Wolverine photographed in Uinta Mountains

As wildlife biologists scanned photographs taken by a trail camera in the Uinta Mountains last winter, they saw something never captured before in Utah: the first official photos of a wolverine. Kim Hersey, mammals conservation coordinator for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, said biologists from the DWR and the U.S. Forest Service set four bait stations — monitored by trail cameras — along the north slope of the Uinta Mountains last January. They set the stations to capture images of elusive forest-dwelling carnivores, including wolverines. DWR and Forest Service biologists used snowmobiles to reach the areas and set up the stations. Then, this spring, they started retrieving the cameras. After retrieving the cameras, nothing unusual showed up in photos from the first, third and fourth stations. But images from the second station were a different story: They showed the first wolverine verified in Utah since a wolverine carcass was found in 1979. Hersey says biologists baited the second station with deer that had been killed by cars. Marten, jays, squirrels and a red fox were among the wildlife that raided the station. “The fox took off with the bait,” she said. “All it left behind were the wire wrappings that were supposed to secure the bait to the area.” Even though the bait was gone, the odor the carcasses left behind was enough to attract a wolverine to the area. On Feb. 18, two days after the fox made off with the bait, the camera captured its first image of the wolverine. The animal only stayed in the area about five minutes. That was enough time, though, for the motion-sensing camera to capture 27 images...more