Treasures from Our West: wolverine

Originally featured in Points West magazine in Summer 2010

Wolverine specimen

Perhaps no other North American mammal is shrouded in more mystery than the wolverine (Gulo gulo). A member of the weasel family, this secretive predator lives in some of the most harsh and inaccessible alpine and arctic tundra environments in North America and northern Eurasia. It requires large expanses of relatively undisturbed, cold-weather, conifer forest and tundra. Once found in nearly all Rocky Mountain states and as far east as New England, numbers and distribution have declined since the late 1800s due to human settlement and activity.

Wolverines have few natural predators and tend to aggressively defend themselves against much larger predators, such as grizzly bears and mountain lions. Wolves and golden eagles are among the few animals to successfully prey on wolverines, which in turn prey on a wide variety of birds and mammals up to the size of deer and even elk. This specimen is installed in the Alpine Environment of the Draper Natural History Museum Alpine-to-Plains Trail gallery. The dramatic exhibit illustrates a wolverine defending a recent kill—yellow-bellied marmot—from a grizzly bear approaching from above, and a Clark’s nutcracker looking on from a safe distance.

Adult wolverine. NH.305.142

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