What is happening to wolverines in BC?
Mirjam Barrueto, a UCalgary PhD student, installing a remote wildlife camera to monitor wolverine activity at the sampling stations.
The mystical wolverines are rare weasels, about 40 pound in weight, that thrive in cold northern mountains, forests and tundra. Wolverines are an indicator species for intact nature, as they require large wild areas to maintain their populations. Wolverine habitat in Canada is increasingly under pressure from human activity and climate change. Because there are strong concerns about their future, they are listed as Special Concern under the Canadian Species at Risk Act. Scientists across the continent are racing to learn about the specific threats that wolverines face, to ensure land managers and land users can make informed conservation decisions.
The University of Calgary is part of this research effort. In September 2017, Mirjam Barrueto, a PhD student at UCalgary, started a research project to better understand the ecology of female wolverines and how human land uses affect them. For over 3 years, she successfully led an ambitious field program throughout the Columbia and Rocky Mountains in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. Using noninvasive remote cameras and passive hair collection stations (no wolverines were handled!) she has collected over 1 million (!) photos and thousands of hair samples for DNA analysis. Her field work and the genetic analysis of hair samples are now complete and she has recently finished processing all photos.
In this the last year of her PhD, Mirjam is focused on analysing the big trove of data, writing research papers on female density, connectivity and impacts of humans, and importantly, sharing the results with stakeholders and communities. Your gift supports conservation research and outreach efforts that increase our understanding of current wolverine populations, while improving outcomes for this Special Concern species.