Wolverines are among the most elusive creatures on the planet. They seek out the toughest terrain – the most rugged, remote and fiercely raw – and they’ve always been scarce to begin with. So they’re hard to find. They weigh only about 30 pounds, but they have a ton of attitude and a reputation to match. They eat everything, dead or alive, warm or frozen, and will climb anything, even mountains. It’s impossible for humans to keep up with them. They’re built to travel long distances with minimum effort across deep snow or up the sides of sheer cliffs. They roam an enormous territory of about 500 square miles – a home turf larger than an average grizzly bear’s. And they share it only with their immediate family. It’s “no trespassing” for everybody else.
Few researchers have observed wolverines in the wild, though some have tried, for years on end. Most must settle for capturing their images on remote cameras, tracking them from a distance, and getting to know them from their DNA. Those that study them become completely captivated by them, full of admiration and respect for these totally outrageous and independent creatures. Author and wolverine enthusiast, Doug Chadwick, puts it this way: “Like most of the guys on the project, what I really want to do is just be a wolverine. I want to go where I want to go, do what I want to do, bite who I want to bite, and climb what I want to climb.”
Yet there is one man whose experience with wolverines has been completely different. Wildlife filmmaker Steve Kroschel has spent 25 years with wolverines, and has even shared his home with them. Caring for injured and orphaned animals on a sixty-acre refuge in Alaska, he is one of the few men in the world to raise wolverines in captivity. The two orphans he has cared for since their birth have become his lifelong responsibility – and they are a handful! But he remains their committed and devoted advocate, a more than willing substitute parent to these remarkable animals he has come to love.
I just watched this wonderful show. I have always been impressed by the fearlessness of wolverines and their ability to survive in, no, their love of the harshest of winter conditions. Being from Winnipeg, Manitoba, I learned to respect the harshness of winter at an early age.
I was surprised by the closing story about a collared wolverine that traveled from Wyoming to Colorado in 2009, and that it was the first confirmed sighting since 1919. In the winter of 2002-3, I rented a cabin on Willow Creek in Grand County, Colorado. Late on a February afternoon it was snowing lightly on already deep snow. I was sitting in an armchair next to a big window facing the creek. I saw a medium-sized dark animal bounding northward on the far side of the creek. I immediately got goose bumps! It was a wolverine! I sat and watched it jump and frolic up the creek until it passed from view. I consider it to be one of the luckiest moments of my entire life.
The sighting was on the southwest side of the creek across from the square cabin near the center of this Google map: http://goo.gl/maps/y0TcV
I watched this show last night with my youngest (9-year-old daughter) who loves wolverines. I don’t know if the researchers or filmmakers ever visit this comments page, but I saw a wolverine one night in the winter of 1989-1990 about an hour outside of Lafayette, IN somewhere. I know it was not a badger (too large and had the characteristic wolverine markings). A friend and I were on a late-night drive out in the country and the wolverine crossed our small road — thank goodness we were driving slowly!
I saw a wolverine in West St Paul when I was younger. It was dusk and I was riding my bike near an old stone bridge that was near a wooded area along the Mississippi river. I came upon the wolverine quickly as I rode my bike down the grass hill leading under the bridge. The animal bolted away, startling me. It did not resemble any animal I’d ever seen but I recall it ran like a bear.