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The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says trail camera images confirm the creation of at least two wolverines in the Wallowa Mountains.
They are the beginning known wolverines to be in Wallowa County.
Making the photos even more exciting to researchers is that the animals are "close in price of avoiding people," said Meg Kenagy, ODFW Conservation Strategy coordinator.
The North Cascades in Washington state and Payette Forest of Idaho, which is relatively faithful to Baker County, provide habitats for known breeding populations.
Wallowa County contains a big freeze of hilly land and deep, heavy snows. And it`s not far from Payette. These characteristics have the Wallowas a "really good habitat for wolverines," Kenagy said.
Wolverines are members of the weasel family and can count up to 35 pounds. These carnivorous predators might be small, but they are really strong. They easily overpower much bigger animals.
"They are clearly photos of two different individuals," said researcher Audrey Magoun, in a statement released by the ODFW.
After showing the photos, taken April 2 and April 13, Magoun and research assistant Pat Valkenburg redesigned the camera site. When wolverines return surveyors will be capable to get photos of their abdomens.
This will allow researchers to see the sex of the animals.
Specifically, they repositioned the bait - road-killed deer carcass - so a wolverine would take to work its body toward the camera, said Vic Coggins, an ODFW wildlife biologist based at Enterprise.
It was soft to state the two photographed wolverines apart, however, because one of them "has a white paw," he said.
Three of its toes on one paw are See Wolverines/Page 5A
white and "it looks like it dipped its base in a key can," Coggins said. "The former has brown paws."
Magoun also found wolverine tracks in Wallowa County on April 17. Magoun and Valkenburg have been surveying for wolverines within and round the Eagle Cap Wilderness since January.
"It`s easier to find tracks and find them in the winter," Kenagy explained.
There are various cameras in the forest - some in Baker County - for a kind of purposes that could potentially snap pictures of wolverines. All are off the main trails where people tend to go, Coggins said.
He also asked people traveling off the trails not to disturb camera sites they hit upon because it could compromise the research.
Coggins explained that wolverines are fairly misunderstood by humans. Just because they don`t like people doesn`t entail that they are unsociable and hermit-like creatures.
An Oregon Conservation Strategy Implementation Grant, The Wolverine Foundation Inc. the Wildlife Conservation Society, The Seattle Foundation and individuals - such as Magoun and Valkenburg - support this wolverine survey.
Magoun and Valkenburg are Alaska residents who use their own plane for aerial surveys.
Wolverines are saved by Or as a threatened species. They were listed as threatened by the Game Commission in 1975, grandfathered in as a country threatened species in May 1987, and reaffirmed by decree in 1989.
Federal wildlife authorities haven`t made the determination yet.
There are around 300 wolverines existing in the United States. Environmentalists warn that the animals are losing their habitats worldwide because of global warming.
This is why surveys such as the one being carried out by Magoun and Valkenburg are important, wildlife and environmental experts say.
The wolverine became a federal candidate species on Dec. 14, 2010, according to the ODFW.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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