300 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 



[No. 55 



FIGURE 72. Range of the wolverine, Gulo luscus 

 luscus, in Oregon. 



Cascades and Sierra Nevadas. Adolph Aschoff reported them in the 

 Mount Hood section in 1896, and George Moody caught one in the 

 upper McKenzie Valley west of the Three Sisters Peaks, Oreg., in 

 1912. 



General habits. Although of the weasel family, wolverines have 

 much the build and habits of little bears. They are great wanderers, 

 hunters, and scavengers, always searching for meat, and killing any 

 kind of game that their short legs enable them to catch or corner, 

 but actually feeding largely upon offal or the carcasses of game 

 animals killed by hunters or found dead. Of powerful strength and 



build, they do not hesitate 

 to attack any animal, even 

 to the caribou and moose, 

 that they can steal upon 

 and get a death grip upon 

 with their powerful jaws. 

 They seem to have no 

 fear, even of man, but are 

 cunning and suspicious in 

 stealing food and avoid- 

 ing traps and are bold and 

 dangerous fighters when 

 cornered or captured. 

 Fortunately for other ani- 

 mals of the woods and for 

 man, their legs and bodies 

 are short and their best 

 speed is but slow. Great strength and tireless energy enable them 

 to secure food, even where it is scarce and widely scattered. 



Breeding Iwbbits. Litters of from 2 to 5 young wolverines have 

 been recorded, born in April, May, and June. Seton says the site 

 chosen for the young ones' home is almost any sheltered hollow in 

 the ground or under rocks, and that in October they appear in 

 families, the young still following their dam, though not much 

 inferior in size. The mother is said to be savage in defense of 

 her young and to bring them food before they are old enough to 

 leave the nest. 



Food habits. While hunters of any large or small game which 

 they can capture, 'the wolverines are credited with enormous appe- 

 tites not always satisfied by the fresh kill and largely depending on 

 dead carcasses of game found under the winter's snow or summer's 

 sun. With keen noses they scent a feast from a distance and locate 

 the meat or food cache of the hunter and even devour his cache of 

 furs if by any device of skill or strength it can be broken into. 

 Martens or any other fur-bearing animals found in traps are eaten 

 until the trapper is sometimes obliged to move his trap line if he 

 cannot catch the thief. The trap bait is also eaten along the trap line 

 and the traps either avoided or sprung or broken up. A no. 4 steel 

 trap is said to be required to hold securely a wolverine, and the no. 

 1 traps set for marten and mink only educate him to greater caution 

 in avoiding such devices. 



Economic status. Wolverine skins have never brought high 

 prices for fur, the 1923 quotations for prime skins being only $6 to $8 



