Southwest Crown of the Continent Rare Forest Carnivore Monitoring

In the winter months, the Blackfoot Challenge’s Wildlife Coordinator assists partners with monitoring the prevalence and distribution of rare forest carnivores in the Upper Blackfoot watershed. Focus species for the monitoring efforts include wolverine, Canada lynx, and fisher (which have not been detected throughout the entire Southwest Crown since monitoring efforts began in 2012).  Crews also perform track surveys for wolves, mountain lion, marten, and bobcat. Monitoring activities include setting up bait stations and backtracking in an attempt to capture hair samples and/or scat for DNA analysis. When available, trail cameras are used to capture photos and video to verify the species detected at the bait stations. This work is aimed at understanding long-term population trends and habitat needs to support conservation of these unique, rarely seen species.