigan wolverine to the DNA database of 38 wolverines from Ontario, 35 from Manitoba and 147 from the Northwest Territories. 

"DNA is so technical, it can detect sub-species of where an animal is located in the world," said Ford, 41, who lives in Cass City and teaches chemistry and science at Deckerville High School. 

So far, researchers have never found that genome marker -- common to the Alaska-area wolverine -- east of that region, said Michael K. Schwartz, conservation genetics team leader and research ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service's Rocky Mountain Research Station in Missoula, Mont. He said the genome marker does not match the wolverines from the Rocky Mountains and the Plains.

"Last winter, scientists studying wolves near Chapleau, Ontario, about 90 miles north of Sault Ste. Marie, came across some wolverine tracks," Ford said. 

"In 2002 in Idaho, scientists trapped a wolverine and collared him with a radio satellite GPS that is good within 16 feet," he said. "They tracked the animal through the mountains and he went 258 miles in 19 days -- that's about 14 miles a day. That's up and down mountains." 

Michigan's wolverine, which uses southern Huron County for a stomping ground, makes big circles but comes back to a certain area every three to five days. 

"Wolverines like thick cover, an abundant food source and lack of human intrusion," Ford said. "I found her tracks 18 miles apart, but I don't think she's going to leave the Thumb. She's extremely scared of vehicles, so she's got nowhere to go. To the north is the bay, to the east is the lake, to the south is Port Huron and Detroit, and to the west is Bay City, Saginaw and Flint. 

"I've tracked the wolverine for almost five miles in snow where I was sinking up to my knees, but it has such big padded feet that it was only going in about an inch. It was tracking rabbits that day. I don't know how far it traveled; I had to give up. I just wore out." 

Ford keeps the latest information and video clips for people to see on his Web site, www.wolverineguy.com.


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## Hamilton Reef

Ferocious little fellow may get big protector

http://detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070620/METRO/706200404/1003

06/20/07 Gordon Trowbridge / Detroit News Washington Bureau

Like so many Michigan natives, the wolverine is tough, feisty -- and, these days, mostly living elsewhere. But if wildlife groups have their way, the ill-tempered mammal that gave its name to the Wolverine State and University of Michigan teams may win federal protection and, someday, make a Michigan comeback.

Believed to have once ranged from Maine to Washington state, it is now largely limited to the Mountain States. It was believed to be gone from Michigan before hunters spied one in the Thumb region in 2004.

The federal bureaucracy hasn't exactly been kind, either. In 2000, activists asked the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to declare wolverines endangered. After two years of delay, the agency declined.

But a federal judge in Idaho last year ordered a full examination of the wolverine's plight. This month, Fish & Wildlife began accepting public comment. Federal officials must rule by February.

Mike Senatore of Defenders of Wildlife said if the animal gains federal protection, officials could reintroduce the animal to Michigan.

Senatore, who was born in Detroit, said there have been not-quite-serious discussions of enlisting help of the nation's most famous wolverines: the U-M kind. Predictably, the wolverine has supporters there. "It just gets us a little bit happier when we see one," Bruce Madej, U-M's longtime athletic department spokesman, said Thursday.

CyberSurvey http://info.detnews.com/feedback/lettersindex.cfm?topic=wolverine_0620&forum=dnletters


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## FREEPOP

:idea: It's probably a pet or mascot that got loose


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## Hamilton Reef

Wolverine is alive, healthy roaming in Michigans Thumb

According to wolverine enthusiast and Deckerville High School teacher Jeff Ford, the wolverine is alive, healthy, and looking robust. A recent picture of the animal was dated April 23.

Weve also been able to find and document some nice tracks last winter in the snow and this spring in the mud, he said. She has continued to thrive and make a living in a relatively restricted area compared to a typical wolverine territory, (which) sometimes extends over 100 miles in mountainous terrain. Weve been able to keep fairly consistent tabs on (the Thumb wolverine), although at times she seems to disappear for a period of a week or two.

Ford said he and fellow enthusiast Steve Noble have found that over the last three years, the wolverine continues to seek out a few key areas where theyve found tracks and taken pictures or video of her. He employs game cameras and infrared video units to obtain the footage.

http://www.battlecreekenquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080602/NEWS01/306020022/1002


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## Linda G.

I thought K.L. DID list the wolverine as protected in Michigan...? The same day they were notified of this one's existence.


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## Hamilton Reef

Linda is correct. I noted that also at the time. KLCool made the right move quickly.


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