Doorbell Camera Captures Wolverine Passing Through Davis County Neighborhood
Jul 1, 2021, 2:32 PM | Updated: Jul 2, 2021, 6:18 am
LAYTON, Utah — The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources confirmed a wolverine was spotted in Davis County on Thursday, marking just the sixth confirmed wolverine sighting in Utah since the 1970s.
A doorbell camera captured the animal passing through a west Layton neighborhood while officials said two people walking on a nearby trail also spotted the wolverine.
“If you see the wolverine, please keep your distance, enjoy viewing it, and call us at 801-476-2740 immediately,” the DWR said. “We’d like to place a GPS collar on the animal and then release it in a high-elevation area. Tracking its movements will teach us more about wolverines in Utah.”
A wolverine was sighted on Antelope Island on May 4, marking just the fifth confirmed wolverine sighting in Utah and first since June 2016.
It's rare to see wolverines, even in the high-elevation areas where they typically live. Today's sighting is only the 6th confirmed sighting in Utah since the 1970s. Our biologists think this is the same wolverine spotted on Antelope Island in May pic.twitter.com/2OYOHrSQtb
— Faith Heaton Jolley (@FaithHJolley) July 1, 2021
“They have really big kind of home ranges of like 350 square miles, so they’re on the move a lot, they don’t stay in one area very long. And we feel like, with this wolverine, it was just kind of passing through the area,” said DWR spokesperson Faith Heaton Jolley.
Wolverines are not listed as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act but they are protected under Utah law.
The DWR receives several reports of wolverine sightings in the state each year, but the animals are so elusive that it is unclear exactly how many are currently in Utah and whether there is an established population.
Most sightings come from the High Uintas and the DWR has placed cameras in potential habitat areas to try to monitor wolverines in the state.
Confirmed Wolverine Sightings In Utah
- May 4: Video from Antelope Island State Park shows a wolverine traveling through the area
- June 29, 2016: A female wolverine carcass was located by the Utah Department of Transportation after it was hit and killed by a vehicle about one mile west of Laketown, near Bear Lake in Rich County.
- December 2014: Wolverine tracks were found near Dutch John.
- February 2014: A wolverine was captured in a photo at a camera bait station in the Uinta Mountains.
- 1979: A wolverine was hit and killed by a vehicle on U.S. Highway 40, east of Vernal.
