Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire How "rare" are wolverines?

Well fellows, such is not the case here in good old Alaska. Vary commonly seen is the addition of wolverine fur with wolf fur for parka ruffs. Like I have posted before you'll see a lot more tracks than you will ever see them in the flesh. The one trait they all seem to have in common is there fondness for a vindictive nature.

Saw one backpacking with my Dad in Glacier NP in Sept 2001, one of the most cool things I've ever seen in the wild. It was loping off downhill away from us to parts unknown. I'd imagine that the way it ran with the front and rear legs not lining up, that the critter would make a distinctive set of tracks.

I think that'd be the coolest thing I could ever see, a wolverine backpacking with my dad

I've seen two.
One was the rarest of the bunch a "Vancouver Island Wolverine".
(They may be extinct now I'm told)
When I saw that one it was chasing a doe and fawn thru mid deep snow but not able to catch up to them for the time I was able to watch it.
The other one was up near B.C/Yukon border lopin along like they do.

http://www.wolverinefoundation.org/wrlddist.htm

Anyone that thinks they have seen one in the lower 48 states might want to take a hard look at this map. In most cases I think what you are seeing is a badger.

Saw one a couple years ago while bear hunting in Central B.C. Only the second one my guide had ever seen.

I bet most people who think they saw a Wolverine probably saw a Fisher.They can be quite large over 40" long and run with a lope.

I can count on one finger my sighting.... a few years ago in Wood-Tikchik State Park.

Cool map, it shows Kodiak as wolverine-free. I believe it!

So,....there ya' are,

standing out under the Northern Lights,......and enjoy peeing into the snow.

........The Wolverine's out there,.......waiting,

....most all of the attacks he makes on simple hivernans taking a leak are FATAL, ......and because he drags his victims off for later consumption,.....the Wolverine will remain a terrible, and enigmatic creature of lore.

Careful about waving yer' live bait around.

GTC

Killed a moose last year on a permit hunt in the Anchorage area. The wildlife guys used my gutpile to trap wolverines for collar/study. Pretty cool.

Truer words and all that

My mother had a pet badger for a couple years. She was the only one the badger let near the cage. Kindred spirits and all, I assume. My parents found it "dead" beside the road near Ellensburg, WA, and brought it home for the skin. When my father went to skin it he felt a pulse, so they watched it for a few days and one day it was wandering around the shop with a serious list to port.

After a few days of being hand fed and cared for it came around and made a mostly complete recovery. My mother fed it by hand and it would act like a puppy. Somebody let it out of the pen one day and they never saw it again.

My experiences have not shown wolverines to be anything special in the mean department and old trappers I know with quite a bit of experience claim they are way over-rated for tough and mean.

Had a Martin decide a buck I shot on Afognak Island was his and he was willing to fight me for it...
art

Nope. Wolverines are classic anarchists.

tis where I've seen 4 of the 5 I've seen as well kid.

I've known old trappers along the Yukon and Tanana Rivers that had never seen a live wolverine that wasn't caught in a trap.

I've lived out here on the AKPEN for the last 8 years now and I've seen about a half-dozen live-in-the-open wolverines even followed one for several hundred yards with my patrol rig which I initially thought was a porcupine when I first saw it.
Even saw one this summer. I now have his territory staked out for trapping season next month.

Of course this is open country unlike the interior so it's easier to catch a glimpse of things that may not want to be seen. I also think that maybe half of those sightings were the same animal. But people still see them around here and the couple of trappers we had hitting them always got wolverines every year.

agreed on the open country gig

timber hides a bunch of stuff

Great,....you've blown your cover,
..... and now Wolverine Central's going to be on to you.

I'd be real careful, from here on out.

GTC

Pfffffffft............. Their lack of fear is their weakness.

I know I ain't apeein in the snow no more. Map shows they just might be around here.