Alaskan Wolverine

Make friends "the wolverine way" while traveling around the world.

Fast Facts

Size
Adult males are 30-40% heavier than females and generally weigh 24-40 pounds (11-18 kg) while adult females weigh 13-26 pounds (6-12 kg).

Distribution
Wolverines are a wide-ranging species that naturally at low densities and require large expanses of wilderness. Formerly distributed throughout the taiga and boreal regions of North America, wolverine range has receded substantially primarily from most of the eastern United States and Canada. In Alaska, wolverines reside throughout mainland Alaska and some of the islands of Southeast Alaska.

Diet
Wolverines are opportunistic; eating about anything they can find or kill. They are well adapted for scavenging. The wolverine has a powerful jaw and large neck muscles allowing it to crush and utilize bones and frozen flesh. Also, wolverines can survive for long periods on little food. Their diet reflects annual and seasonal changes in food availability. In the winter wolverines primarily rely on carrion, remains of moose and caribou killed by wolves and hunters or animals that have died of natural causes. Throughout the year, wolverines feed on small and medium-sized animals such as voles, squirrels, snowshoe hares, and birds. In the right situations, wolverines can kill moose, Dall sheep or caribou, but these occurrences are rare. They have been known to take the young Dall sheep in the spring when they are most vulnerable.

Reproduction
Wolverine litters are born between February and April. Data on wolverine denning habits in Alaska are limited but indicate that in Interior and northern Alaska most young are born in snow caves. These caves usually consist of one or two tunnels that can be up to 60 yards long. No litters larger than four have been reported in the wild and average 2-3 kits. Wolverine kits are born blind and weigh less than 1 pound (0.4 kg). They develop rapidly and are weaned at about 9-10 weeks of age. Adult size is reached by early to mid-winter. Kits become independent from their mother in the fall at approximately 5 or 6 months of age but mostly remain within their natal home range until they become at least 1-year-old. Most males leave their natal home range at about 1-years of age and can range over an area of thousands of square miles over the next 1-2 years before securing residency of an area. Females can stay in the area they were born up to 3 years old and may settle there if the resident female dies. Both male and female wolverines become sexually mature in their second year but < 10% of the 2-year-old females produce litters. The breeding season extends from May through August. After mating, the fertilized eggs remain in the blastocyst stage until implantation occurs during until late fall or early winter. This type of reproduction is known as delayed implantation and allows a female wolverine to become pregnant when food supplies are best and when she is in good physical condition. Adult females may fail to produce young in some years even when they successfully breed. Data indicate that the abundance of food determines whether a pregnancy will be maintained and the number of young that will be born.

Other names
carcajou (French Canadian/Algonquian origin), glutton