Police say wolverine spotted in Huron County
Wednesday, February 25, 2004
By Tom Gilchrist
TIMES WRITER
BAD AXE - A landfill near this Huron County city has imported Canadian trash, but Michigan State Police believe a garbage truck also hauled in a legendary creature: a wolverine.
"I have no idea how else an animal like this would have gotten here," said Sgt. T.J. Riegle of the state police post in Bad Axe.
Coyote hunters spotted and tracked the animal Tuesday in Huron County's Sheridan Township, Riegle said.
Riegle, who earned a bachelor's degree in wildlife ecology from Michigan State University, said state Department of Natural Resources employee Arnie Karr shot photos of the animal.
"Arnie is a DNR wildlife biologist and he believes it to be a wolverine," Riegle said. "I've seen live wolverines at the Potter Park Zoo in Lansing, I've seen 'em on TV, I've seen stuffed ones, and based on those photos, I'm 95 percent sure that's a wolverine.
"The last confirmed sighting of a wolverine that I'm aware of was before Michigan became a state (in 1837)," Riegle said.
The Times could not reach Karr for comment this morning, but Karr's wife, 56-year-old Jan Karr, said her husband "came home on Tuesday night and said 'I just saw the first wolverine of my life."'
Arnie Karr "said this thing had huge feet, and the animal was the size of a border collie, and Arnie said it ran across the top of the snow like nothing he's ever seen before in any animal," Jan Karr said.
"He said it was just unbelievable in his movement."
Gerald W. Smithers, 60, who lives east of M-53 off Popple Road, said hunters who live near him spotted the wolverine, and Smithers called state police to report it. Smithers said the search party spotted the animal and shot the photos about seven miles southwest of Bad Axe.
Smithers said that when he first called to report the sighting, police and DNR workers thought the creature actually was a badger.
"A badger don't run across a 40-acre field like a wolverine does," Smithers said. "They're a scurrier, and this is a wolverine. They have the pictures, and these (hunters) are an honest bunch of guys."
Arnie Karr took the photos of the animal several miles from the Cove Landfill of Bad Axe Inc. at 4151 S. McMillan Road.
Riegle speculates that the wolverine may have ridden in on a garbage truck, possibly from Canada.
State statistics show that about 300,000 cubic yards of trash came to the site last year, and that some Canadian garbage arrived in 2002, but not in 2003.
Huron County Prosecutor Mark J. Gaertner, who has been investigating whether the landfill illegally accepts hazardous wastes, said the dump does take Canadian trash.
Riegle doesn't believe the wolverine will be a threat to Huron County residents.
"I don't see it as a danger to the community because wolverines are not very good hunters," Riegle said. "They tend to exist on carrion, of which we have a great supply of at this time of year with all these car-deer accidents.
"He - or she - shouldn't have any problem finding something to eat. The animal has the ability to take down a farm animal, but it's very unlikely. They're just not built for that kind of activity, unless they get real hungry."
The destruction of wilderness has driven the wolverine from its historic habitat across the northern United States, including Michigan. In America today, the elusive member of the weasel family is known to exist in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Oregon, California and Washington.