Wolves are some of the most strategic hunters in the wild.
They use their strength in numbers to take down prey and survive as a group. There are very few animals that do this, which is why wolves are such apex predators, but then there’s the wolverine… and the wolverine just don’t care.
Sure you can try, but you better pack a lunch because the fight will be cut out for you from the very beginning… these wolves found it out first hand.
The relationship between gray wolves and wolverines is a high-stakes dynamic of apex pack hunters and fearless, solitary scavengers constantly clashing over winter food sources in the northern wilderness. They share the same harsh, frozen habitats across Alaska, Canada, and the northern Rockies.
Gray Wolves are highly social apex predators that rely on numbers, endurance, and coordinated strategy to bring down massive ungulates like elk, moose, and caribou. They are cursorial hunters, meaning they simply outrun and outlast their prey. They take turns on the hunt, swapping lines like a hockey team, always bringing fresh legs on the chase.
Wolverines, on the other hand, are the largest terrestrial members of the weasel family. Weighing only 25 to 40 pounds, they are heavily muscled, and pound for pound some of the most ferocious animals in North America. Solitary scavengers built for extreme cold, they possess snowshoe-like paws for floating over deep powder and exceptionally powerful jaws designed to crush frozen bones to extract marrow.
Where They Collide
Because winter calories are scarce, wolverines heavily depend on the hunting success of wolf packs to survive, creating a volatile relationship built on scavenging and theft.
Wolverines are notorious shadowers. They will actively track wolf packs by scent or follow the flight paths of ravens to locate fresh wolf kills. Once the wolves have eaten their fill and moved off, the wolverine moves in to consume the frozen scraps, bones, and hides left behind.
Wolverines are famously fearless and fiercely territorial over a food source. If a wolverine pushes into a kill site while a single wolf or a small splinter group of wolves is still feeding, the wolverine will often violently stand its ground. By posturing, emitting a foul odor from its glands, and snapping its bone-crushing jaws, a 30-pound wolverine can successfully bluff or intimidate a single 100-pound wolf into backing down.
While wolverines are pound-for-pound incredibly aggressive, they are no match for a full, well-coordinated wolf pack. Wolves are actually the leading natural cause of wolverine mortality. If a pack catches a wolverine out in the open tundra or a frozen lake, they will quickly surround and kill it, viewing the wolverine as both a competitor and an occasional prey item.
To survive these encounters, wolverines rely entirely on the terrain. Because wolves cannot climb, a wolverine’s primary defense mechanism against a full pack is quickly scrambling up a heavy timber tree or wedging itself deep into a rocky cliff crevice where the wolves’ jaws cannot reach.
Here, we have an example of a wolverine holding his own against a pair of wolves, not a full pack.
The video starts with two wolves eyeing up a wolverine in an open area, and it seems like they’re trying to come up with a game plan. One wolf decides it’s time and tries the classic attack from behind method. The wolverine is quick on his feet and doesn’t let it in too close. The second wolf comes in but the wolverine’s awareness is on point as it quickly switches its focus.
A person would think two adult wolves, who hunt together for a living would eventually get the better end of this ordeal, but the wolverine has other plans. They’re gonna need a lot more help if they want to take this wolverine down.
The wolves are in full attack mode going in for the kill, but the wolverine bounces back in forth between the two keeping them from wanting to go full in on the attack. As the wolves switch spots and try to get the vantage point from the backside the wolverine just keep on keeping on and doesn’t let them get in good position. It uses its speed and fearlessness to keep the wolves out of position.
The three of them go in a circle and the wolverine even starts to attack a bit itself, playing on the offensive side. Ultimately, that helps makes the wolves realize this is one tough creature and it might be a fight that just ain’t worth it.
That just goes to show, like every wolverine encounter, that they are as cool as it gets.
