Wildlife officials capture ‘elusive’ animal only seen eight times in 43 years in Utah

There had only been eight sightings confirmed in 43 years.

But when 18 sheep were killed or wounded in an area in Utah, wildlife officials started searching.

They flew over Rich County and saw an animal feeding on a dead sheep. When they got a little closer, they realized they were looking at the elusive creature — a wolverine.

Since 1979, there had only been eight confirmed sightings of wolverines in Utah. It’s very rare to see one in real life, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources said.

Wildlife officials, however, didn’t just see the animal. They captured it, put a GPS collar on it and released it back into the wild.

Now they’ll be able to track its every move through the Uinta Mountains.

“It’s amazing to get a chance to see a wolverine in the wild, let alone catch one,” Northern Region Wildlife Manager Jim Christensen said in a March 14 news release. “This was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”

Biologists and a Utah Department of Agriculture trapper set up two barrel traps to catch the wolverine. All of the dead sheep were removed from the area, but they put two parts of the sheep in each trap, hoping to lure the wolverine.

“There was so much activity in the area that morning, I thought the wolverine would be long gone, and we wouldn’t be able to catch it,” Christensen said.

However, in the afternoon of March 11 one of the doors on the traps was down. A wolverine was inside.

It was the first time in Utah a wolverine had ever been captured by biologists, according to the Division of Wildlife Resources.

The wolverine was taken to the an office in Ogden. It was sedated, and biologists examined the animal. They drew blood, collected hair samples and checked its teeth and measurements.

They determined the wolverine is between 3 and 4 years old and weighs 28 pounds. It is 41 inches long and in “really good condition,” Christensen said.

The animal was released in the Uinta Mountains that evening with a GPS collar.

“Having a collar on this wolverine will teach us things about wolverines in Utah that would be impossible to learn any other way,” Christensen said. “Four different wolverine sightings were confirmed in Utah in 2021. Were we seeing the same animal or different animals last year? Having a collar on this animal will help us solve that riddle.”

This story was originally published March 15, 2022 at 10:22 AM with the headline "Wildlife officials capture ‘elusive’ animal only seen eight times in 43 years in Utah."