Wolverines - More than just a cool comic book character.

From Facebook Notes by Tj Shields on Wednesday, October 20, 2010 at 11:21pm

Wolverines - More than just a cool comic book character.

Wed. Oct. 20th 2010,

Tonight I was at Brookfield Zoo listening to a lecture on the North American Wolverine and how it's current population in the United States and Canada is in danger of becoming Extinct.

  Due to changes in climate and infringement by human beings, this magnificent mammal, one of the few survivors of the Ice Age, is numbering only a mere 500 specimen's in the North American Continent.

The lecture was given by Douglas H. Chadwick, who with several other researchers and naturalists set out to study and track these creatures through Glacier National Park in Northern Montana.  During this lecture I discovered that the wolverine is not that much different then the well-known character in Marvel Comics.  It is a small creature no bigger then the size of a Golden Retriever, yet this relative of the common weasel is one of the most fierce-um and rugged animals to roam our country.  In many ways the Wolverine is the truest survivor of our wilderness and is one that is not to be messed with.  These animals are known to bring down full size Caribou and Moose and will drive a male Grizzly bear from its kill-carcass.  They are scavengers by nature but they do hunt smaller creatures as well as larger animals when food is scarce. Wolverines bodies have a very high metabolism which makes their body temperature very hot and causing them to eat large amounts of food in order to survive. 

   One of the most interesting points about this lecture is the amount of land these creatures can dominate. A male Wolverine can cover distances of over 30 miles in minutes,  and this is not flatlands they are roaming. These animals are able to scale a almost shear mountain face in under 90 minutes, where a skilled mountain climber would take 3-4 hrs. 

  I have seen videos on Animal Planet and Discovery about these creatures but not with this kind of detail.  I look forward to reading "The Wolverine Way" and doing my own research into this creature, which is the name sake of one of the most well known "Canucks" of Marvel Comics.