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Last Dance, 2009–10 ✦ ✦ ✦ The spring thaw hit the swamp with the hard rains of April, making progress into the area thicker, wetter, and muddier with every step. Jeff scaled back his weekly scheduled visit to every two weeks, telling himself it would only be temporary until the spring rains had passed. But with each passing weekend it became a little bit harder to shrug off the weird mix of fear and discomfort that overcame him as he prepared to go in. The surgeries and enforced convalescence had left him with an entirely new and foreign sense of his own vulnerability and mortality. He dreaded the physical challenge now, was afraid that somewhere along the trail his heart would give out. It was a relief every time he made it back to the edge of the woods and saw his truck there waiting for him. Still, Jeff continued to acquire images of the wolverine throughout 2009 and worked on getting more hair samples for a possible third DNA analysis. But he had undeniably lost some of his stubborn enthusiasm for the wolverine project. Thanks to the pacemaker, some of his strength and stamina had returned, but he knew the surgeries hadn’t cured him; they had only bought more time. His heart would continue to deteriorate and eventually he would need a transplant to survive. It gave him a growing sense that time was running out to accomplish something meaningful out of all this. In September of 2009, he wrote this e-mail to Audrey Magoun. Things are well here. I’ve continued to monitor her and she is still staying in the same area (the Minden bog) although I hear stories of people who run into her on occasion outside that 6,500 acres. She sure is an adapter, an animal that supposedly needs so much wild territory living freely next to humans for so long. At no time in the 188 last 5 years has she been more than a couple of miles from a human, yet she continues for the most part to remain secluded, isolated and continues to make a living. I’m hoping someday her example will be a solid argument for reintroduction of wolverines to areas that traditionally were considered not “wild” enough. She sure makes a strong argument. My most recent picture was August 28th, a birthday present from her to me I suppose. She looks very healthy and you wouldn’t believe the size of the hole I’m putting bait in now. In some of my pictures all you can see is her tail sticking up in the air like a gulo ›ag. I’ll send some pics when I get some time. Teaching 4 different science classes this year, including 2 different chemistry classes so my spare time is limited. Audrey still had no idea about Jeff’s health problems—he’d chosen not to con‹de that to anyone outside the closest family and friends— but she sensed his growing need for reassurance that this “project” he’d chosen to devote his life to was indeed worthwhile. She always found the time to be supportive even though she was heavily involved in her own research work, shuttling between seasonal ‹eldwork projects in Alaska and Oregon. I think your work with this wolverine will be very valuable; I only wish you had good records on just how much bait you took into her area and how often. I know there will be skeptics that will maintain she wouldn’t have been able to survive without your addition of food to the area for her. I don’t know how much longer you can expect her to stay there but possibly many years. Would it be too much trouble for you to weigh your baits and classify them by what the bait is and keep a record of the dates you took the bait into the area from now on? Then I think we could actually write up a paper on her after a couple more years of keeping track of her. It would be very valuable for the reasons you stated. I’m looking forward to seeing more photos and when I get my manual ‹nished, there should be lots of photos to look at from my study area too. Neither of them could know that time was indeed running out—but not in the way Jeff might have expected. On February 16, 2010, he sent this e-mail to...

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