What lives on a mountain glacier? We used camera traps to find out.

What lives on a mountain glacier? We used wildlife cameras to find out. We placed six trail cameras along the margins of the Paradise Glacier on Mount Rainier. The results were surprising! Lots of people, wildlife, and even a family of wolverines!
Instagram: / mountain_futures
Read the study: bioone.org/jou...
I'm Scott Hotaling--an Assistant Professor at Utah State University in the Department of Watershed Sciences. My lab studies high mountain ecosystems and the impact climate change and loss of snow and ice is having on them. I created this KZbin channel to share our research and information about climate change with the rest of the world.
Learn more about my lab: qcnr.usu.edu/r...
Interested in studying aquatic ecosystems for an undergraduate or graduate degree? Check out my department at Utah State University: qcnr.usu.edu/w...
Learn about the indigenous peoples that call any location home: native-land.ca/

[@user-eh6ih4ev5e]

I don't know what I did right, but the KZbin gods blessed me today. I love this kind of content. SUBSCRIBED!🎉

[@MountainFutures]

Glad to hear it! There will be a lot more in the future... we actually have some wildlife cameras out in some high alpine areas right now (mostly in Utah).

[@mindb7917]

Amazing. For once youtube recommended me a hidden gem.

[@MountainFutures]

We're so glad you found it! We'll be posting more videos like this in the future. Thanks for leaving a comment!

[@susanb.4965]

Congratulations on capturing the wolverine(s) on camera, extremely exciting! I love seeing all the wildlife as well, thank you.

[@MountainFutures]

Thanks! Stay tuned for more-we put out cameras at high elevations every summer and have several going right now. So we’ll make a video about what they captured later this fall!

[@johndoppleguard]

🤭

[@dawntreader7079]

i was a backcountry ski guide in the northern rockies, every couple of seasons i'd see a wolverine or two. always when i had been sitting silently in the winter woods for a LONG time. very remote area with dense aspen, pine and lots of rocky slopes, around 10,000 feet.

[@MountainFutures]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing!

[@WalksOfWonder-BC]

That’s really cool! I’ve still never seen a wolverine, so neat to see a family so high up in the mountains

[@MountainFutures]

They are such amazing animals. I wish I'd had a camera rolling when I was reviewing the photos and first saw the wolverines. I couldn't believe it!

[@MartinSheckelstorm]

Amazing footage im glad they let you guys do the study.

[@daveb7999]

Great to see these wildlife frequent the glaciers, I'm surprised with the amount of human presence there. The Wolverine family was especially nice to see. Thanks for sharing this.

[@loftbuckleyrc]

Saw one once,near Mt. Wade, Alaska, on the Nunatak Glacier, in 1985. We made the first ascent of Wade. Only time in my 81 years on this planet.

[@twowheelgeriatric]

Very nicely done. Super great to capture the images of wolverines.

[@clayz1]

I like it best when the people go phantom. Nice camera setups. Thanks for taking us along.

[@ErnieMathews]

Wolverines are fascinating: so smart. Glad they're returning.

[@MountainFutures]

me too!

[@kenfoley2820]

Thanks for your work on documenting wildlife!

[@MountainFutures]

Thanks for watching! Means a lot for our small channel. We have another couple of camera trap videos in the process (cameras are still out!)...

[@alexadey3413]

Great news about the wolverines.

[@nnonotnow]

Great study! Thanks for sharing

[@peterdallman4550]

Awesome pictures. We had a wolverine in the White Salmon River valley in South Central WA late spring of this year 2024. It was in a rural residential area of the town of White Salmon and was videoed. It took off north towards Trout Lake and Mount Adams

[@MountainFutures]

@@peterdallman4550 whoa! Thats very cool. One of my favorite things about this video getting around is hearing so many great wolvo stories from all around.

[@user-mf3sk5sr5t]

Amazing ❗️👍🏻🇬🇧

[@anitamitchell3452]

Very clever how you set up the camera. Funny it got chewed on. 😆 Congratulations on the wolverine capturing. What a lucky day! I wish that fox would have come out during the day. They are a beautiful animal. Have a great day and thanks for sharing the video and the study. New sub.

[@MountainFutures]

Thanks Anita! So glad you found the video and enjoyed it. We were glad to hit on such a simple solution to a somewhat vexing problem--how to deploy cameras in such icy and rocky places far from trails.

[@paulasciuk5504]

Many thanks for the link to the camera traps! I have subscribed to your channel, I am equally interested in changes in glaciers.

[@MountainFutures]

Awesome, thank you! You are definitely in the right place for glacier change info! I'll be putting out more videos on that in the future. You might like this video if you haven't seen it yet: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rJizlH2qhciAp8U

[@brucemattes5015]

I'm surprised you didn't capture images of mountain lions. I know for a fact that at least one existed in Mt. Ranier National Park back in 1981 because I came within several minutes of encountering it one summer day on the trail above where Huckleberry Creek Mountain Training Camp used to be located in the Snoqualmie National Forest just outside of the park boundary on Highway 410 above Greenwater. There used to be an unmarked, *"unofficial"* trail leading into the park that you accessed several hundred feet east of the unnamed logging road leading into where Huckleberry Creek Mountain Training Camp was located. I was perhaps 50 yards inside the old growth forest just before the trail broke out of the trees into a half mile wide mountain meadow that then transitioned into a glacial moraine that then transitioned into the rocky shoulders of the mountain itself. Just inside the border of the park, I had stopped for several minutes to bury a fresh pile of human feces and toilet paper that someone had thoughtfully left smack dab in the center of the very narrow trail. After finishing up that pleasant task, I proceeded another hundred yards, or so, came around a sharp right-hand bend in the trail, and spied another pile of fresh, still steaming, shit in the center of the trail not 50 feet in front of me. I immediately began cursing the uncouth idiots whom I thought had crapped on the trail again, instead of doing their business in the forest off of the trail. As I stepped closer, I realized that there was no bright white toilet paper mixed into the poop. As I got up on top of the pile of what I now realized must be wild animal scat, I recognized small pieces of undigested animal bones sticking out of the pile. I probably stared at that pile of fresh scat for more than a minute before I realized that it had to be from a bobcat. It *NEVER* entered my mind that it might be from a mountain lion. I took a couple of downed twigs and moved the scat off of the trail, and proceeded on my way, not particularly wary because I knew that bobcats generally avoided human beings and seldom attacked unless provoked or cornered. The trail jogged again and that is when the sunlight out in the meadow ahead could be spotted, approximately 50 yards further up the trail. About the same time that my brain recognized the sunlight poking it's way into the gloom of the forest, my brain also recognized a dark tawny shape bounding its way up the last few yards of the trail, out into the meadow, and out of sight. It was moving *FAST!* I immediately began suffering from a cognitive dissonance because my intellect kept trying to convince my brain that I had just witnessed a large bobcat running up the trail, while my brain was computing all of the information that I had studied as a Boy Scout and young adult. My brain was telling my intellect that bobcats, regardless of how huge one might grow, can't possibly measure over 5 feet long. And, besides, dummy, bobcats *DON'T* have tails that measure more than 2 feet long! There was that *Ah!Ha!, Oh!Shit!* moment of realization that while I was burying someone's pile of poop, and investigating the scat, that apex predator adult mountain lion was in all likelihood watching me from inside the old growth forest. I was approximately halfway across the meadow when out of the corner of my eye I spotted that mountain lion bounding up the rocky shoulders of Mt. Rainer about a thousand feet higher up the mountainside. Its leaps were easily more than a dozen feet in length, and it quickly moved out of my line of sight. On my way out of the park I reported the sighting to the park rangers at Paradise. None of whom believed me, the Park Superintendent finally coming out of his office to inform me in an infuriating, university professor, I know what's what, snotty tone of voice, *"That no mountain lions lived inside the boundaries of Mt. Ranier National Park, and that what I had seen MUST have been a bobcat."* When I informed him that the last time that I looked in a field guide of North American wildlife, *EVERY* picture of a bobcat had a short stubby tail, and not the long, wavy tail that I had witnessed twice in less than 10 minutes. He just turned around and walked back into his office while simultaneously telling the lower ranking rangers to escort me out of Paradise.

[@MountainFutures]

What a story! I was hoping for a cougar but they are so rare (but definitely present!) that I'm not too surprised our small number of cameras didn't catch one.

[@michaeldill7620]

Soo awesome!! Nice work!!

[@MountainFutures]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@mtnvalley9298]

thanks for your efforts

[@MountainFutures]

Thanks for watching and leaving a comment. It's very encouraging and helps with the algorithm!

[@bubblesezblonde]

enjoyed this

[@hagvaktok]

You may not see a wolverine in person but their distinctive 5 toed tracks on snow are very distinctive not just in shape but the spacing.

[@MountainFutures]

Very true! I've seen way more sign than actual animals.

[@pisceanogre]

Back in 1985 and southern New Hampshire on the slopes of mount MonadnockL my college girlfriend and I saw this very large obviously nearsighted animal come walking out of the woods. I saw it first and Huster and we watched it for a good 10 minutes before it went back into the woods dot we walked another half or so back to her log cabin house and I showed her a dozen photographs of wildlife and she on airing instantly chose the photograph of the Wolverine, which is what I actually thought it was. We were both hundred percent convinced. It actually made me pretty nervous. It was obviously scarier than a 45-50 pound dog. What a fantastic video you got here.

[@MountainFutures]

I've had one give me a little growl as it loped past. Definitely not a creature to be messed with!

[@beatricepetronelli3042]

Thank you for this great video. I enjoyed it.

[@MountainFutures]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Icarus_II]

Wolverines are Snow Kings!

[@darrollgrant87]

There have been a number (more than 8) wolverine sightings in Portland, Or, along the coast and near Eugene in the past 18 months.

[@MountainFutures]

Wow! That’s very cool (and sounds pretty unusual).

[@FYMASMD]

@@MountainFuturesone was captured in a picture alongside the Columbia river.

[@coloradohikertrash9958]

I've spent most of my life exploring the alpine in Colorado and I always love to see a critter I've never seen before. I doubt I'll ever see one but there's talk about bringing back Wolverines here.

[@MountainFutures]

Hopefully they find their way back on their own...

[@coloradohikertrash9958]

@@MountainFutures ehh... if past decisions are any indication then I doubt that's the direction Colorado will go.

[@dudedabsworth8023]

This was a great find. Thanks

[@michelecox5241]

Awesome! ❤❤❤❤❤ well done!

[@MountainFutures]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@tysonessenmacher2091]

Congratulations on your wolverine sighting. I had a chance spotting at my house at Rescue California a couple months back. Took a few days to figure out what I'd seen.

[@MountainFutures]

@@tysonessenmacher2091 very cool!

[@jimross898]

Winter seems to be the time to spot them in our area of southern BC. I've been fortunate enough to see 5 wolverines. Three were fleeting and two were extended. One ran up a 1000 feet on a gradually steepening slope until it got to the cornice and then dug it's way through 8 feet of cornice. We skied to the top of the cornice the following day and found the near vertical hole it made.

[@user-ov4mk9ox8y]

in the Kootenays along the border we're getting badger coming back (including in town in Invermere we've had three) and wolverines are studied and are actually fairly common in the forest bordering the Payseyton Wilderness from Manning Park (find the message tree) to the Salmo cut. So dense though you'll never see them. With the forest fires large predator have been seen in daylight (very uncommon). I've seen along ranch roads pairs of cougars in daylight, seemingly off a bit not understanding the smoke and fire dangers.

[@jimross898]

@@user-ov4mk9ox8y We often see cougars during daylight on our farm in the Slocan Valley, without fire pressure. We had a mom and kit and a sibling pair on the farm this spring/early summer. Ran into one in the forest riding my bike a few weeks back, prior to fire season cranking up. Think part of it has to do with a high density of cats in our area but I'm no expert. Nice to hear the badger and wolverines are doing well. We've also noticed the cats seem more visible since the wolves moved into our area over a decade ago. Likely because the wolves push the cougars off kills necessitating more hunting to feed themselves. Taking more risks to do so. Summer and winter, I'm often in the bush alone which is likely why I see so much wildlife. I wish I knew more biologists as much of what I know is anecdotal and not supported by data or critical observation. Why I enjoy the opportunity to learn from people like those who created this video.

[@yellowpoppy253]

Great captures! There’s been some extremely unusual sightings recently….one was videoed at Cascade Locks, also one running through a Eugene neighborhood, and another filmed crossing a major highway in Oregon. Sightings down in Tahoe, as well.

[@Some-Guy-]

Looking forward to the iceworms!

[@MountainFutures]

Glad to hear it! Ice worms are incredible. I'll start pulling footage and ideas together.

[@windidiot]

I'm looking forward to learning more about ice worms and snow worms.

[@MountainFutures]

Glad to hear it! Ice worms are incredible. I'll start pulling footage and ideas together.

[@erickillg811]

I was lucky enough to witness to Wolverines running from frozen lake they were running down the ravine towards the camping area. I thought they were moments at first but then when I looked a little bit closer it’s like no those are going way too fast. That’s when someone behind me said those are Wolverines.😁👍

[@MountainFutures]

very cool!

[@joemoreland1925]

Wolverine, I live close to the Columbia River, we have had multiple sightings in the districts around. It's been on hour news. Why would the wolverines travel South? Awesome video footages, thanks for sharing them. ❤

[@MountainFutures]

Very cool. Thanks for sharing this!

[@cameratrapcodger]

Excellent video and great find!

[@MountainFutures]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for leaving a comment.

[@TheWolfgangfritz]

No Sasquatch!

[@tree4408]

You revealed the secret life of wolverines. Now they are no longer safe..

[@MountainFutures]

...or maybe we're the ones that are no longer safe!?

[@EbbnFlow2012]

Come out to BC. I have seen 2 wolverine in the past 2 years. Both times they were in higher alpine but not at glacier level although one wasn't far. No pikas. One thing that is also common just a bit further north.

[@richganzel9248]

Ran across one in the back country of Frazer Valley CO. What an experience!

[@MountainFutures]

@@richganzel9248 wolverine sightings definitely stick with you!

[@richganzel9248]

@@MountainFutures yes sir, you got that right! That was 1976 or so. It was crossing the trail/road so I got out of the truck to take a look at it. He snarled and I got back into the truck and let him on his way.

[@wmfuller9486]

Great video, thanks. I was lucky enough to see a wolverine in Alaska when I was hunting. We have a stable population of them in Montana, 250 -300 is the population estimate. They allow 5 to be trapped in recent years but I don't like that. Anyway, that's my 2 cents worth.

[@Docteroftime]

Do you guys have a website to ask what you guys are up to? I love your videos so far. I have a degree in ecology from Utah state so I’ve worked in a couple of your video sites and I grew up in Washington. So most of your videos hit pretty close to home.

[@MountainFutures]

That's awesome! Cool to connect with a USU alum that has connections to these places. No all-in-one website but here's my lab's website: qcnr.usu.edu/research/ccml/. Happy to talk more anytime! If you want to help the channel, the best thing to do is subscribe and share the videos with anyone that might be interested. We're excited to make more videos--currently working on an episode about a recent trip in the Teton Range! We'll be posting that in a few days.

[@codyscottrose]

Amazing!

[@MountainFutures]

Thank you! Cheers!

[@ChinookServices]

I think there’s a lot more out there than you would think I just saw 1 randomly snowmobiling in the spring at Mount Baker and have seen them well hiking near Stevens Pass on two separate occasions and I’m not in the mountains that much

[@MountainFutures]

Definitely!

[@user-ov4mk9ox8y]

I really miss my 300. U-Way (they don't sell/warranty any more, and they use software) Fantastic night vidoe and really good pictures. REally good cams are just not around. I may try Browning but these other brands to day are all about "name": black ops, etc. please.

[@konaken1035]

Cool!!!

[@paulasciuk5504]

Please share a link to the camera traps used. TIA

[@deroux]

I've seen a lot of fresh black bear scat near the parking at skyline for early morning alpine starts before the crowds arrive.

[@MountainFutures]

I've had quite a few unexpected bear encounters high in the mountains. They definitely get up there!

[@wdwtx2.0]

Way cool.

[@MountainFutures]

@@wdwtx2.0 Thanks for watching! We have more cameras deployed in some other mountain areas right now so stay turned for similar videos in the future about whatever we find! Already some cool new sightings…

[@WUZLE]

Wolverines are famously solitary. Or I should say they were. Recently I saw a video in which a male wolverine brings a chunk of animal and leaves it for a female and her kits. This was presumably his mate and kits, but the previously literature suggested that like bears, male wolverines might kill kits to bring the females back into heat. female bear thus do not tolerate the presence of males outside the mating season, and I thought wolverines would be the same way. That one video suggests they are more social than previously expected.

[@MountainFutures]

Whoa!

[@newlifelodge]

“Unceded” but you sure aren’t moving out. No, you’ll increase you impact instead

[@francus7227]

Not the greatest clip. But..... I damn sure tapped the thumbs up 👍 button to feed the algorithm monsters because I know it required 100x more effort than 99.99% of ALL the clips I watch.

[@bradjohnson6062]

In 1974 I was hiking with Boy Scout pack on PCT near Glacier Peak I encountered a group of wolverines coming over the ridge. It was east to tell what they were I called the ranger and told him and he laughed and said there are NO wolverines I was happy the Heads thought that because I wanted humans to leave them alone In 1990 I encountered a pack of wolves deep in the cascades near Steven’s Pass Again I called the ranger because I hoped the humans didn’t know about them Of course I was laughed at No wolves in Washington I encounter rare wildlife often I only hike game trails anymore because I don’t want to see humans

[@MountainFutures]

That's so cool!

[@robsin2810]

Mammals everywhere. Go figure.😊

[@jcee2259]

I saw bear crap upon the Coleman Glacier ice and access trail; .

[@bradjohnson6062]

Also I will just say never think you know it all How can you learn if you already know everything

[@MountainFutures]

What's the most exciting wildlife encounter that you've had in the mountains?

[@betsyfloyde9244]

Pika?

[@MountainFutures]

We saw a few! But no great shots so I didn't include them here.

[@user-jb2iw8oy8w]

Wolverine 😄🖕

[@user-eh6ih4ev5e]

FU Deadpool

[@paulasciuk5504]

Please share a link to the camera traps used. TIA

[@MountainFutures]

Sure! We used "Browning StrikeForce Extreme" cameras: www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07BL53W5B/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1