Rare wolverine spotted at Yellowstone National Park

A wild sight in Yellowstone had a tour group nearly speechless, when they spotted a wolverine on the side of the road.

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On Saturday, March 5, Carl Kemp was with the tour group and saw the animal, telling The Modesto Bee, “We turned around to make our way back, and when I saw what I thought was a black bear running down the road. As soon as it turned, we realized we were in the middle of a once in a lifetime experience.”

Kemp posted video of the wolverine to YouTube.

Kemp was visiting the park with his 9-year-old daughter Maya and the tour group when they saw the animal on the highway between the Lamar Valley and Cooke City, KTVQ reported.

“It was really magical to see and dad said it was like the unicorn of Yellowstone,” Maya Kemp told KTVQ.

Wolverines are so rare, the National Park Service only documented seven of the animals in eastern Yellowstone and adjoining national forests from 2006-2009. The animal is active through the year in cold and snowy environments. According to NPS, “Wolverines are so rarely seen and inhabit such remote terrain at low densities that assessing population trends is difficult and sudden declines could go unnoticed for years.”

The tour group the Kemps were with, Yellowstone Insight, posted photos of the wolverine to its Facebook page saying, “With no other vehicles around, we were able to spend 3 full minutes in the presence of this unique and rare animal. By its size, I assume that it is a healthy male. The wolverine was curious for a bit. It jumped on to the snow berm adjacent to our lane twice and returned to the road to size us up as our vehicle was stopped, idle.”

MacNeil Lyons was the guide on the tour, and told KTVQ he had only seen a wolverine once before prior to Saturday’s experience, and that was through binoculars more than a mile away. “I’ve been wondering what’s next because this is kind of like the top animal to see in Yellowstone National Park. That’s why I’m still kind of in awe. I don’t know what to say about it,” Lyons told KTVQ. “It was truly one of those magical moments I don’t know how to describe it. We were both speechless at the time.”

On the tour, the Kemps told The Modesto Bee they also saw wolves, bears, elk and golden eagles.

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