I am enamored and fascinated by wolverines. Compared with other species in North America, little is known about their basic biology or their ecology. In Alaska, I was fortunate to have a 5-year research project on them in the Susitna Basin. Then I spent over a decade fur-trapping them in the Kuskokwim River country of western Alaska. We've recently done a photo phriday on wolverines, but another was requested. Obviously, here it is.


A wolverine skull is built very massively and a lot of teeth. This is from an old male.



This is a picture of a wolverine in a foothold. This is an old Manning no. 9, a trap still made in Alaska by J.R. Pederson.



A wolverine in a wolf snare.



A wolverine along the banks of the middle Kuskokwim River.



A wolverine in a 5-gallon bucket set with a 330 Conibear. This was my favorite set. A blue bucket worked just as good with a wired-in piece of beaver meat.



Here's a live wolverine with a radiocollar from the Susitna drainage in southcentral Alaska.

Great pictures! Wolverines have always fascinated me too. I saw one in Idaho around 1993 and another here in MN about 10 years ago. My parents also got to see that one and there is no doubt in my mind that is what it was. It ran down the trail straight away from us for 40-50 yards. We did see tracks in the snow about 5 years prior on the same piece of ground.

160 -
Wow! Most of us in the lower-48 can go a lifetime without seeing a wolverine. You should consider yourself fortunate.

Jack

A subject close to my heart as well, Jack. What wonderful experiences you've had with them. If I recall correctly, you were the one who began the wolverine research organization . I'm not using the right title for that, but you were the founder of wolverine research and study.

That old skull is amazing. Wonder how those teeth became so miss aligned ? And the canine is huge , imagine seeing that with no worn tip.

I am quite fond of them. The more I study and draw them, the more I like them.

I think I see them from a different perspective than most...I study the movies, videos, and photos of them , for moving anatomical knowledge. The expressions, how they move , turn, lope, their preferred "handedness", their fur texture and colours. I am transfixed with those huge paddle feet . Their eyes in the skull are unique. Unlike any other eye set angle I've studied.

Trappers know the innards under the fur, and behaviour to know where to set for them . I focus on the innards too, as in the skeletal/muscular structure , and in the motion, rotation and swing of joints , with facial expressions, in action.

I have a (tanned) wolverine on the wall above my desk. My very first wolverine, caught over 50 years ago!

In those days I could ill afford to not sell ANY fur I caught. But I gritted my teeth and kept my first wolverine! It was caught in a fox set, on a drag, and probably had not been in the trap more than an hour or two when I came upon it. Otherwise it would have been several years before I HELD my first wolverine!

Pete

Neat story, Pete ! I'm glad you kept it too. What you would have received for selling that one wouldn't have equalled the cherished memory of your experience, and enjoying that beautiful fur today. .

The coolest critter in the woods !!
I don't have the first one I caught but I can sure remember it......back in 1975.

Many a sleepless night has been spent trying to remember every wolverine catch. Also many sleepless hours spent trying to figure out the ones that beat me.

I'd rather catch one wolverine than 10 wolves any day of the year !

Lovely furs !

They all are unique, but the third from right is large and well caped. His tail could be more filled and bushy...but that's ok. The one next to that one, to the right, is also great and large. Interesting there are no copper toned ones , maybe that was the trend for the area. Some Ive seen are quite red copper.

All are lovely and a prize.

Sharon that third drawing looks like it is coming out of the computer for me. Have never seen one in real life but that looks alive!!!!!!......jk

Thank you, JK. That was on the cover of Trappers Post a few years ago. That was JR's wolverine he caught , as well as his mountain ranges in background. He invited me with him on his trapline , touring his mountains last March for two weeks. And attending the 50th Fling and ATA auction and banquet.

I had a blast and so did himself.

This one I scanned up close to see detail. JR's wolverine was a gorgeous copper red diamond. He was fun to illustrate.

Gulo, are you familiar with the photos taken south of Yellowstone N.P. back in 2022? Assuming the authenticity of the pics hasn't discredited, what do you make of thirteen wolverines on a single snowfield, seemingly chasing off a grizzly sow and 3 grown yearlings. I have always been under the impression that wolverines were very intolerant of "neighbors". Perhaps a large food source in the snowfield somewhere?

Also, the lone wolverine found in Lower P. Michigan several years back...do you think in wandered down on it's own or was given some "help" by some well meaning citizen?

I , like,so many others here, was fascinated by the extended thread on wolves. Thx !!

Not gonna speak for Gulo but........I have seen three males traveling together but only once. It isn't unusual to see two together during certain times of the year when they all fall in love.

I would wonder how the guy in the article identified a "mother and two kits" in August from that distance.

If this happened as described I would not jump to the conclusion that the bears were afraid of the wolverines.

It strikes me as odd that animals the size of grizzlies would expend the energy to climb to that location for whatever amount of calories might be found in a moth. There indeed must be a tremendous amount of biomass available for those critters to make that effort.

The article cites Jeff Copeland. I have met and talked wolverines with him but Gulo knows him well and is much better equipped to assess everything in this scenario.

I have seen video here on the forum of maybe a hundred or two hundred wolverines raised in captivity. They all seemed to get along fine but they also were not competing for a limited a mount of food.........either among themselves or with other species.

I have also seen wolverines raised in captivity in WA state that seemed perfectly docile with one another.

I suspect they are not so much loners by choice but by environmental imperatives placed on them.........especially females about to deliver a litter

Older photos from a couple years back. this collection of Wolverine is from a couple trap lines just to see the variety in colors and the variation in their throat patterns.

From my observations when you're in good habitat it's very common for Wolverine to be running in small groups twos threes and fours. And not necessarily females and kits. I've caught two and three males at the same set, at the same time. Though It also seems that males are sometimes on the same or similar circuits but just one or two days apart at visiting sets. I think they're way more social with each other than most people realize.

I agree with you about them being more sociable than advertised.

I too have caught multiples of both all males and all females but only one instance of a male & female catch

Guys, thank you for your input. Much appreciated! I have been awe of these "beasts" since I was a kid. Books by Jim Kjielgaard and the Disney movie Those Calloways, got me fired up to learn to trap as a 10 year old kid. Of course, the wolverines were the nemesis, but a worthy one!

Great Thread

My absolute favorite to trap. The country, the weather that goes with the season and the moment of discovery at the set. Super special, every one of them.

Gulo, I understand Idaho did a study and used implanted gps or radio collars on wolverine with the collars not holding up well.
How did they perform with the AK wolverine and were you part of the Idaho study?

Jack, Nice skull pic. Big nasal cavity and one heck of a set of teeth!!!!

Here in West Siberia gulo density is really low, so nobody targets them specifically. A handful of permits are distributed in our regions (Yugra, Tomsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk), but the chance of actually encountering one is low. Most of them are accidental bycatch in sable sets or during sable hunting with laika dogs, just like pretty much elsewhere in Siberia; you can go for weeks/hundreds of miles without seeing a single track. Yet I think pretty much everyone who's done at least a bit of sable trapping has encountered gulo trap thieves. I've looked at several tanned wolverine pelts a fur seller had here, and most had missing or split claws on one of the front paws. Here's a photo from Yakutia that someone posted a few years ago. Yet another trap, the one in which it got caught, is not in the picture.





Traditionally (but not legally), of the most effective illegal ways to remove such a trapline pest, or when a wolverine keeps visiting and destroying a cabin, has been to hang a piece of cable with a big treble hook and a chunk of hazel grouse or rabbit fur from a stout tree branch. The wolverine will reach up, grab it with both paws and freeze. I've seen pictures of such catches.

Here's a picture of a typical West Siberian wolverine treed by a laika during a sable hunt. They're very dark here and genetically distinct from more eastern populations. It was a very fat male, and I rendered its fat in a jar on a radiator, just for the sake of it. It smells scary and I've got no idea what to use it for, other than in some kind of magic potion:)


They are more plentiful in some parts of the Far East and sometimes gather into big packs, but many people claim that it's often connected with illegal large-scale salmon harversting for roe, usually done by Moscow-owned corporations, where the fish itself is taken to landfills to rot, or with equally large-scale reindeer poaching which unfortunately isn't uncommon in some parts of Evenkia and other regions. I've heard the same about this video showing a huge crowd of pale wolverines (typical for the population around the Okhotsk Sea), but I don't know for sure.

Can't embed videos from that platform, but here's the link:
https://vk.com/video?z=video13029206_456239247

In case anyone's curious about more scientific stuff, here's a paper on the Eurasian wolverine that we published last year. Right now, the Scandinavian population seems to be under the most stress, probably due to habitat fragmentation.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ddi.13846

Nivalis, what a great lineup of fur.

I like how you lined them up in colour code from light to dark. The seventh one from left, and the last one, are brilliant in necklace bling. Just outstanding. They all are unique and beautiful. I even see white toes on some. I also like to see big bottle brush tails on them. They sometimes wave them like a horse in the wind when they run.

I could marvel for hours at each fur. With everyone's catch too.

I don't know why more folks don't rug those furs. To me, seeing the whole fur, bottom to top on a nicely framed rug frame to compliment , is among the most beautiful way to show them .

Great thread. Very interesting animal and I also love catching these. I once chanced upon one and got to watch it work a set, from about 400 yds away. They’re quick learners and can probably smell a 5 year old m



ouse turd under 6’ of snow. I only set BG traps for them but any foot trap set for lynx I try to set with a gulo in mind.

Interesting cavities on those two teeth Jarl !! I've seen lots of weird ones but nothing nearly symmetrical like that one.