EO Wilson died this week at 92. The wolverine was one of his favorite animals, and his ecological theories contributed to how we think about them. Read more here: https://conta.cc/31cDZb1
A non-profit organization comprised of wildlife scientists with a common interest in the wolverine.
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I really enjoyed reading this! The quote from him was lovely. Thanks!
Dear Mr. Copland,
I am somewhat familiar with Mustelidae and have kept several, the largest a badger. Given a chance they can be quite friendly and playful, iincluding wolverines. They have a bad press. I have Peter Krott’s book, Tupu-Tupu-Tupu, in which he describes the raising of thirty-eight, quite affable cubs as family members. His territory was Finland and Sweden. For weasels, avidly pursuing game with vigor is their profession, apart from play.
Ed Wilson shouldn’t have been misled. I knew him briefly. I am 94 years, born same month as EOW.
Also, I had sent you a check 6-month’s ago which I had just cancelled. Tch-tch!
Stan,
I appreciate your input here, but I would respond that E.O. Wilson’s perception of the wolverine may be better viewed metaphorically rather than as a literal understanding. He is simply describing the wolverine using his best (only) information as a means to describe his admiration for the animal’s tenacity and wildness, and his desire that some of the unknowns regarding the animal’s life history remain so. Whether he realized it or not, he was describing what those of us that know the wolverine best, most admire about it. That is, its ability to persist, and in fact thrive, in the absence of human association. The wolverine lives where we cannot, it doesn’t kill our livestock (at least not frequently), it doesn’t get into our garbage cans, it was able to reinhabit the western U.S., after near extirpation, without any help from humans – the wolf couldn’t do it, the grizzly bear couldn’t do it – and, it does so while functioning at population densities lower than any conservation biologist would believe are viable.
I gave up correcting folks that claim the wolverine is the meanest critter in the mountains – stealing food from grizzly bears and such because even though these are often gross exaggerations, they are only reflecting life history characteristics that we most admire in this animal. The wolverine has needed folks championing its cause, which is one of the primary reasons the Wolverine Foundation was instituted nearly 30 years ago.
Jeff