Daily Darwin

Look, I'm an acrobat!! (individual was not permanently injured -- he's just an idiot)

Darwin 5 17 23

Cowboy State Daily is Wyoming’s largest newspaper with Wyoming’s most experienced journalists. 

<title>Daily Darwin: Wednesday, May 17, 2023 | Cowboy State Daily</title>

Look, I'm an acrobat!!!

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, May 17, 2023

 Look, I'm an acrobat!! (individual was not permanently injured -- he's just an idiot)

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's Feature Reporter, Andrew Rossi.

Andrew Rossi

Outdoors

Wildlife

[{"type":"text","text":"How many wolverines are in Yellowstone National Park?"}]

The National Park Service doesn’t have an easy answer for a census of these 

Neither does biologist Jim Halfpenny, but he does have an estimate based on decades of confirmed evidence — and it’s a lot more than most people think.

 seven “documented” wolverines in the region from 2006-2009. Halfpenny’s nearly 50 years of research says there are dozens more, at least 31 verified in the last five years and "83 absolute verified wolverines” since 1990.

That was the story Halfpenny shared recently at the historic Range Riders Lodge in Silver Gate, Montana. Dozens of people attended his presentation on what he calls the “elusive, sparse, and downright rare wolverine.”

“Tonight, I’m dealing with verified reports only,” he said. “No matter how much I trust somebody who says they saw a wolverine, that's not counted. This is where I have positive verification.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Bad PR"}]

The wolverine, in Halfpenny’s opinion, has a bad reputation through no fault of its own. He’s spent decades reversing their public image by fastidiously learning more about them.

“We're going to talk about the real wolverine,” he said. “The real wolverine is quite a different creature than the stories you probably grew up with.”

The wolverine has been known by many names, among them “the Devil Bear,” “the Glutton,” and “The Evil One.”

Even Peter Krott, a biologist who hand-raised wolverines alongside his own children, titled his 1959 book on wolverines “Demon of the North.”

“I hate to say it, (but) the wolverine is a plain out-and-out victim of bad PR,” Halfpenny said.

Halfpenny has been tracking and studying wolverines in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem since 1979. In that time, he said he’s seen the truth about “the curious big weasel.”

“Dave Need and I picked up a grant for $80,000, which was a lot of money then, for three years of chasing lynx and wolverine,” he said. “That was the start of the wolverine hair snagging for the United States.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Fact And Fiction"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Wolverines have long been depicted as almost mythical creatures. "}]

The earliest accounts from North American explorers depict them as fearless, vicious, and ill-tempered animals that battle bears and eviscerate anything in their path.

Halfpenny has always been focused on verification. When it comes to understanding the truth of the wolverine, everything else is pointless.

“There's two basic eras of wolverine knowledge: the natural history books and things that we read there, and the modern science,” he said.

The natural history books say a wolverine could grow up to 80 pounds. Modern science, in the form of over 700 in-the-field weighings of wild wolverines in North America, reached a much more conservative conclusion.

“The largest weight ever is 37 pounds,” Halfpenny said. “A male might hit 35, but the average weight is around 30 pounds.”

Natural history says a fully grown wolverine could be more than 6 feet long. Modern science hasn’t found a wolverine larger than 3 feet long.

Halfpenny has seen wolverines interact with grizzlies but never engage them in combat. If anything, wolverines are extremely deferential to their much larger neighbors.

[{"type":"text","text":"Wolverines were also nearly hunted to extinction. "}]

In fact, Halfpenny believes they might have been extinct in Montana by 1920, partly due to the National Park Service's early archaic anti-predator policies.

“If you read the Yellowstone superintendent’s report from 1877, which really irritates me, it says, ‘strychnine poisoning for wolves and wolverine habitats will go on in Yellowstone.’ That was the period of massive predator slaughter in the ecosystem,” he said.

Halfpenny asked his audience to make a mental note that a wolverine had been spotted in the southeast corner of Yellowstone in 1871.

“Put that in your memory,” he said. “We’re going to come back to it.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Rocky Mountain Reunion"}]

Halfpenny’s story of wolverines was simultaneously a story of how technology changed the dynamic of wildlife conservation in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

When he started studying wolverines, the first method of verification was to physically trap the elusive animals.

“We had a 12-foot-square cage with a noose inside,” he said. “We grabbed the back legs, laid them in the center of a tarp, and rolled them up like a hot dog.”

He had a special guest on his earliest trapping projects: singer, songwriter, and actor John Denver, who chronicled the adventure in the 1978 television movie “

“John pitched in just like everybody else and worked his tail end off to do that,” Halfpenny said. “It was great to be working with him.”

In one scene, Denver is carrying one end of a wolverine cage with a wolverine inside through a blizzard in the mountains. Halfpenny noted the peculiar way Denver was walking that had nothing to do with the deep, blowing snow.

“If you look at the end (of the cage), that opening's big enough for a wolverine paw to come through and get a piece of John's ass, to put it one way,” he said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Science Marches On"}]

As Halfpenny continued trapping, other scientists were undertaking the first modern studies of wolverines in North America. 

The next big advancement was radio-collaring, started by Howard Hayes in northwest Montana.

Then in the 1980s, Halfpenny became acquainted with CyberTracker. It was a handheld computer program developed by Louis Liebenberg to track and study wild animals in South Africa.

“He developed a picture-icon system for PDAs,” Halfpenny said. “It was a way to manage wildlife without a budget.”

When the Wildlife Conservation Society started trapping wolverines in the 1990s, they introduced implanted trackers and DNA sampling.

“By grabbing DNA samples, we could start looking at the populations,” Halfpenny said. “With radio collars and CyberTracker, we could create a map and gather years of behavioral studies.

[{"type":"text","text":"Then in the 2000s, biologists had the money for helicopter surveys."}]

These individual studies pooled their knowledge and assembled the first comprehensive analysis of wolverine diversity and distribution in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, he said.

[{"type":"text","text":"Halfpenny had an unlikely ally in his endeavors. "}]

He regularly worked with commercial fur trackers, who diligently informed him when they trapped a wolverine and allowed him to see, study, and measure the specimen for first-hand verification.

[{"type":"text","text":"“The trappers always provided us with locations and DNA,” he said."}]

That’s why he categorized the classification and federal protection of the wolverine as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 2023 as “a trade-off.”

“That seems like it might be good for the wolverine, but it's poor for our knowledge,” he said. “It depends on which side of the coin you want to take.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Family Inheritance"}]

In August 2022, biologists Doug McCartney, Steve Moore, and Bill Turner were hiking in the mountains in the southeast corner of Yellowstone. 

That’s when they saw something incredible: 

13 wolverines in the same snow-covered bowl.

Halfpenny said this sighting has been “highly disputed.” After extensive forensic analysis of McCartney’s photos, pixel-by-pixel in Gaia GPS and Photoshop, he feels he has verified 12 of the 13 wolverines.

[{"type":"text","text":"“I can’t find the 13th one,” he said."}]

He could even verify that the wolverines in the photos were two adult males, three adult females, and two other adults, with the rest being younger individuals.

With no carcass in the area, Halfpenny has an incredible theory: family inheritance.

“I think one of those was an adult female with an adult male,” he said. “The other two females were daughters, each of whom had their two (offspring), and one was mated with the second adult male.”

As evidence, Halfpenny cited the sighting of a wolverine in the same area in 1871.

“This is favorable habitat,” he said. “I can’t prove it, but I'm arguing this is a family unit that's taken over that area.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"So, How Many?"}]

Then there’s the debate over just how many wolverines are in Yellowstone.

The “old park estimate,” according to Halfpenny, was six individuals. After decades of research and verifiable evidence, Halfpenny says the actual number is “much higher.”

[{"type":"text","text":"However, that doesn’t make it any easier to give a hard number."}]

“Yellowstone is 3,400 square miles, and the ecosystem is 23,000 square miles,” he said. “You want me to tell you how many secretive, elusive, 3-foot-long creatures there are in that area? Yeah, thanks.”

Nonetheless, Halfpenny has a number: 83 verified wolverines between 1990 and 2026, and at least 31 individuals verified in Yellowstone in the last five years.

“No question,” he said. “I have the evidence. I have 83 absolute verified wolverines.”

Halfpenny is so confident in his estimate because he and his colleagues are able to identify wolverines individually based on their appearance. 

Everything from a wolverine’s ears, cheeks, and tail to its movement and coloration can be ascribed to an individual known from photos, trail cams, or DNA analysis.

That’s led Halfpenny to believe, with “no question,” that Yellowstone’s wolverine population is increasing, all based on verifiable evidence.  

“If we sit down and look over the years at the number of positive verifications, starting back in 2015, what you see is the numbers increasing,” he said. “It’s more than just cellphones. A lot of these we had in hand, either dead, collared, or anesthetized.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"'Shoot, Shoot, Shoot'"}]

Over time, Halfpenny and his colleagues have developed an understanding of the biology, ecology, and geographic range of wolverines, leading to a better assessment of their population health and conservation status.

Nobody’s trapping or radio-collaring wolverines anymore, and CyberTracker has been obsolete for decades, he said. 

The key to the scientific verification of wolverine verification in Yellowstone is in the hands of citizen scientists.

As smartphones became more widespread in the late 2000s, the number of wolverine sightings in Yellowstone increased.

Halfpenny has used amateur photographers of wolverines to build his scientific case for the growing population of wolverines.

“These excellent photos and videos have characteristics we can recognize,” he said.

Yellowstone visitors don’t have to venture too long before having a chance sighting of bison, elk, grizzlies, or wolves without leaving their vehicle. 

If they want a guaranteed sighting of these animals, there are certain hotspots where they have a higher chance.

“Where can I find a wolverine in Yellowstone? They are where they find you,” Halfpenny said.

On a practical level, wolverines seem to favor the northeast and southeast corners of the park, as it appears to be their ideal habitat.

It’s much easier to find wolverine tracks, especially in the snow. That’s why Halfpenny says every Yellowstone visitor should carry a 6-inch ruler with them.

“(If) you find a track, get a ruler in there,” he said. “Don't put a hand. Don't put a foot. Don't put a $1 bill. We need something solid with exact measurements. Even a comb or a pen is better. Hands don’t count.”

Regardless, Halfpenny wants any and all photos and videos of wolverines in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

That, he said, is the next chapter of “the wolverine story” and why he encouraged anyone with a smartphone or camera to “shoot, shoot, shoot.”

“We need positive evidence of wolverines, and all the reports I've talked about tonight come from positive, verified evidence,” he said. “Photos are cheap. Electrons are cheap. So, shoot, shoot, shoot and send (your photos) to me.”

Wolverine in Yellowstone 12 8 23

<title>Biologist Says There Are Dozens More Verified Wolverines In Yellowstone Than Reported | Cowboy State Daily</title>

A prominent biologist with 50 years of research says there are dozens more confirmed wolverines in Yellowstone than are reported by the National Park Service. He says there at least 31 verified wolverines in the last five years and 83 since 1990.

Biologist Says There Are Dozens More Verified Wolverines In Yellowstone Than Reported

Wendy

Wendy Corr

Business & Tourism

Business

It’s a twist on the familiar image of a sunset over cattle on the Wyoming range, where several small growers have turned to a longer-necked, softer-footed species — alpacas.

These gentle, shy, and highly herd-oriented animals are generally friendlier with humans than their llama cousins (both species are South American members of the camelid family), and their fiber produces soft, lightweight fleece comparable to cashmere.

Many small ranchers in Wyoming are choosing to raise alpacas rather than other livestock for more than just these reasons.

“They are the easiest livestock animal we have ever dealt with, and I think we've dealt with every kind of livestock animal out here,” said Jan Sapp, who with her husband keeps a herd of 108 as Powell-based 

“They are smart,” she told Cowboy State Daily. “They are curious. It takes us about three days of 15 minutes per day to train an alpaca to be parade ready — from they've never been haltered to being able to walk in a parade.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Wyoming Is Alpaca Country"}]

[{"type":"text","text":"Wyoming’s climate is ideal for alpacas. "}]

The animals evolved in the mountainous terrain of the South American Andes, and their bodies are in tune with high-altitude regions and often extreme temperatures. 

Sapp said she first learned about the benefits of alpaca fleece when her husband, who is a part-time missionary, would go to Peru and bring back alpaca sweaters for her. 

“I was a special education teacher in Florida, and even though when you think of Florida you don't think cold, air conditioning is really cold,” she said. “I would wear the alpaca sweaters, and they were wonderful. They kept me warm, and I didn't get too hot.” 

[{"type":"text","text":"Sapp also learned that alpaca wool is hypoallergenic. "}]

“It does not have lanolin, and usually lanolin is what people are allergic to,” she said. “It's also about five times warmer than sheep's wool.” 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Family Business"}]

Sapp said that when she and her husband started seriously considering moving West, their three adult sons thought that sounded like a great idea and decided to move with their folks.

“When we knew that they wanted to come West with us, I thought, ‘Well, what could we do as a family?'” she said. “So I started researching alpacas.” 

An unsolicited email promoting an alpaca growers’ seminar in Oregon piqued Sapp’s interest, and the family decided to attend just to get a feel for the industry. 

“We all said, ‘OK, we are going to go learn about Alpacas, but we are not going to buy alpacas,’” said Sapp. “We came back to Florida owning seven females and a share of a stud.”

The Sapps began researching suitable plots of land in Wyoming. On a property-search mission to the Sheridan area, they took a wrong turn on the way back from Yellowstone National Park and found themselves in Powell.

“I had brought my daughter-in-law, who'd never been West, and a stack of real estate papers,” said Sapp. “She was looking through the papers, and she says, ‘Hey, I think I see this property that's for sale.’ 

“And so we swung in, and there's like seven people in a minivan that piled out, and the lady was in the yard, and I said, ‘Is it still for sale?’ And she paused, and she said, ‘Well, yes, it is.’ And it was perfect, because we needed housing for essentially three families.”

To make an income from their alpaca adventure, the Sapps partnered with other business owners to create everything from socks and sweaters to potholders and trivets, items that the Sapps offer for sale at their 

“The socks can be worn year round, because they keep your feet warm in the winter, but then they wick moisture off your feet so they keep cooler in the summer,” she said.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Mountain Business"}]

Mariann Eckendorf and her daughter, Maria, have been raising alpacas since 2005 in Parkman, a small community in the Big Horns.

They own 21 of the animals, and their focus is on the fiber — shearing, carding, spinning and weaving their own alpaca fleece products.

“We shear them ourselves, and then we card the fiber and spin and weave and crochet and do wet felting and dry felting,” she explained. “Every single hair gets sold every year as a finished, value-added product.”

Eckendorf said that she also started her alpaca business for family reasons.

“After the birth of my one and only daughter, Maria, I wanted to stay home with her,” she said. “I was a school teacher, and I wanted to stay home and raise her and not put her in day care.”  

Eckendorf said she had a couple of options at the time: either buy a fitness center in Sheridan or live off the land.

“I thought, ‘I don't want my daughter growing up in a gym,’ so I just went into alpacas and started learning about them,” said Eckendorf. “She's 21 now, so we're a women-owned business. And the alpacas are like our family.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"The Whole Package"}]

Eckendorf said she and her daughter process all the fiber that their alpacas provide. 

“The more you can do yourself, the more you can make,” she said. “Because you can't really sell raw fiber and make money off alpacas. By the time you feed them and vaccinate them you would go in the hole.”

, selling their merchandise all over the country.

“With the internet, I ship every day,” said Eckendorf, “and then social media has helped a ton to get people to know us.”

But Sapp pointed out that the fiber doesn’t provide all the income, especially as the animals grow older.

“As they age, their fiber coarsens, and alpacas are all about fine fiber,” said Sapp. “So rather than feeding and taking care of an animal that we can't use their fiber, their last gift is their meat. They are marketed as grass fed, natural, and antibiotic free.”

[{"type":"text","text":"And, she added, there are other benefits that alpacas provide."}]

“Their poo is amazing to grow vegetables in,” she said. “When I had a box garden, I only grew in composted alpaca poo. I did not use soil, and had beautiful, beautiful vegetables.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Grow Your Own Herd?"}]

The national Alpaca Growers Association reports that there are 1545 registered alpacas in Wyoming, and Eckendorf has some advice for anyone who wants to add to those numbers.

“They're a herd animal, so don't just get one or they'll be pretty sad,” she said. “You want to get at least three. And make sure you protect them, because they’re not like llamas — they won’t protect themselves.”

Fencing is a must, and Eckendorf also recommended livestock guardian dogs, of which she and her daughter have nine.

“We can coexist with foxes and coyotes, because we have our guardian dogs,” she said. “We’ve never had an animal killed by a predator, and we’ve never had a dog get out and kill anything.”

But Eckendorf cautioned that for anyone considering livestock guardian dogs, such as Great Pyrenees or Anatolian shepherds, they must be committed to training. 

“They're not going to just be born knowing not to kill your chickens,” she said. “Barnabas, my last rescue dog, took two and a half years until I felt he was chicken-safe.”

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Wicked Smart"}]

Sapp pointed out that alpacas are exceptionally intelligent. She said she learned quickly that if she verbally cautions the animals about an upcoming water hazard or other obstacle, they responded. 

“If I warned the alpacas that, ‘OK, we've got water coming up, it's a strange noise, but it's going to be fine,’ they just carried on like nothing,” she said. “But if I didn't say anything and if I didn't warn them, they would totally freak out.”

[{"type":"text","text":"There’s more, said Sapp."}]

“We have a couple deaf alpacas, and a lot of the adults know some basic sign language,” she said. 

Sapp said that she and her husband would like to retire from the alpaca business, but it’s a long game.

“Their lifespan is upward of 25 years,” she said. “Our youngest two are 1 year old. Right now we have 108, but we have already downsized.”

Mariann and Maria with alpaca scarves courtesy Mariann Eckendorf 7 19 26

<title>More And More Wyoming Ranchers Are Raising Alpacas And Not Just For Their Fleece | Cowboy State Daily</title>

In Wyoming beef country, many small ranchers now raise alpacas. Their fleece is great and their poop is exceptional for growing vegetables. Plus, their temperament is unmatched. “They're the easiest livestock animal we have ever dealt with," one owner said.

More And More Wyoming Ranchers Are Raising Alpacas And Not Just For Their Fleece

Headshot of Cowboy State Daily's business and tourism reporter, Renée Jean

Renée Jean

Twelve miles shy of the Teton County line on a 40-acre slice of Fremont County with five mountain springs and a creek, Dubois resident Gary Engman is building a 9,000-square-foot, off-grid mansion from reclaimed antique wood that he’s calling the Cowboy Starship.

The property, which has just listed with luxury real estate brokerage Engel and Volkers for $7.95 million, is surrounded by the Absaroka and Wind River mountain ranges. Construction is expected to finish sometime in August.

Real estate broker Jo Gathercole said the home has already had a number of international callers expressing interest, and it’s not even finished yet. 

“It’s got solar, it has diesel generators,” she said. “If you wanted internet, you’d put in a Starlink. It’s completely off-grid luxury.”

Off-grid cabins are not unheard of, especially in Wyoming, Gathercole added. But an off-grid mansion?

“It’s unusual. When I first saw it, it was kind of stunning to think he was doing this. He’s more than a builder. I think of him as an artist,” she said about what Engman’s building. "He’s actually creating art with this home, which makes it very unique in my mind.”

Why Pay $40 Million To Be In Teton County?

Engman has chosen his canvas for the home with care. 

“This is just a spectacular location,” he told Cowboy State Daily, gesturing toward Ramshorn Mountain. “And I think the house looks like a starship that’s landed on top of a Wyoming mountain.”

It’s not the first luxury home Engman, a former seafood magnate, has built, and isn’t likely to be the last. 

Engman is betting he can expand the luxury market to this slice of Fremont County with homes priced more favorably when compared to ultra-wealthy Jackson Hole.

Based on his research, Engman believes this is the first large-scale, ultra-luxury spec home built in Fremont County. 

The home, Engman said, is comparable to some of the $40 million homes sold in Teton County. 

“One of the houses I’m involved with in Jackson is going on the market for $40 million, and it’s the same size as this,” Engman said. “It’s on 15 acres, and not as nice a lot as this 40 acres. 

"To me, that house is very nice, but not as nice as this one.”

He gestured toward the corner of a fence line about 1,000 feet from the house and said he’d seen a grizzly bear momma with two cubs eating grass there while he was having lunch Wednesday. 

He’s also seen elk, deer, and antelope browsing through the property's surrounding pastures.

“I have more wildlife on my ranch than there is in Yellowstone,” he said with a chuckle. “This is going to, I know this will sell quickly. 

"When you look at all the traffic and congestion in Jackson now, and you can buy, for under $10 million, a 40-acre property with a 9,000-square-foot house an hour from the Jackson airport or 20 minutes from the Dubois airport, where you can land any private jet and you save $30 million?”

In his mind, that $30 million covers a private jet and then some, making his property a much more logical deal for those who want to be in or near Jackson Hole. 

His company located in Dubois also supplied the reclaimed, antique lumber that 

 near Saratoga used to built The Farm, Engman said. 

Restoration Lumber Co. produces 2 million to 3 million board feet of reclaimed antique lumber annually and employs 30-40 people.

For the Cowboy Starship, he’s using redwood planks sourced from Napa Valley’s enormous wine vats for the deck, giving their surface a patina of old purples and reddish brown. 

Overhead, vintage 1910 heavy trusses salvaged from Bumble Bee’s salmon cannery in Washington span the ceilings, tying the mansion to a working waterfront that no longer exists. 

“Everything here has a story, a history,” he said. “It has provenance.”

Not only do they tell a story, they are massively strong. They’ll hold a snow load up to 200 pounds per square foot, Engman said.

The front door, a massive dark brown, is made from old-growth redwood planks transported to the Sea of Cortez more than 150 years ago. They were salvaged from an Indonesian shipwreck.

The double doors to either side are salvaged Yosemite Pine cut to build booming mine towns in California and date to around 1860.

Gold mines, saw mills, cannery operations — Engman only buys wood from places he is sure can’t be saved or that have no historical value. 

Dismantling is done surgically, cataloguing each beam, which will later be custom cut to size for its new home.

Inside the Cowboy Starship, he’s bringing special reclaimed items for the interior, including an ornate bar from the old Wyoming bar in Lander, built in 1890. He sees that as a particular centerpiece with its ornately carved wood and mirrored face. 

Beyond the bar are picture windows framed with more antique wood, which in turn frame up Ramshorn Mountain like art in a museum. To get to the breathtaking view, Engman wants people to know they’re not just crossing a room. They’re crossing centuries of history.

A Dubois man is betting a remote 9,000-square-foot, $7.95 million off-grid mansion made from reclaimed wood can lure Jackson Hole-level buyers across the Teton County line to Fremont County. “I have more wildlife on my ranch than Yellowstone,” he said.

Daily Darwin: Wednesday, May 17, 2023

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