54 SMITHSONIAN | March 2020
A wolverine released by
the scientists confronts
a blizzard. Despite
temperatures plunging
to minus 30 degrees
Fahrenheit, winter is
prime time to search
for the elusive animal.
Tracks and scat are
visible. Snow machines
cover ground quickly.
And bears, always a
danger, are hibernating.or more. Several females live within the
territory of a single male, which patrols a
range of 800 square miles, two-thirds the
size of Rhode Island. Scientists are also test-
ing for diseases and parasites by studying wol-
verines killed by indigenous hunters, whose
subsistence communities prize wolverines for
their durable, moisture-wicking fur, a tradi-
tional lining for winter parkas.
Glass, the WCS researcher, is particular-
ly interested in how Arctic wolverines use
snowpack—for storing food, for shelter from
predators and especially for raising their
kits, which are born in snow dens in the
early spring. The dens are tunnel systems
of surprising complexity. They might reach
ten or so feet deep and extend 200 feet along
a snow-buried riverbank, and will include
separate tunnels for beds and latrines and
others for cached food—caribou femurs, for
example. Because snow dens appear crucial
for ensuring the health of young wolverines,
and thus future populations, the research
has extra urgency. The Arctic is warming
twice as fast as the rest of the planet, and the
snowpack appears to be melting an average
of one day earlier every other year.
Meanwhile, the researchers are getting
a new perspective on the unlovable beasts.
Female wolverines, which birth a litter of
kits every one to three years, live with their
young for about a year. “We have pictures
from reproductive dens of the mother with
her kits ,” Glass told me. “They spend a lot
of time just playing. They’ll play with each
other, and then they’ll go bug mom, who’s
taking a nap. It looks like a family scene
from any species you can think of. They’re
cute and roly-poly.”
BYLINESPeter Mather is a wildlife and nature pho-
tojournalist based in Whitehorse, Yukon.
Arik Gabbai is a senior editor at
Smithsonian magazine.