Wolverine (Gulo gulo)

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This was one interesting article about wolverines, a bit about facts and fiction too since what comes to wolverines, it is one species with which people are often confused thinking, that many fictional things would be facts and wolverines would be some kind of "fearless killing machines" terrorizing all other animals. While in reality they are quite cautious and careful with no desire to be killed by wolves or bears etc.

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"Fact and Fiction

Fish and Game researchers Howard Golden and Mike Harrington are studying wolverines in South-central Alaska. In recent years they’ve captured 18 wolverines and equipped them with GPS tracking collars to better understand their movements and numbers. Wolverines are impressive, but much of the reputation is exaggerated.

“They’ve got such a bad rap,” Harrington said. “I've had people ask, ‘will they chase you down? Aren’t they dangerous?’ People wonder if we’re afraid of them.”

“A lot of myths about them are way overblown,” Golden said. “People attribute magic powers to them, but they’re just doing their thing, looking for food. They are curious, smart animals and they figure stuff out pretty quick. They are smart enough to run down a trap line, and that’ll make trappers mad. But it makes sense that they’d do that – there’s always food on these trap lines. They’re not extra aggressive, they avoid trouble.”

Wolverines are weasels, Golden said, and have the weasel nature. “That whole family is pretty similar, just the size is different. Ermine can be bold; weasels are an intelligent family of animals and they know how to survive.”

While wolverines are usually solitary, the “bad tempered loner” stereotype gives the impression they are downright antisocial. Golden visited a facility in Washington that’s home to about 40 wolverines. They shared a large common area and he said they were quite tolerant and social with each other.
“If resources are limited that can cause conflict, but they can be social,” Golden said. “If food is plentiful, they’ve got no reason to worry about each other. We’ve seen them in April from the air wrestling and playing with each other, they weren’t fighting, they’re socializing.”

They are territorial, in the general sense of the word, but Harrington and Golden use the term “home use area” to describe the area they favor. “They pick areas they maintain and keep to themselves, males will overlap with females, but males don’t overlap much with males, or females with females,” Harrington said. “They need resources, and they pick an area where they can make a living and survive.”

They have scent glands, a ventral gland near the belly button, anal glands, and they also have little scent glands on the bottom of the pads of their feet, and when they walk they leave scent. They also scent-mark through urination. “They basically maintain territory this way through active marking,” Golden said. “We have found some that have been in fights and are scarred up, they do get into tussles. “

He said a wolverine can defend itself pretty well, but it’s no match for larger predators.  “Two wolves can kill one,” he said. “You hear stories about them chasing bears off, I’ve never seen that happen, or known anyone who has.”

Their eyesight and hearing are not especially good, but they have an outstanding sense of smell.

“They’ve got a pretty good set of tools on them; a really good nose, they can smell food over long distances or buried well under the snow,” Golden said. “They can climb trees. They have a really warm coat. They’ve got strong claws for digging and defense, and incredibly strong jaws for biting and crushing bone and frozen meat - not the same crushing power as a wolf, but they’re not as big, a big wolverine is 40 pounds and small wolf is 60 pounds.”

“You look at them, they’re mostly built for scavenging,” Golden said. “But they’re very opportunistic and regularly kill small game. They’re not as fast as wolves, and they don’t work in packs, but they can be more predator than scavenger if the situation allows for it.”

Wolverines hunt snowshoe hares and voles, and in summer ground squirrels and marmots are important prey items.  “We’ve got documentation of them killing smaller Dall sheep. In Scandinavian countries they lose domestic sheep and reindeer to wolverines, and the government provides compensation to herders. The herders are required to hire rangers to document wolverine den sites and reproduction, and that’s one reason they have great reproductive data.”


It is true that wolverines are very strong for their size and have incredible stamina. Golden said a wolverine can cover 30 miles in a night, working a circuit in search of food. They will den up and rest for brief periods, and then get back on the move.  That ability to travel through incredibly rugged mountainous terrain is not exaggerated.


“That’s the big thing to come out of the GPS work for Mike and I, and it’s pretty amazing when you see it,” Golden said. “We get locations every 20 minutes, you can see how fast they move around terrain, they go up and down really steep, icy, rocky slopes like they’re not even there. You could never hike it – you’d need climbing gear. It’s like they see the world as two-dimensional, the way they move up and down these snow-covered slopes.”

*This image is copyright of its original author

Mike Harrington holds a young female wolverine. Wolverines are sexually dimorphic; males are about 30 percent larger than females - 30 to 40 pounds compared to females in the 20 to 25 pound range. This female, CWF006 has a blue ear tag and was pregnant when she was caught on March 7, 2012. In this picture she had just been recaptured to retrieve her collar and is about to be released. 

Whole article here: https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifenews.view_article&articles_id=692 Reply