Wolverine need vast undisturbed wilderness areas to survive in Jasper National Park.

Banff National Park web site, describing the wolverine as a “legendary enigma,” warns that “in Canada‘s Rocky Mountains, their numbers are few and threats to their habits and habitats are increasing ... Denning females with young are particularly vulnerable to disturbance from skiers and hikers.”

Just because you can’t see them doesn’t mean they’re not there. It doesn’t mean they don’t need habitat, and it doesn’t mean they’re not important

– Vivian Banci – wolverine biologist

WOLVERINE Gulo gulo : "species of special concern"

This free spirit of wilderness, solitary and reclusive, habitually avoids man (except to raid his traplines, food caches and cabins). While it may have a mixed reputation among people who have suffered from its depredations, it also has its fervent admirers. Dr. Olaus Murie, who spent six years studying the biology of the Alaskan peninsula, wrote of the wolverine, “I wonder if there is another inhabitant of northern wilderness that so excites the imagination.”

This large member of the weasel family, described by Dr. George Scotter as a 15 kg “bundle of combative power,” looks a bit like a bear cub but with a large skull and heavy jaws for crushing bones.

Wolverine tracks in the snow could be mistaken for those of the wolf, but they have the five toes of the weasel family and run with the distinctive offset twin-print pattern of that family. They climb trees with ease and are good swimmers. They rely on their sense of smell instead of their rather poor eyesight.

There is very little population data on this species. Some males have territories of nearly 1000 square kilometres. The wolverine travels at a tireless loping gait on constant lookout for carrion. Marmots, hibernating in family groups, may be dug out of their rock dens any time during the winter months. Sometimes, even large ungulates are not safe. A warden in the Sunwapta area of the park once followed the trail of a running moose. There were tufts of hair and spatters of blood on either side of the tracks. Finally he came to the remains of the moose, surrounded by the tracks of a wolverine. He concluded that as there were no tracks following the running moose, the wolverine must have dropped onto the moose from a tree and hung on, biting at the neck until the moose collapsed.

Their tracks may often be seen crossing snow-covered Maligne Lake in winter and running for miles along alpine ridges. However, neither the Jasper National Park Management Plan nor the environmental assessment on the replacement lease for the tour company at Maligne Lake makes any mention of them.

One of Jasper’s most interesting – albeit elusive – animals, the wolverine needs vast, undisturbed wilderness. The park still offers that – for now. But given the increasing commercial disturbance of the park’s back-country, how much longer has the wolverine got?