TRUCKEE — A research project aimed at martens has turned up a bigger prize: a picture of a wolverine — an elusive animal scientists thought had been driven out of the Sierra Nevada long ago by human activity.

The discovery could have major implications for land-use decisions if the wolverine is declared an endangered species, a step the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering.

A graduate student at Oregon State University, Katie Moriarty, got a picture of a wolverine recently on a motion-detecting digital camera at a remote field station between Truckee and Sierraville.

Moriarty was trying to get pictures of martens, which are slender brown weasels, for a master’s thesis.