Rare wolverine captured in photograph in Yellowstone National Park

by Jenna Romaine | March 14, 2022 | Mar. 14, 2022

This is a stock photo of a wolverine. (jamenpercy/iStock)

Story at a glance

A wolverine was photographed in Yellowstone National Park on March 5.
There are believed to only be six or seven wolverines within Yellowstone’s 2.2 million acres, according to the National Park Service.
The wolverine population was decimated in the lower 48 by the 1930s due to commercial trapping and predator control efforts and has never fully recovered.

A tour guide captured a rare photograph of an even more rare wolverine in Yellowstone National Park.

MacNeil Lyons, owner and tour guide of Yellowstone Insight and former park ranger, was with a tour group on March 5 when they stumbled across the animal.

“My guest said out loud, exactly what I was thinking, ‘Is that a bear?’” Lyons wrote on Facebook. “For a hot second, we both thought that it might be a young black bear moving away from us, but as it turned and looked over its right shoulder towards us – there was no mistaking that the animal was indeed, a Wolverine!”

The wolverine hung around briefly until another vehicle began to approach, and the animal took off up a snowy embankment.

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The sight captured has been deemed an “amazing moment” as there are believed to only be six or seven wolverines within Yellowstone’s 2.2 million acres, according to the National Park Service (NPS).

Such encounters are so rare, and the NPS and conservation groups encourage those lucky enough to experience one to note the location and take photographs from a safe distance, without disturbing the animal, for location and population purposes, then report it to the visitor’s center or a park ranger.

The wolverine population was decimated in the lower 48 by the 1930s due to commercial trapping and predator control efforts and has never fully recovered.

“We actually were very blessed to be there,” Lyons wrote, “at the exact moment to witness this rare animal before it scampered back into the dense evergreen forest that parallels that stretch of Yellowstone’s road corridor.”