The Lone Wolverine: Tracking Michigan's Most Elusive Animal

January, 2006

January, 2006 ✦ ✦ ✦ Jeff was still posting to the website and doing updates for local publications , and by now, nearly a year after the story ‹rst broke, he was getting used to the notoriety. Even Gianna Savoie, a producer from the popular PBS program Nature, had contacted him to discuss including his story in a science documentary being produced on wolverines. A year ago, few people outside the Thumb had ever even heard of Jeff Ford. Now it seemed all kinds of important people from all over the country were suddenly interested in talking to him. One of those was an independent biologist who had made a name for himself a few years earlier working on genetic analysis of lynx-bobcat hybrids in northern Minnesota. The encounter with Rusz had soured Jeff a little on opening up to any researchers except Audrey and her associates. But this scientist’s research sounded fascinating, and his credentials seemed impeccable. In an introductory e-mail, the researcher explained that he had read the media reports about the Thumb wolverine and was intrigued. He hoped to learn more about this latest wildlife anomaly and wondered if Jeff’s group could collect scat that could be analyzed, as well as hair, assuring him that the costs for the DNA extraction would be absorbed by either him or the genetics lab at the US Forest Service’s Rocky Mountain Research Station. “Once the lab has an extraction, the DNA keeps for 30 years,” the scientist explained in an e-mail dated December 20, 2005. “It’s the processing of lots of genotype that adds up. We won’t have to do a lot of that for now since we just need a genotype on the thumb wolverine for starters. I will have the biologist send a few vials.” That was good news, indeed. Jeff’s credit card debt for the project 110 was piling up well past $4,500—no small sum for a rural schoolteacher with a wife and two kids—and this was no time to start cutting corners. He needed to keep moving forward, whatever the cost, and the scientist ’s offer was tempting indeed. In lay terms, a genotype is like a DNA ‹ngerprint, which can be used to identify a speci‹c animal and also to compare that animal’s DNA makeup to others of its species in order to trace heredity and origins . While determining the genotype of the Thumb wolverine was now within Jeff’s grasp, it was still only a ‹rst step in what could eventually be a lengthy and expensive process. Jeff welcomed anyone who might be willing to help fund or speed that process along. Over the holiday break he did his best to oblige the Minnesota reJanuary , 2006 ✦ 111 On hearing a noise, the wolverine instantly freezes and stares intently, occasionally standing up on its hind legs to get a better view. searcher, but ‹nding scat turned out to be harder than he thought. He and Jason had acquired over 20 new pictures and plenty of fresh tracks in the week leading up to Christmas. But after splitting up and spending more than two hours scouring the snow around the area, they turned up no sign of wolverine droppings. They’d keep trying, he promised. “He’s hitting the venison hard now, and has to shit sometime, right?” Jeff joked in an e-mail on December 27, 2005. Secretly, however, Jeff was getting a little apprehensive. He didn’t want to be endlessly scouring the wolverine’s territory, seeking scat and leaving his own scent all over the place. Right now they were very circumspect about their visits to the swamp, making their forays as brief and “clean” as possible. He was certain the wolverine had chosen this remote area as its sanctuary precisely because there was so little human presence. What this guy wanted them to do seemed incautious at best and might even force the animal to move off in search of a more isolated place where it felt safer from human incursion. After the ‹rst couple weeks of communications, the researcher had also begun pressing for more speci‹cs. Where did the wolverine spend the most time? Which areas were the most heavily populated with hares, the likeliest dietary staple? They were reasonable queries, questions any researcher would ask. But ever since acquiring those ‹rst pictures back on the edge of...