Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Wolverines

No way Kenai penn critters got to SE... without human transport.

Just saying, I know guys that have caught them near Juneau and they had to turn them in because there was no open season on them. Must have came from somewhere, transported by humans I highly doubt.

People are big on moving critters around and have been doing it for many years. The ones local are not protected and the trappers keep them legally.

Straight off F&G website

"In January 1997, a Juneau trapper brought Fish and Game a fisher caught in a trap set for marten, about 20 miles northwest of Juneau in the Eagle River area, the first documented fisher in Alaska. Between 1997 and 2009, three more fishers were trapped in that same area, and another just south of that area on Montana Creek. The fifth was trapped on the north side of the lower Taku River just south of Juneau.

In 2013 an open season was created for fishers, in part to encourage reporting. Between 2013 and 2018, trappers reported catching 18 fishers on the northern Southeast Alaska mainland. In 2017 it became apparent for the first time that fisher were moving south of the Taku River; four of the five fishers sealed in 2017 were caught south of the Taku River. One fisher from 2018 represents the northernmost fisher trapped to date, and was harvested in Berner's Bay."

Hunting NW of Lake Clark several years back a Fisher came into camp while we were some yards away. Climbed over our dome tent passing between the rain fly and actual tent. Left cat like claw marks in the fabric. Also saw one in the headlights somewhere west of Tok.

A few badgers here, but have never heard of them taking on anything. They seem to flee or turn and bury themselves in short order.

Thank you for that. Very different from what I have been told and I will have to check. I have personally seen them from the Kenai...

I’ve only seen one in the wild here in MT, near Lincoln. Timely thread, as I took my deer hide to the tannery here last week. They are always really cool in there and I asked if they had anything neat to look at. The lady pulled out some bear hides that were done and ready to ship, some lynxes, and had a Wolverine hide that was done too. Man that was a cool hide.

BillGoatGruff,

Yeah, they're very interesting hides!

A few years ago I watched a fisher run two big NE coyotes off a deer carcass in Rensselaer County NY. Helluva racket and worse smell (the carcass was frozen). He got past one of the doggies and inside the deer and they couldn't get him out, and just gave up after a half hour or so of growls and hisses and snapping jaws and teeth. This from a critter not that much larger than a jumbo barn cat!

I got lucky and saw a wolverine on an Alaskan bear hunt about 50 miles NE of St Michael in 2005, It was at a distance and near a clear area along a river. I guess they have some in Yellowstone but I would think they stay far from the roads. A buddy in Wisconsin has already filled his Fisher tag this year, cool animals that according to him are on the increase ther.

I saw a wolverine in 2000 about a hundred miles outside of Bethel also in the kilbuks, caribou hunting out of Cinnabar camp. It was the first week of September and one went loping below me about 600 yards out. I gave my rabbit In distress call a try hoping he would come back. He stopped and stood up and looked around. I don’t think he saw me And just kept going. I would have really liked to of made a fur trimming for my parka hood. That was the first one I had seen and after having read stories about them as a kid I thought it was amazing. Like load clear, I was very surprised to see them out in the rolling tundra/low, open mountains like that.

In 2004 IIRC out of the same camp I watched two of them. This was a week before the season opened so had to just watch. In 2005 I saw another one about 30 miles out of Delta Junction. I was sleeping in a bivy sack on the open ground during a sheep hunt. I watched it for quite a while on its back playing with bones kind like a sea otter does with a shell. It did cross my mind once or twice about one getting me in my sleep And latching on my face like a hyena :-)

2007 snowmobiling in Island Park Idaho south of Yellowstone a friend and I followed what looked exactly like wolverine tracks for several miles hoping to catch a glimpse But the terrain was too rough and heavily timbered.

I know logically that Wolverines aren’t a real threat but when I was a kid there was a story in our textbook about one following a trapper. Something about it being like a devil. Pretty neat animals and that video link above shows just how tenacious they can be.

Regarding fishers, I am pretty sure I saw one run across Highway 28 between salmon and north fork in the mid 90s.

I never saw one the interior that wasn't caught in a trap or that had already been peeled out.


I've seen severa out here in Aleutian Hell and even held the light while one of the guys I worked with whacked one with a rifle. We even took three within a 10 day period from the same cubby set and a nasty-ast pollock thrown in the back of the bucket. They tend to cruise the beaches quite a bit, which is where I see them most times.

I think the difference is that thick woods tend to hide a lot things where the beaches and open country of the lower AKPEN and Aleutians tend to reveal more when critters are moving.

Huh! So those porky pelts south of Hope in the late 60's early 70s may have been fisher doings after all! Sure did look like it. We estimated we saw 200-300 porky pelts along that 6 miles or so of bench land, most of it only a few hundred yards wide.. That's only what we saw (we weren't exactly keeping track....we were concentrating on finding our sling load, which had quite a bit of our personal gear in it), and not what was assuredly out there. Something(s) had found a target rich hunting ground over the previous winter.

Wolverines are not just woodland critters. A fair amount are caught in the Arctic, with little in the way of woods. Eskimo parkas (like mine) traditionally have wolverine ruffs because the frost from breath, etc. can be easily brushed off. Warm too. From a documentary I think, it seems wolverines are one of the few animals that can digest bone and get nourishment from it, not just the marrow. Also learned today is that they have a molar that faces inward or upward that helps them rend frozen flesh. That isn't quite clear to me, yet.
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This thread lead me to do some basic research on wolverines, martin and fishers. I did not know marten of various species or sub-species had such a world-wide distributson, including India. Wolverines are wholearctic, fishers are NA only, both of which I knew.

For the record, I have seen only two live martin in all my years up here - one chasing a squirrel through the tree tops near Caribou Creek on the Kenai's Resurrection Trail, the other at around 10,000 feet in Colorado west of Ft. Collins. It came running along a log and passed within 10 feet of my wife and me.

That squirrel lost....

Assuming I have this straight, the Asian/African/Indonesian? honey badger is in it's own Genus and sub-Genus, but more closely related to the other badgers than to the wolverine, tho they do closely resemble each other. Form follows function, maybe.

I've been lucky enough to see three Wolverines in the wild - the first was on a small island in Prince William Sound, and he swam to shore and was gone. The second was while spring bear hunting on snowmachines, and it took a while to figure out what we were watching through the binos. Saw the third while glassing for bears up high while moose hunting. Should have probably gone after him, but it was a half day hike and I was pretty sure he wouldn't be there when I arrived. They can cover some ground.

I've seen two martens on the hoof - one down in Southeast while deer hunting, and another out the door of the cabin. Had I been quicker with the 22, I would have got the second one, but I'm pretty sure that I caught him in a trap a couple weeks later.

I've seen 3 wolverines in the 25+ years I've lived up here and all within the last 15. We ran across one in the Brooks one year while on a caribou float hunt on the Kurupa River, I was fly fishing for grayling when one came running down the bank on the other side of the river, it jumped in the water as I ran to grab my rifle, he took off like a bat out of hell and I never got a shot off. The others I saw down near Delta while I was sheep hunting and they were too far off to pursue.

We've got fishers back home in Maine and they can be pretty fierce if cornered and have a hell of a scream that'll make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

I saw a wolverine on Lake Nipigon at Ingall point 20 years ago—a buddy of mine got one last winter in a Marten cubby north of Beardmore.
Fishers are not numerous here but i hear about 3 or 4 being trapped every year. I treed several on the south shore of Lake Superior with my bear hounds during training season.
I have never seen one near as big as the one AK375 is holding in that picture.

Never seen a Fischer but had a good bit of fun chasing Wolverine around Montana and Alaska.

Never tease a Wolverine.....

My first caribou hunting trip to Alaska in 2014 I was fortunate to see five wolverines. Four of them were running together, I think a mother a three young, although they were all the same size. The fifth was by himself. Awesome animals.

Clearly, my favorite.

Quite the attitude!