Almost hunted to extinction in Finland, the predator is making a comeback and moving southward too.
FULL STORY AT LINK ABOVE ^^^
FULL STORY AT LINK ABOVE ^^^
Satellites find rare predator returning to south Finland forests for first time
Irene WrightApril 25, 2025 9:33 AM
In the snowy forests of Finland, wolverines are returning to their historic habitats decades after being hunted near extinction. Henry Schneider via UnsplashIn the frozen and dense forests of Finland, hunters in the 20th century brought a fearsome predator close to extinction.
The elusive wolverine was listed as endangered as early as the 1980s, and by the end of the century, it was locally extinct in the country’s southern forests.
In the decades since, their protected status has allowed the species to make asurprising comeback, researchers said in a study published April 21 in the peer-reviewed journal Ecology and Evolution.
Now, utilizing satellite imagery, terrain measurements and tracking footprints in the snow, researchers have learned wolverines are moving back into Finland’s southern forests, according to an April 23 news release from Aalto University.
Wolverines were nearly hunted to extinction, but have made a comeback in recent decades, researchers said. Screengrab from Aalto University's Facebook post
Researchers used wildlife and field triangle data to identify where the wolverines were present, a process that creates smaller sections of land created by transects forming equilateral triangles, according to the study.
The smaller land sections can then be checked for wolverine footprints during winter months, and the percentage of triangles with tracks represents the region more generally, researchers said.
The triangles were then compared to satellite imagery used to identify the make-up of the forests, like the density and type of trees, for example, according to the study.
About 13% of the triangles had wolverine tracks, researchers said, and in the southern part of the country, they were found in mixed-tree forests.
“Research confirms that wolverines are returning to their old habitats further south,” researchers said in an April 23 Facebook post from Aalto University. “The study also suggests that the typical deciduous mixed forests of the south may be a more important habitat for wolverines than previously thought.”
Satellite images combined with footprint tracking allowed researchers to see wolverine’s new range in Finland. Screengrab from Aalto University's Facebook post
Wolverines were present in areas that were not close to clearcuts, or open spaces, according to the study. They were also in areas of less forest density and a more continuous landscape.
These kinds of environments are typically further away from human development and infrastructure, like roads and settlements, meaning there is less of a chance for human-wolverine interaction, according to the study.
Researchers believe these types of forest spaces are the “highest quality” based on how other species have spread in the past.
“In expanding wolf populations, individuals settle first in the highest-quality habitats. As population density increases, later dispersers are pushed into progressively lower-quality areas, facing fewer resources and greater human disturbance,” researchers said. “Therefore, if wolverines follow a similar pattern, occupying higher-quality habitats first, our findings may reflect characteristics of those habitats. Based on our results, forest and landscape structures could play a significant role in shaping wolverine distribution in Finland.”
Wolverines are generally in areas separated from human influence, researchers said. . .
