Wolverines!!
More exciting than Red Dawn, and cooler than camping with Charlie Sheen, C. Thomas Howell, and Patrick Swayze, our friends at the University of California's Sagehen Research Field Station have just reported some pretty outstanding news.
Imagine you're protecting a piece of land. Imagine people are studying the plants and animals on that land. They're looking at things like lichens and lilies, and rodents and roaches. Then all of a sudden, you find out–surprise!–the acreage under your stewardship is home to some previously-believed-extinct charismatic megafauna. That's a simplified version of the story that broke a little over a week ago in the mountains of Northern California.
Believed to be extinct since the 1920s or 30s, the Sierra Nevada Wolverine was recently photo-documented by an Oregon State University researcher conducting
weasel studies at the Sagehen research facility. For the latest news on the Sagehen findings, hit the above link. More information is also available at the links below:
http://www.wildlifeextra.com/california-wolverine829.html
http://www.ktvu.com/news/15504244/detail.html
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/761071.html
[Photos. Top: "Wolverines!!!" is now more than just a battle cry for the residents of Northern California. Bottom, a wild wolverine is captured by a research camera in the forested mountains near the town of Truckee.]
Follow-up posts on this topic:
Badass But Vulnerable – An Interview with Doug Chadwick, Author of "The Wolverine Way" (April 16, 2010)
The Wolverine Way – Go Like Hell and Never Back Down (April 11, 2012)