WOLVERINE!

©By Susan B. Eirich, Ph.D.

The name stirs images of the wild, the savage, the untamable.

Elusive. Mysterious. And that restless, wild, elusive presence is moving into our valley -there have been sightings - first a female - then a male - or they may have been here all along and we never knew, a whole secret existence living, mating, hunting, playing, dying, unknown, hidden far away from the haunts of man.....

A silent fleeting shadow at the corner of our eye, a movement sensed through thickly falling snow, a ghost not quite seen, perhaps a dream? Tribal peoples of the North believed wolverine were connected to the spirit world, able to pass messages between the living and the dead. Others spoke of the legendary "devil beast" of the tundra and Northern forest whose exploits were recounted and embellished in the flickering light of winter campfires - tales of traps repeatedly emptied, of an entire trap line carried off, of feats of prodigious strength, of unprovoked attacks, of cold-blooded killing, of a solitary wanderer of unbelievable ferocity when cornered, of a beast that succumbs to nothing...

But there are other tantalizing images of the wolverine emerging from hard-won research: that of a snuffling, chuckling, playful, affectionate creature, intelligent and curious; of close bonds between mates, between mother and kits, between father and juveniles, intimations of helping one another in trouble.....a social aspect completely at odds with its reputation as a ferocious loner.

It is almost with reluctance that we begin to lift the veil that surrounds this secretive creature of the snows and dark green winter forests, this symbol of all that is wild; that we invade its privacy. And yet we must because it's survival is at stake.

As we gather data, we are discovering the astounding physiology, the very flesh and blood quality of this mysterious creature with its enormous appetites and energy and drive.

In perpetual motion, this master of snow travel will range over a territory of up to 500 square miles, endlessly searching, running indefatigably, pausing only if there is a hint of food. It is one of the farthest-ranging terrestrial mammals on earth, accomplishing this in one of the harshest environments on earth. With broad furred paws made for running on crusts of snow, and thick dark brown fur of renowned cold resistance, a single animal may travel up to 40 miles a day on its short powerful legs, surviving deep snow and frigid arctic temperatures. "Relentless motion, tenacity, toughness, perseverance sums up the character of the wolverine," says Jeff Copeland, wolverine researcher of Idaho Fish and Game and co-founding director of The Wolverine Foundation along with Clinton Long of the Carcajou Research Centre. "They don't meander. You get the impression they know exactly where they are going. If they want to go over a 10,000-foot mountain, they go. In a straight line. For 10 or 15 miles. Not over the passes but in a straight line. In the dead of winter." Notes Long, "They have an unbelievable ability to travel rugged, snow covered terrain. It's amazing to see how far they can travel." Trackers say they can lope in a straight line up a 70 degree slope, across ice fields and mountain tops, running steadily at 5mph. They are also renowned for their stamina as well as their perseverance. A human-raised wolverine named Rosa, caught in a leg hold trap, picked up the trap in her jaws and traveled 3 legged with it through the winter woods for three weeks before arriving exhausted at the doorstep of the man who raised her.

In summer they feast on rodents, rabbits, marmots, birds, insects and berries. Unlike many mammals of the North wolverine do not migrate or hibernate but meet winter head on, hunting for their primary source of sustenance, winter killed carcasses or kills of other predators. They seek big game deaths -moose or mountain goat that have succumbed to avalanches. In two days a wolverine can dismember a frozen 800 pound moose carcass, eat its fill, scent mark the remains for future reference, bury its find in various locations, then head up-valley to the next avalanche site or other likely sites for food, according to wildlife biologist John Krebs, who runs the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Compensation Wolverine Project in Southern British Columbia. "They just cut the carcass up. Their jaws are so strong, they can go through frozen meat and big leg bones quick." They also have the nerve to face down grizzlies, wolves and mountain lions, documented predators of the wolverine.

Living on stored body fat for weeks while scouting, they face all the elements fierce winters can throw at them, not just surviving but foraging enough to raise its young. To help ensure adequate food supplies they develop seasonal foraging routes within their home range based on past successes, apparently passing the knowledge on from generation to generation. They are notoriously adept at working trap lines.

The wolverine will eat as much as it can of anything it can get- hence the official name Gulo gulo - which translates into "glutton." What better strategy to survive the brutal winter conditions, to be able to nurse and feed kits in the depth of winter, to have the energy to search the vast frozen distances necessary to find enough sustenance? Eat all you can whenever you can, fast, store up body fat against the lean times, and cut up and cache the rest. Responding to the perception that they kill all in their path for the "fun" of it, Peter Krott, who raised 31 wolverine kits, comments in his book Demon of the North, "Like all other beasts of prey the (wolverine) does not hunt merely because it is hungry - and certainly not because it is 'cruel and bloodthirsty'. It hunts because it is its nature to hunt, it must hunt just as it must clean itself, roll over and over, stretch itself, yawn and sleep." It is hard-wired for survival in a harsh environment of scarcity. Perhaps the strength of purpose needed to survive is hard-wired in so strongly that it may kill when it can, as it eats when it can.

Bear like in shape, the male wolverine can reach a weight of up to 40+ lbs, the size of a medium dog. Thick glossy fur and musky scent marks it as one of the Mustelidae family. It is the largest terrestrial member of its successful 65 member family, which includes the skunk, otter, sea otter, black footed ferret, marten, weasel, badger, ermine and fisher. Like the bear, the wolverine breeds in summer but the fertilized egg doesn't begin grow until mid-winter. At that time the female excavates a narrow, multichambered snow tunnel or sub alpine burrow. When food is scarce she aborts. Highly selective in choice of natal denning and kit rearing habitat, wolverine mothers go to great lengths to find secure dens for their young, which are born white, blind and helpless in mid-winter.

From recent studies of the family life of wolverine have come intriguing hints of a far more complex and interesting creature than the one-dimensional figure of myth. Observed both in the wild and in captivity, they are extremely interactive and demonstrative, wrestling, and chuckling when they meet or greet. Copeland tells of monitoring a young female that had been orphaned. She had found one of the project traps and appeared to have become dependent on it for food. "We would catch her three times a week. I thought 'maybe she will live at my trap all winter.'" Named F203, she lived within the home range of the resident male, a grizzled old wolverine with two white feet nicknamed Socks. "In late January of 1994, a day following her third recapture of the week, Socks showed up at the trap site. He and 203 left together on a 3-day, 30 kilometer jaunt," camping together in the snow. Copeland didn't see her back at the trap for nearly a month. Throughout the winter she was found traveling with Socks on four other occasions. What intrigued Copeland was that she was too young to mate. The association look as if to be purely social. This was the first of many such instances he detected in his three year study - immature wolverine, both male and female, spending much of their sub-adult life traveling with old Socks, gaining his knowledge as they learned the country and learned how to survive. These indications of sociability have impassioned Copeland to continue his studies despite the financial and logistical difficulties involved.

There are other haunting glimpses into their world: Krott write of his experiences raising kits, walking them on a leash and bringing them up with his two infant sons. He tells of a large male wolverine he raised named Rolf, on an outing with his infant son Martin whom he had left briefly, sleeping on a blanket. "We found Rolf, his huge body standing over the sleeping Martin and licking his face and hands, but so gently that Martin didn't even wake up." Brought up with another wolverine named Rosa, Rolf escaped from their cage during transport to another facility. Found after several days and brought home, they were reunited. "Late that night when I took Rolf to Rosa she welcomed him joyfully, licking him tenderly and stroking him gently with her paws," writes Krott.

On a more scientific note, Copeland and Long have both found evidence of strong pair bonding. On one occasion an older male was found in a den with a female and her young. Females tend to have only one breeding partner, implying a bonding as well as the active participation of females in mate selection. This may explain why female wolverine in captivity apparently stop reproducing on the death of their partners, and why it is so difficult to get them to reproduce in captivity. The kits remain associated with their mother, siblings and the resident male until reproductive maturity, at about two years. During the first eight months they stay associated with their mother. They then apparently associate with the male, at which time they disperse to find their own territory. In Idaho they have been found to travel over 200 km over isolated terrain searching for a home range.

Long, who has studied wolverine for 25 years, also became captivated by glimpses of behavior he has seen. He notes "there is reason to believe they may be more social than the science community once believed. You find animals traveling together at times of year other than breeding season. The male appears to participate in rearing kits. They are much more tolerant towards each other than we would expect. When a female was trapped for research purposes here in the Tetons, outside of breeding season, she had apparently been traveling with a male. The evidence suggests he stayed all night and all day until they let her go - and then they reunited after her release." Even under the stress of the presence of several of humans, of their taking her out of the trap and handling her- still he stayed by her.

The trap was set by the Alta, Wyoming 4-H Exploring Natural Resources Club here in Teton Valley, under the leadership of Dick Staiger. Starting in 1997 and titled The Wolverine Project, 4-H kids from the age of 10-15 raised the money to start the project. Copeland devised a research plan and together they secured generous in-kind donations from a wide variety of sources from Driggs Veterinary Clinic to the US Forest Service to Mountain Air Research to Grand Targhee ski area, and have successfully been live trapping, implanting transmitters and, with the kids, monitoring the movements of (to date) three wolverine. They are trying to answer basic questions: Are there any wolverine in the Tetons? How many? Are there any reproductively active females? Where are they? Where do they den? What is their range? Because so little is known about the population and range and denning sites, this information has been useful in adding to the base of knowledge needed to more effectively manage this integral piece of our wild world. It is also useful because it has proven almost impossible to raise any money for wolverine research.

Copeland notes that research money and wildlife management are often driven by economics, and the wolverine is neither economically important nor in immediate danger of extinction. He had the bitter experience in 1995 of having radio-tagged 6 wolverines-a major accomplishment - and having to walk away from the project because there was no money to monitor them. And there hasn't been any money since. "We know so little. We don't even know where there are populations and if those populations are viable," he says with a sigh. Though not currently on the endangered species list, without research the wolverine, this important part of forest ecology, does face the possibility of extinction. For example, they are extremely sensitive to disturbance during denning. The mother will likely abandon a den at the slightest sign of human disturbance and abandon the area with continued disturbance. It is now clear that a denning mother, who needs to forage throughout the winter for food, may abandon an area immediately, taking her young kits with her if her sense of security has been threatened by the presence of snowmobiles, cross country skiers, heli-skiers or even human footprints. There is evidence to suggest that any intrusion is seen as a threat. If we don't know where the dens are we may drive mothers to abandon their young or move to unknown territories where they may starve. Snowmobiles and an increase in winter recreation has likely displaced wolverines from potential denning habitat such as sub alpine cirques. With low population densities (one wolverine for every 80 square miles of suitable habitat in one British Columbia study) and a low reproductive rate each litter loss is of significance. "If we have a census we can make informed decisions on setting selected areas off limits," says Copeland. Long notes, "The level of human exploitation and habitat encroachment is not consistent with our limited understanding of wolverine population status, distribution and life history requirements." And despite their wide dispersal, there is a hidden social structure we are only beginning to understand, one that is upset by heavy losses.

"Here in Idaho we may have one of the only totally naturally regulated populations available to study" he states. "If the wolverine is to remain in the western US we need to understand if and how our presence might impact the animals' ability to live and reproduce. We need to protect natal denning habitat. By developing an understanding of what this animal needs to live a secure and healthy life, we can make intelligent choices about using the land to meet our needs, while providing security necessary for the wolverine to exist." Musing about the source of his passion for the wolverine, he says "How little we know; how little attention they have gotten; how little work has been done... they are absolutely wild by every conceivable definition. I don't think there is another animal that truly represents wilderness more than the wolverine. They have no interest in our presence whatsoever."

Their inordinate shyness and suspicion of humans will propel them northwards into ever shrinking zones of security. There are diminishing refuges for animals like the wolverine. They need wilderness. The national parks alone are not big enough. Their habitat is most characterized by isolation from presence and influence of humans and by the large areas needed to supply their own resource requirements and those of their offspring.

With their immense vitality, their will to live, their capacity to survive, their independence, they are a true representative of all remaining wildlands on this earth. Born of the wild, they are the essence of wildness. Their loss would be our loss.

For further information on the wolverine contact The Wolverine Foundation, Inc., 9450 S. Blackcat Road, Kuna, Idaho, USA 83634-1118 or gulo@micron.net Web page www.wolverine foundation.org/function.htm