Wolverine

The wolverine is the largest member of the weasel family that lives on land. It looks a bit like a small bear, but it is more closely related to otters, badgers, and skunks. Wolverines live in cold places across the far north, including parts of Canada, Alaska, Scandinavia, Russia, and some high mountains in the lower 48 states. An adult wolverine weighs between 20 and 40 pounds, about the size of a medium dog.

Wolverines have thick brown fur with pale stripes along their sides. Their fur sheds frost easily, which made it popular for lining the hoods of winter coats. They have short legs, wide paws, and long, curved claws. The wide paws work like snowshoes and let a wolverine run across deep snow that would stop other animals.

For their size, wolverines are some of the strongest animals in the world. They have been seen driving bears and wolves away from a fresh kill. A wolverine will eat almost anything it can find. In summer it catches rabbits, rodents, and birds, and digs up roots and berries. In winter it often eats animals that died in the cold. Its powerful jaws can crack bones that other animals give up on.

Wolverines travel huge distances. A single male may roam across 250 square miles, an area bigger than the city of Chicago. They mark the edges of their range with a strong smell from special glands, which earned them the nickname "skunk bear." Females dig dens in deep snow in late winter and give birth to two or three kits. The kits stay with their mother for about a year.

Wolverines are hard to study because they live in remote places and avoid people. Scientists guess that only about 300 wolverines live in the lower 48 states today. Climate change is now their biggest problem. Wolverine mothers need deep spring snow to protect their dens, and warmer winters are melting that snow earlier each year. In 2023, the U.S. government listed the wolverine as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

The animal's reputation is larger than its size. Old trappers told stories of wolverines chasing wolves off their food and breaking into cabins to steal everything inside. Some of these stories were exaggerated, but the core is true. A wolverine is small, fierce, and almost impossible to scare. If you ever meet one in the wild, which almost nobody does, it will probably stand its ground.