A ranch hand near Alexander, North Dakota shot and killed an adult male wolverine after finding the animal surrounded by cows in a calving pasture. After the kill, Jared Hatter posted the photos of the animal to his Facebook profile.
While the state of North Dakota has no breeding population of wolverines, a state law is in place that allows ranchers to kill fur-bearing animals that are posing a direct threat to livestock.
Earlier in the year, reports of a wolverine surfaced from Havre, North Dakota, leaving wildlife biologists wondering if this was the same animal sighted about a month prior to the shooting.
“It could be the same individual – it’s not often for these things to take off across the prairie. The fact one was seen in north east Montana before one turned up here, the odds are greater it’s the same individual than two individuals at the same time,” Tucker told Ravalli Republic.
State biologists are planning a DNA analysis of the animal and will likely mount the wolverine for educational purposes. The last recorded sighting of a wolverine in the state of North Dakota was verified via fur trading records dated in 1870.
H/T: Ravalli Republic
Image: Facebook
