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Old 01-21-2022, 11:47 PM
HunterDave HunterDave is offline
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Default Coyotes VS Wolverines

I would love to hear the thoughts from RFMA trappers about this article.
Didn't the ATA research the following more recently than 20 years ago?
"Wolverines are considered a "data deficient" animal in Alberta. The province's most recent population estimate — now 20 years old — is fewer than 1,000 animals."


Industrial development giving coyotes an edge in wolverine habitat, new study shows

Competition between wolverines and coyotes, driven by roads and seismic lines

Bob Weber · The Canadian Press · Posted: Jan 20, 2022 8:30 AM MT | Last Updated: January 20

Industrial development is helping coyotes move into wolverine country and edge out the rare carnivore despite its fierce reputation, newly published research suggests.

"Roads and seismic lines were actually driving competition between wolverines and coyotes," said Gillian Chow-Fraser of the University of Victoria, lead author of the paper published in the journal Biological Conservation.

Chow-Fraser said it's another example of how human activities on a landscape have far-reaching consequences for all the animals living on it.

"We see them changing the animal community in all sorts of ways."

Chow-Fraser, her university colleagues, and the Alberta government examined data from 154 camera traps collected in 2006-08 and 2011-13 from two areas of the province — the relatively untouched Willmore Wilderness Area and Kananaskis Country, which is heavily laced by roads and cutlines from forestry, energy and recreational development.

Altogether, the study analyzes data from 2,790 weeks of camera deployment.

Coyotes and wolverines have different habitats and wouldn't normally interact, Chow-Fraser said.

But, as development clears pathways into the boreal forest and foothills of the Rockies, now they do.

"It was increasing the odds they co-occur in an area," Chow-Fraser said.

The data showed that on a road or cutline, the two animals were three times
Wolverines are fierce beasts and Chow-Fraser doesn't suggest coyotes are beating them fang-to-fang. It's more a case of coyotes, with their superior numbers, using up resources wolverines could once count on for themselves and their kits.

"We're talking about a competition for resources or space," she said. "There's a lot of coyotes and they're outcompeting wolverines in these places where there's high density of linear features."

Other predators such as wolves, cougars or bears aren't the problem, Chow-Fraser said. Those animals feed differently and don't compete with wolverines.

Wolverines are considered a "data deficient" animal in Alberta. The province's most recent population estimate — now 20 years old — is fewer than 1,000 animals.

"The Alberta population is considered to be declining at an unknown rate," says Alberta's fact sheet on wolverines.

A 2020 study by the Alberta Conservation Association for the provincial government concludes there are no "robust" population estimates for wolverines across the vast majority of its habitat.

"In 2022, Environment and Parks will be reviewing new information and data available on wolverines to determine if an updated status evaluation should be conducted," said department spokesman Jason Penner.

Federally, wolverines have been listed as a species of special concern since 2014. That status under the Species At Risk Act doesn't compel governments to develop a recovery plan for the animal.

"There really needs to be a reassessment of wolverine numbers in Alberta," Chow-Fraser said. "We definitely need to start taking the status of wolverines more seriously."

The study shows how human intervention on a landscape creates new circumstances that change how species have interacted for millennia.

Chow-Fraser compares the wolverine situation to that of caribou, now suffering from wolf predation because roads and cutlines have opened the way into the deep forest.

"We need to think about how industrial development is fundamentally changing the wildlife community."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmon...tudy-1.6321379
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Old 01-22-2022, 08:52 AM
fatboyz fatboyz is offline
 
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Seems to contradict the wolverine study done up in Rainbow Lake and Zama where it's heavily developed. They expected little for wolverine population but the population was thriving! Wolverine density was actually much higher than down in the untouched mountain areas like west of Nordegg.
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Old 01-22-2022, 09:44 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fatboyz View Post
Seems to contradict the wolverine study done up in Rainbow Lake and Zama where it's heavily developed. They expected little for wolverine population but the population was thriving! Wolverine density was actually much higher than down in the untouched mountain areas like west of Nordegg.
That was my thinking as well. I wonder why that study was not mentioned.
Opps, I forgot, it's CBC, I should have known.

It looks to me like these may be the same people who came up with the idea to throw tennis balls at Coyotes.
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Old 01-22-2022, 10:05 AM
Big Grey Wolf Big Grey Wolf is offline
 
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A number of Alberta Trappers were involved with extensive wolverine studies through out the province in last 10 years. Numbers were relatively high in more Northern traplines. Hell I even had a wolverine in my horse pasture by Wabamun lake west of Edmonton.
The coyote is considered a migratory animal. Most trappers in BC claim that coyotes migrated into northern BC from Alberta in the 40's.

Last edited by Big Grey Wolf; 01-22-2022 at 10:12 AM.
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Old 01-22-2022, 02:43 PM
sourdough doug sourdough doug is offline
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Save the Cariboo....poison the wolves
Save the Wolverines... poison the coyotes

Maybe something in the drinking water at CBC could "cure" these "problems
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Old 01-22-2022, 06:24 PM
slough shark slough shark is offline
 
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Quote:
Originally Posted by fatboyz View Post
Seems to contradict the wolverine study done up in Rainbow Lake and Zama where it's heavily developed. They expected little for wolverine population but the population was thriving! Wolverine density was actually much higher than down in the untouched mountain areas like west of Nordegg.
Yeah on my trapline south of nordegg there hasn’t been any logging on half of it for a solid 20 years and won’t be. I can’t say for certain because I don’t have a lot of experience with wolverines but I may have seen one set of tracks, I’m not sure it was a wolverine but I didn’t recognize it as anything else.
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Old 01-22-2022, 07:25 PM
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I think I give Chow-Fraser a failing grade. I think this university student spent too much time learning online the past couple years.
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Old 01-25-2022, 10:09 AM
dugh dugh is offline
 
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Dave, the ACA did the research with a lot of input from trappers. Remenber the cameras and the DNA poles.I think Robert from the Alberta Conservation Assn. did a report at the ATA AGM every year.
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Old 01-25-2022, 12:40 PM
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Old 01-27-2022, 10:49 PM
Marty S Marty S is offline
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My understanding of the ACA work was that they found a pile of wolverine, much more than ever imagined. To such end, THE FIRE IS OUT, IN FACT FALSE ALARM!!!!

If the study in question was done by some university student, beware! In fact throw out the university student thesis’s and lets hear what true scientists have to say, who are accountable for every word, as their reputation/credibility is on the line each time they open their mouths.

Key word “if”

THE SKY IS FALLING…. THE SKY IS FALLING….. SEND MONEY NOW!!!!

Wildlife in crisis yields much $$$$$$…. No crisis? NO SOUP FOR YOU!!!!
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Old 01-27-2022, 11:23 PM
HunterDave HunterDave is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by dugh View Post
Dave, the ACA did the research with a lot of input from trappers. Remenber the cameras and the DNA poles.I think Robert from the Alberta Conservation Assn. did a report at the ATA AGM every year.
Yes Doug, I recall watching a documentary on tv about a Wolverine study in Alberta about live catching wolverines in log cubby’s and fancy contraptions to collect their hair for DNA. I wouldn’t know anything about ATA AGMs but when I was a member I would have appreciated being provided with that info. I found the Rainbow Lake study that someone mentioned earlier in the thread very interesting.
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Old 01-30-2022, 04:38 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Marty S View Post
My understanding of the ACA work was that they found a pile of wolverine, much more than ever imagined. To such end, THE FIRE IS OUT, IN FACT FALSE ALARM!!!!

If the study in question was done by some university student, beware! In fact throw out the university student thesis’s and lets hear what true scientists have to say, who are accountable for every word, as their reputation/credibility is on the line each time they open their mouths.

Key word “if”

THE SKY IS FALLING…. THE SKY IS FALLING….. SEND MONEY NOW!!!!

Wildlife in crisis yields much $$$$$$…. No crisis? NO SOUP FOR YOU!!!!
I remember reading that in a report several years ago.

But I can't remember now who published the report.

The closest thing to it that I could find now was this statement in a ACA report;

Quote:
Our study was likely the first to identify so many wolverines at a single site: we had two sites with at least six different wolverines near Rainbow Lake and High Level.
https://www.ab-conservation.com/down...r_201-2016.pdf
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  #13  
Old 01-30-2022, 10:32 AM
Big Grey Wolf Big Grey Wolf is offline
 
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Dave now you know everything about Alberta wolverine, excellent detailed study by ACA and Trappers.
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Old 01-31-2022, 02:59 PM
Cutthroat lover Cutthroat lover is offline
 
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Russell Annabel wrote about this same thing in Alaska many years ago. I just don’t know which book it was in probably Alaskan Adventures
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Old 01-31-2022, 11:06 PM
HunterDave HunterDave is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Grey Wolf View Post
Dave now you know everything about Alberta wolverine, excellent detailed study by ACA and Trappers.
Yeah, I’m a wolverine whisperer now.
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Old 01-31-2022, 11:09 PM
trapperdodge trapperdodge is offline
 
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It's difficult to know what the historical averages of the wolverine was across all habitats. It's a species that never was numerous.

Kinda like Canvasback ducks. They were never had numbers like Mallards.
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