One of the male wolverines that was collared suddenly stopped moving. My cinematographer and the biologist tracked the collar down and discovered he'd been killed by wolves.

Do you think he was killed for food or just wrong place at the wrong time?

Wow. Was all that was left all that is in the photo. The mouth full of snow. Seems unnatural. How could that happen. Or did it get wind blown in to his mouth. Looks like you have enough for a head mount. ;0)

It looks like a pack came upon a wolverine away from the safety of a tree. This is what the gulo looked like after the encounter. Apparently it put up a good fight but didn't have a chance. We've been tracking this guy for a couple of winters now but it ain't easy being a wolverine

I imagine those old collars hinder them in more ways than one.

A bit of background on this research project. Three partners- Alberta Trappers Association- Alberta Conservation Association- University of Alberta

We are looking at a large portion of North Western Alberta, that seems to have a very healthy wolverine population. This boreal region is fairly flat with mixed habitat of muskeg meadows, lots of creeks and tributaries, black spruce bogs, deciduous uplands, spruce forest complexes, so a lot of habitat diversity. The area has a large beaver population, pockets of moose, caribou in small herds, and lots of lynx & hares. A lot of bio-mass but mostly smaller species.

This is not what typically is thought of as wolverine country. Some of it is industrialized with oil & gas but the wolverines don't seem to care. They also use older clearcuts where it appears they are hunting rabbits. The area does not have "persistent snow" into mid-april which has been theorized as necessary for female dens. We have found some wolverine dens and they are under fallen tree root structures, not the usual snow caves and tunnels of the mountain wolverines.

The wolverines here are also thriving in an area with wolves, which doesn't fit the mountain model where wolverines often use high snow levels and elevation to separate themselves from wolves. By following satellite collar cluster locations, places where wolverines have hung around for a significant time, we are discovering they hunt much more than given credit for. Although one of the ACA researchers told me that hunting hares does not appear to be difficult for wolverines. The tracks seem to indicate they locate the hares by smell and stalk right in on them. Basically stalking up very close before launching themselves onto the hare. Almost never chasing them.

Another factor are the beaver. I told a story on here a couple years ago about snowshoeing up in a mountain basin along a beaver creek and coming upon a breached beaver house, and hearing the wolverine moving off. The house had a bit of blood inside and the wolverine looked like it had been using it as a den. Last week another beaver house up in the study area was also broke into by the wolverine. There's some discussion going on whether this is common behaviour or not.

What's your experience? Have you seen where a wolverine has tore a beaver house up?

Boco - collars are so small and light weight that several wolverines wore them for 9 months with minimal hair wear. A lot different then the old days

This den had kits in it a few weeks before Now a lynx is checking it out. I wonder how often they discover kits and if they kill them. I'd bet they do.

Screen shot off video so crappy quality. I also have a fisher and a male wolverine checking out the same den.

That is great information, Bushman, and jives with what I have suspected for a while. I have gone over Audrey's studies, as well as ADFG studies that included various collars, traps, etc.
My take-home was that these critters travel FAR more than most think, but when they find a solid source of food, they will hang around. I don't buy into the "Home Range" theory what so ever,.
Not saying they won't spend time, say a month or so, in an area that provides a living. Just saying I don't think they will "claim" it as a territory, if you will. Chow gets scarce, they move on.

Bummer Bushman,,they ate the hat right out of him!

I have read before that wolverines dig out beaver houses,but it was likely beaver chewing out the breather hole in late winter themselves,leaving access for wolf and likely wolverines as well.
I have seen quite a few wolf kills of beaver that have chewed out of their house in spring to access nearby feed.Beaver are very vulnerable to wolves in years when they chew out.

Rat -You're right, not much fur to salvage there for sure


Boo -The house that I saw had been dug into through the side. It was not a large beaver house though. I'll ask the researcher where this latest house was entered.

AV - Yes and no on the territories. The mature members have defined areas on the collar data we've retrieved so far. Mature males have little overlap with other mature males but may have up to four females inside that territory. The immature collared individuals stayed inside their parents territories early winter, but started exploring outside of those territories late season. One young male took off late last winter a couple times and explored a region north of his parents along a wetland complex, but always came back. This spring and summer collar uploads showed that he has now moved into that wetland area and largely staying there. Although he has gone back to his natal area a few times as well.

I can only dream about all the cool things we'll discover off those collars over the next two years.

Did I send you the collar data from this area? It was, I believe, a 3 or 4 year study. If not, let me know. I will get it for you. It includes the male that went psycho , and went like 400 miles, willy-nilly. Ultimately died in a trap a LONG ways from where he was collared.

Wow! Those wolves must have been pretty dang hungry to mess with that! Cool pic's of the lynx! Thanks for sharing the pic's and the info!

Neat stuff, Brian always enjoy your post and the information you share. We have a fringe population in Ontario which appears to be expanding eastward and southward. Mainly based in the extreme northwestern part of the province.
Jim

as always super posts on ur thread bushman its so nice to see real information and the provincial support you have to compile accurate info on a fur species .. in our province there is no such thing as accurate info on populations and everyone just rely on the stories in coffee shops to base decisions on like the problem were having with the supposed wolf problem in the north east .
once again thanks for your efforts in collecting and shareing this accurate info .
as far as opened up beaver houses we have over the years found houses opened up but they have always bin small poorly located houses that appered to run out of feed or froze out . now I have no idea who opened them if it was beaver from inside or a bigfoot from the outside . our wolverine population is minimal so around here it probably wasn't a wolverine . those open houses are a great place for neck snare bears in the spring if nothing else ...thanks again for shareing your study ..

Thanks for the comments. Good to see u r alive Jim.

I spoke with crew and wolverines are checking out the vent holes and they believe dug out a couple. But perhaps the wolverines came along afterwards? Need to take a closer look.

My cinematographer partner filled me in in the kill scene. The wolverine got caught travelling down an overgrown cutline. The pack came loping down the trail in pursuit but the wolverine was hemmed in by thick alder regrowth. It managed to make it to a clearing and made for a spruce tree. the base of the tree was trampled by the pack and broken branches at the base. Looks like the wolverine made it a few feet up the tree before they grabbed it by the back and pulled it down. I wouldn't be surprised if it made a couple attempts to climb. Not his day but it illustrates how important climbable trees are to a wolverine.

Of course a real wolverine could whip a pack of wolves or a grizzly bear.

And weigh 60 pounds missing that chunk out their back!