Why wolverines might be the next big thing in Alaska avalanche search and rescue

The wolverine is one of Alaska's most elusive animals, with an almost mythical reputation for fierceness and cunning behavior. But could this creature, often feared and not fully understood, one day help aid in search and rescue missions?

The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center hopes so. The nonprofit organization, located south of Anchorage along the Seward Highway, wants to breed and train wolverines to locate and rescue people buried by avalanches in Alaska's backcountry.

Its plans are already in motion. Last month, the center's female wolverine, Kayla, was sent to Haines with hopes that she will breed with a male wolverine there. If successful, the kits would be hand-raised and trained, their natural instincts put to good use, the center says.

Sound improbable? Not really, according to animal trainers.

"It does sound, probably, far-fetched, but the reality is this kind of training is actually being done all over the world in different projects," said Chandelle Cotter, who works with the center's male wolverine, Kasper, every day.

Rats in Cambodia are trained to sniff out land mines. Eagles in the Netherlands are taught to take down drones. Minks in Utah learn to hunt for their owner. Cotter believes that the wolverine is similarly capable.

Cotter works as the center's animal behavior and training manager. She has been working at the center, an animal rescue organization that sits on more than 200 acres of land in Portage, for one year.

On a cloudy March morning, she and animal supervisor Sarah Howard fed Kasper while describing the center's plans. Kasper was brought to the center in the spring of 2015 and on the way back to Alaska almost escaped in the New Jersey airport. For now, he is living in an enclosure out of view of the public. Raised in captivity in Norway but never handled, he will never be able to be a search and rescue animal, Cotter said. Nor will Kayla, who was also born in captivity in Sweden but was not hand-raised.

Kayla's kits will have the chance to be "imprinted," Cotter said, forming a fully trusting relationship with their human trainer.

No switchbacks needed

Certain characteristics of the wolverine would seem to make the animal a good candidate for search and rescue.

Wolverines are weasels, so they bring an inherent intelligence to the table. They often travel across mountain ridges in search of carrion buried beneath avalanches, and they "have an incredible ability to smell things under the snow," said Howard Golden, a wildlife biologist with the Department of Fish and Game who has extensively researched the animal.

The animals range from 20 to 40 pounds, and are opportunistic eaters, scavenging often and constantly searching for food. A wolverine can travel up to 30 miles in a day with relative ease. The animals tend to prefer highlands, Golden said.

There is a lot we still don't know about wolverines, including their birth and survival rates, Golden said. It's unknown how many wolverines inhabit Alaska and Western Canada, considered to have the highest population of the animal in North America. There are thought to be roughly five within 1,000 square kilometers, according to Golden.

The animals have considerable endurance and strength. Golden described one of the most surprising finds during a multiyear study of the animal. When a wolverine wants to traverse from one mountain valley to the next, it sets a straight course up and over the ridge — no switchbacks needed.

"We've seen them go up and over 60-degree slopes at a rate of travel of 4 miles an hour," Golden said.

Gulo gulo

Wolverines have nasty reputation, though — they are thought to be hostile, even dangerous, should a human stumble upon one's path.

"Given the fear the public has of wolverines and the belief they are more aggressive than bears, I'm not sure this idea will be well-received by the public," Alaska State Troopers spokesperson Tim DeSpain wrote about the center's plans. Troopers are responsible for coordinating search and rescue on land in Alaska, save in federal parks.

That reputation is wildly exaggerated, say those who work with wolverines.

"They're the antithesis of what they're said to be," said Steve Kroschel, owner of the Kroschel Wildlife Center in Haines. Kroschel has been working with wolverines for 36 years, he said, and it's at his center where he hopes Kayla will breed and have a litter of kits. The creatures are playful and curious; they are inventive and mischievous, according to Kroschel.

"All these years I have not been sent to the hospital and I've worked full contact with them every day," Kroschel said. Still, Kroschel has to be careful. "I'm always sidestepping their wild nature," he said.

Golden said the mischaracterization of the wolverine's nature can be found even in their own name: Gulo gulo — gulo meaning "glutton" in Latin, Golden said. He calls them "dainty eaters," and says their ferocious qualities have been exaggerated, just like the bear or wolf.

Kroschel called wolverines the "holy grail of animals" to work with, given their intelligence and elusiveness. "There's just so few, and there's so little known about them," he said.

"I still can't believe it," Kroschel said of the breeding project. Should Kayla have multiple pups, he'll be able to hand-raise one at his own facility.

Still, where did this idea come from?

‘She just wanted closure’

Mike Miller, executive director of the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, realized a wolverine's potential for search and rescue about a decade ago, he said. He had watched wolverines train on the movie set of "Running Free" in 1994 (written and directed by Kroschel) and had been amazed at their abilities. Miller's "aha" moment came years later, though.

Early one morning, Miller was in Hatcher Pass. He'd brought reindeer with him for a commercial shoot. While waiting at the popular Southcentral recreation site, he struck up conversation with a park ranger. She pointed out a car at the far end of the lot. The woman parked there every day, the park ranger said. Her son had been buried in an avalanche weeks before, and he was still underneath the snow. Dogs were brought out, but hadn't located the body, Miller said.

"I felt so helpless looking up at the car in the parking lot that spring morning," Miller said.

Fast forward 10 years. The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center now has two adult wolverines. With the breeding agreement in place with Kroschel, and the go-ahead from Fish and Game, Kayla is in Haines, where Kroschel will try to breed her with one of his two male wolverines.

If it all goes according to plan, the center could have kits by March 2017. After that, they would train with the animal every day — not just for search and rescue, but also so it becomes accustomed to being transported and adaptable to being around large groups of people, said Cotter, who would be the wolverine's principal trainer. The only way to accomplish this is to hand-raise the animal.

By hand-raising and using operant conditioning — which never punishes an animal and allows them to always choose to train — the creatures "can be their selves and not be afraid," Kroschel said.

Dogs already have an essential role in avalanche search and rescue, according to Eric Huffman, chairman of the Alaska Mountain Group. If a person isn't wearing a beacon, it's extremely difficult to locate someone underneath 10 or 20 feet of snow, he said. Enter dogs, which can sniff out clues and flag an area someone might be buried.

Most of the time, avalanche rescues are recovery of the body, Huffman said. "After 15 minutes of being buried your chances of survival drop dramatically," Huffman said. But, "there have been cases where people have survived beyond normal conditions, so we're always hopeful for that."

Upon hearing of the center's plans, he said the proposal was interesting. "If they're trying to train wolverines to add more benefit to what a dog already brings, that makes sense," Huffman said.

Troopers expressed skepticism about the idea. "We would have to be able to convince both the public and risk managers that the benefits far outweigh the potential negatives … that would be really difficult to do," said Lt. Steve Adams, state search and rescue coordinator. Among other proof, Adams would want to see studies showing wolverines have a better sense of smell than K-9s, he said.

Challenges ahead

Kroschel believes the difficulty won't be in training. One of his own wolverines, Jasper, simulated an avalanche rescue for a National Geographic show back in 2012. "He literally rescued me from underneath the snow," the show's host, Casey Anderson, says after Jasper digs him out (in an actual search and rescue, the wolverine wouldn't be doing the digging, just the locating, the center says).

Kroschel said Jasper wasn't trained to dig someone out of the snow, he just did. He believes a wolverine could learn to do search and rescue in mere days. The challenge will be in the animal's notoriously difficult breeding, Kroschel says.

For Miller, it's worth a try.

"If it fails we'll let everybody know and if it works we'll let everybody know," Miller said, adding later that he wants the public to take the idea seriously.

For Kasper and Kayla, the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center is building the animals a larger space — from a quarter- to a half-acre — this summer. They hope Kasper, who will continue his own training, will be an "ambassador" for the species, according to Howard.

"We wouldn't be satisfied if we just stopped and put an animal in an enclosure," Miller said of the center. He wants the center's animals to have a greater purpose, whether scientific or raising public awareness, or aiding search and rescue.

Meanwhile, Fish and Game is looking on with interest. Golden said he had difficulty visualizing the plan for search and rescue at first, but now is intrigued. "I give them a lot of credit for trying and I hope for the best for them on it," Golden said.