What is the link between Ural mountains and Hollywood movie X-Men?

From Astrakhan, May 27th 2009

Ural mountains are the connecting land between European and Eastern Russian populations of the animal called Wolverine, which is also the name of X-Men hero Logan played by Hugh Jackman in recent Hollywood movie X-Men.
From Ekaterinburg, i could have a first glance to Ural range but most summits are more in the North, reaching 1,894m.

Meeting with farmer working with fallow-deers, whose horns are used to produce medicine


Deep birch forests with intense green, back and white colors


Two of the numerous lakes in Middle Ural and the surrounding mixed forests




Slag heap of one of the also numerous mines throughout Ural range


Overlooking Middle Ural lakes within Chelyabinsk area


Rocks


The animal species wolverine, scientifically called gulo gulo, is classified as nearly threatened by IUCN and is therefore of interest for our project. Although there is an overall continued decline due to human persecution and land-use change, the global decline of this species is not at a rate sufficient (30% over 3 generations, or 18 years) to qualify for vulnerable at this time. However, the European Mammal Assessment determined that the European Wolverine is currently Vulnerable, thus the nearly threatened listing is driven by the estimation that some large populations remain in north Asia and North America.



Geographic range
The species has a circumpolar distribution, corresponding with the boreal zone of the northern hemisphere (Kvam, 1988).

Population
The European population is currently estimated to be approximately 2,260 individuals: 1,400 in European Russia (Novikov, 2005). To the East, the Eastern Russian population is believed to comprise more than 18,000 individuals (Novikov, 2005).

Habitat and ecology
Wolverines are found in coniferous, mixed and deciduous woodlands, bogs, and open mountain as well as tundra habitats (Mitchell-Jones, 1999). Snow is generally regarded as an important component of the wolverine's season habitat requirements. It has vast home ranges: faecal DNA sampling has detected dispersal distances of more than 500km (Flagstad, 2005). Hornocker (1983) considers the species as solitary, which influences the large home ranges and extensive seasonal movements. The wolverine is a nocturnal species (Whitman, 1999) with an average life expectancy of 4 to 6 years in the wild.
Wolverines are thought to have evolved to scavenge from the kills of wild ungulates abandoned by other carnivores such as lynx and wolf, as well as prey animals felled by disease or injury. Wolverines also actively hunt smaller animals such as rodents, hares, musk deer, roe deer, and wild sheep; given the appropriate snow conditions, they will also hunt larger animals such as moose.



Threats
Within the current range, extensive human activities continue to pressure wolverine populations and habitat (Krebs, 2004).
Wolverines are scarce in Europe today. Their continued survival is threatened due to their small and fragmented distribution, and the potential for their future survival mayb be weakened by the likelihood of low genetic diversity.
While major threat in Scandinavia is population control hunting to protect livestock, overharvesting and declines in key prey species are major threats in Russia (difference is due to the fact that there is more wildlife and larger areas).

Conservation actions
Key conservation measures that need to be implemented revolve around minimizing conflicts resulting from depredation of livestock, reducing legal and illegal hunting of wolverines, establishing well-planned conservation areas and carrying out surveys to gain a better understanding of the population and ecology of wolverines.