Roller Derby triple threat hosts rare carnivores

In an intermission between matches, this game's fans heard from three species of rare carnivore, who visited in person.

Most people don’t know it, but there are rare carnivores on Mt. Adams, a Cascade Carnivore Project spokesperson said, including wolverines, Canada lynx, and the Cascade red fox. “That’s the only place in the world that fox lives ... we don’t know exactly how many there are,” they told an audience of roller derby fans. "... and usually these animals live up in the snowy peaks and the subalpine, surviving up there in these hard conditions, but today, a wolverine, a Cascade red fox, and a lynx actually came down from the mountain!”

The nonprofit gathers volunteers to hike at high elevations, collecting scat for analysis to inform management decisions. The project’s research also got the Cascade red fox on the Washington endangered species list, and documented the first wolverine kits born in the south Cascades in a century — remarkable, considering the region contains perhaps four wolverines, and Washington as a whole perhaps 50 of the creatures.

With help from a young audience member, the Cascade red fox-on-roller-skates won the race.