Wolverine spotted on the Hi-Line

When he makes the journey from Havre to his farm north of Hingham, David Chinadle said he might see a rabbit or badger scurrying through the stubble fields.

But about three weeks ago while driving that very route, the farmer caught a glimpse of a creature rarely seen in the fields of north-central Montana: a wolverine.

“I thought that was something I would never see in my life,” Chinadle said.

Chinadle said when he first saw the creature it was far from the road, and he thought it was a dog.

He stopped and looked through a pair of field glasses at the carnivore.

Chinadle snapped a few pictures with his cellphone, but he said that it was so far away in later photopraphs that the images were not clear.

Chinadle described the creature as “pretty determined’ to arrive at his intended destination. He said the wolverine seemed to be heading toward the Bear Paw Mountains from the Sweetgrass Hills.

After seeing it, Chinadle said, he talked with some locals who have said they have spotted one, too. One man from Goldstone told Chinadle he saw one a year ago, while another said he came across one in the 1970s between Gildford and Kremlin.

Bob Inman, carnivore coordinator with Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, saw a high-resolution image of the photo Chindale sent him and confirmed that the animal in question was a wolverine. He said the picture showed the presence of a yellow lateral stripe that runs from the top of the back legs to the top of its bushy tail, a common feature of the wolverine.

“It’s very unusual to see one anywhere,” Inman said.

The wolverine, a member of the weasel family, resides in mountain ranges and high alpine elevations in western Montana.

Inman said that wolverines don’t settle in terrain like that common to most of northcentral Montana. They tend to live in high elevations and mountain ranges in a western area of the state that stretches from Glacier National Park down to Yellowstone National Park.

He said the wolverine was most likely enroute from one mountain range to another at the time. Wolverines, he said, usually leave the habitat where they have been raised for another mountain range to find a suitable mate.

Wolverines are about two feet long and a foot high. Of the 40 he has captured, Inman said males are typically 28 pounds and females 20 pounds.

Inman said wolverines are tough, often fighting off bears for the remains of prey, however, they do not present a direct danger to humans.