Elusive animals targeted in winter carnivore study

Imagine tracking rare and elusive carnivore in winter.  That’s what a group of three wildlife biologists and four interns were doing the first three months of this winter, hoping to find carnivores like lynx, wolverines and fisher in the 1.5-million-acre  southwest portion of the Crown of the Continent ecosystem.

The Crown of the Continent ecosystem encompasses much of the northern Rockies, from British Columbia to the Bitterroot Valley. The tracking attempts to gather information on carnivore populations. Lynx and wolverine are listed as threatened species under the Endangered Species Act, while fisher are listed as a sensitive species in the northern region of the U.S. Forest Service. Fisher and wolverines are part of the weasel family.  

The tracking project began in 2012. A smaller project in the Lolo National Forest began in 2007. The Southwest Crown study includes the Swan Lake, Seeley Lake and Lincoln ranger districts which are located in the Flathead, Lolo and Helena National forests. The Southwest Crown Collaborative is one of 10 similar studies that are part of a national program for forest restoration.

The carnivore study is scheduled to last 10 years, but future years depend on appropriations from Congress. Funding for the project is provided through the Forest Landscape Restoration Act of 2008, which can be funded up to $40 million annually. Ten percent of the funding goes to the Southwest Crown Collaborative.

The tracking involved using road kill wildlife in bait stations. The baseline information will also be used to see how restoration and fuel reduction efforts and wildfires impact the carnivores.

Adam Lieberg, a wildlife biologist from Northwest Connections who works in Condon, recently completed his seasonal field work for the carnivore-tracking project.

Wet and tired from a day spent riding a snowmobile, Lieberg said the tracking study is probably the most comprehensive monitoring effort targeting multi-species in the Southwest Crown of the Continent. The tracking provides baseline data that gives scientists insight into the ecosystem.

Lieberg’s work involved setting up bait stations with wire brushes that were positioned in trees underneath a hind quarter or shoulder of elk or deer. Tracking foot prints to find animal hair and scat is another part of the study. The hair and scat DNA samples are sent to a lab to determine if the animal is from lynx, wolverine or fisher. If the sample is good enough, an individual animal’s DNA can also be logged. “We’ll be sending hundreds of DNA samples to the lab in the next week or so,” Lieberg said. A team of of wildlife biologists from the U.S. Forest Service and Northwest Connections, a public non-profit organization, covers the entire 1.5-million-acre southwest Crown, which is laid out in 25-square-mile grids.

The tracking is usually done on snowmobile, but since motorized vehicles are not allowed in wilderness area, snowshoes or cross country skiis are used to reach the Scapegoat Wilderness, which is located in the Bob Marshall Wilderness.

Carly Lewis, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service, serves as a field crew and logistics coordinator for the tracking study. She said the work can be rigorous. For instance the workers have had to snowmobile 12 miles to a trailhead and then snowshoe another seven miles to get to the Webb Lake Cabin. A similar trek is involved to access the North Fork Cabin in the Blackfoot drainage. Wildlife biologists carry 50 to 60 pounds of equipment, along with road-killed deer or elk meat that is used for bait. “It’s awesome,” Lewis said. “The opportunity to be out in the winter to look at tracks and see how animals move across the landscape enlivens my spirit. If you can get out and learn to follow tracks, it’s an amazing time to be outside.”

Lewis said the tracking is done in the winter so that bears are not attracted to the bait. Other animals, however, do come in to the bait. Remote cameras have spotted moose, gray jays, golden eagles, squirrels, bobcats and long-tailed weasels eating the bait, Lewis said.

Lewis says lynx and wolverine have been identified so far, but no fisher have been found.

The fact that the study encompasses 1.5 million acres, Lewis said, “is a pretty novel thing. It’s like finding needles in a haystack.”

Lewis noted that the restoration efforts could involve planting Ponderosa pine seedlings and thinning Douglas fir from Ponderosa pine forest along with some prescribed burns. Lieberg said he didn’t see any of the carnivores during his three months of tracking this year, “but we’ve been very close,” he said, noting he came within 20 minutes of seeing a wolverine. The carnivore was photographed by a remote camera after it left a bait station. “We’ve got tons of footage of target and non-target species.”