A rare, native wolverine has been spotted in Northern California for just the second time since it was thought to have gone extinct more than 100 years ago.
A photo of the animal was taken by Ryan Campbell in May while enjoying a day of skiing at Mammoth Mountain in Crowley, California.
As he rode the gondola to the top of the mountain, a stranger in his car pointed to the animal in the snow below, “Is that a wolverine,” the person asked.
The sighting marks only the second time the animals have been seen since their disappearance from California in 1922 after hunters wiped out the population.
Wolverines are believed to be the animals that ransacked the Donner Party’s camp, leaving them to resort to cannibalism after getting stuck in the snow.
The sighting marks only the second time the animals have been seen since their disappearance from California in 1922 after hunters wiped them out. Pictured: Buddy the wolverine in 2010
Wolverines are believed to be the animals that ransacked the Donner Party’s camp, leaving them to resort to cannibalism after getting stuck in the snow.
In the most recent incident, the group that spotted the animal said they were initially unsure what it was looking at.
Campbell said SFGate the animal looked like “a small bear, except for the white marking, the long tail and the head”.
Just to be sure, he pulled out his phone and snapped the photo from a long distance.
However, the animal was soon spooked by an oncoming skier and took off.
“We saw him running towards a clump of trees nearby. Then we noticed why it started working,” Campbell said. “A skier was coming down the slope and jumped, probably never having seen how close they were.”
The photo taken by Campbell shows the dark-colored animal on a slope, crawling on all fours through the snow.
The photo is only the second of its kind since the wolverine – a member of the mammalian family that includes otters and badgers – disappeared from California.
In 2008, a wolverine named “Buddy” traveled from Idaho, about 600 miles from the most recent sighting, to California.
The animal has been filmed several times over the years.
“It’s kind of a passenger,” Chris Stermer, an official with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife told SFGATE in 2008.
“He’s a lone wolverine looking for a mate he’ll probably never find,” Stermer said.
The last wolverine sighting was at Mammoth Mountain in Crowley, California.
In 2008, a wolverine named “Buddy” traveled from Idaho, about 600 miles from the most recent sighting, to California. Pictured: Buddy the Wolverine
There are thought to be only 400 wolverines in the United States, located in Idaho, Colorado, and Montana.
The animals live for five to 13 years, so officials say they don’t believe the sighting in California is Buddy
SFGate emailed a photo of the animal from Mammoth Mountain to Stermer which apparently confirmed its species.
“I’m 99.9% sure it’s a wolverine in the photo, which is pretty exciting!” he wrote in an email exchange with the outlet.
“In fact, the Department has received two videos since last week showing what appears to be a wolverine from a distance, and one was taken by someone on a ski lift,” he continued.
There are thought to be only 400 wolverines in the United States, distributed across Idaho, Colorado, and Montana.
The animals live for five to 13 years, so officials say they don’t believe the California sighting is Buddy.
Wolverines were best known for their scavenging methods and were said to have been responsible for eating the Donner Party’s food supply.
The incident became one of California Trail’s most famous cases after the group resorted to cannibalism to survive.
