Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
If skunks have widely been viewed with disfavor, the reputation of the wolverine
(Gulo gulo)
has been
far worse. When I was growing up, stories in outdoor magazines and tales in topics about the far north
portrayed the wolverine as possessed of a demonic hatred of humans, abetted by a fiendish clever-
ness— in short, a devil in animal form. More enlightened thinking, combined with scientific observa-
tion, paints a rather different picture.
The second-largest member of the weasel family, the wolverine can weigh as much as sixty pounds.
Admittedly, it's a decidedly odd-looking creature; to paraphrase the famous description of the camel,
the wolverine looks like a small bear designed by a committee.
With a bearlike head and body, the wolverine has a short, bushy tail that somehow looks like an af-
terthought. Its coat is thick and dark brown, except for a lighter band across the top of the head and a
wide, yellowish stripe along each side; these stripes start at the front shoulders and merge at the tail,
much like the stripes on a skunk.
The principal range of the wolverine is the far north, from Alaska across Canada and into that
nation's farthest Arctic reaches. Wolverines are also found southward through British Columbia into
Idaho and perhaps a few other pockets in the United States.
Unfortunately, not enough is known about remaining wolverine habitat in the lower forty-eight
states. Money for wolverine research is scarce, and much needs to be learned about where they live
and how many are left. What is known is that wolverines were once found much more widely in the
United States, including the Midwestern and Eastern states. Ironically, there is absolutely no evidence
that wolverines ever inhabited Michigan, which is known as the Wolverine State.
Wolverine
The wolverine's diabolical reputation is based largely on a combination of tall tales and misinter-
preted facts. The accounts of wolverine-as-devil usually go something like this:
