Wolverine ( Gulo Gulo )

This Sunday I spent a couple of hours together with the Wolverine family at Nordens Ark. I must admit that this was not in my mind when I left home in the morning.

I knew that the Siberian Tigers had a litter and that the Snow Leopards just had given birth, but the main object for me was to get some good photos of the Peregrine Falcons.

Things didn´t work out as I had hoped, but the day turned out to be really productive for me. I will post a Photo Album later this week. My expectations for the day were succeeded and the time I spent with the Wolverines was amazing.

Wolverines fascinate me, just as the Honey Badger in Africa, and I have said this before. I find the smaller predators to be more interesting than the big ones. They are not as prolific as Lions, Grizzly Bears etc, but their behavior is much more interesting to me. I like to see something more than just a “lazy” animal and this Sunday was truly a real pleasure. Just to be able to sit and watch the Wolverine family interact, playing around succeeded every expectation I had for the day. I didn´t know that they had two young and if I had known, then I would have walked there directly.

Wolverines one of Europes top predators

Wolverines are the largest land-dwelling species in the Weasel family. Many think they look like a small Brown Bear particularly when they stand on the back legs. They have a bad reputation, particularly in the north of Scandinavia where they aren´t liked among the Sámi people whom keep Reindeer herds.

The Wolverine in Scandinavia is a more active hunter than the population in North America whom mostly scavenge. This is probably one of the reasons why they are disliked by the Sámi people as they tend to kill young Reindeers during winter. The Wolverine are actually omnivores, but prefer meat and they can be seen marking a carcass with their anal scent gland to keep other scavengers away. Can it be from this behavior they got the nickname Skunk Bear?

They are incredibly strong for their size and their oversized paws acts as snowshoes making it easy for them to move over vast distances during winter. There are records of individuals travelling more than 20 kilometers during a day in search of food. A successful male can have a very large home range, as big as 620 km2, overlapping the home range of several females, which have a smaller home ranges of roughly 130–260 km2, whom he forms a lifetime relationship with.

I hope you enjoy these four Wolverine picture and rest assure more will follow in the upcoming Photo Album.

Photo Gallery: Wolverine ( Gulo Gulo )