When two wolves encountered a lone wolverine, they tried to bite off way more than they could chew
Earlier this week, we shared a vintage wildlife video of a wolverine giving it to a black bear that infringed on its territory. Well, now it’s Friday. You’ve made it through the week, and you deserve more of where that came from. Here’s a video of a wolverine handily fending off two fully-grown gray wolves.
There’s not much background info on the epic video, except that it was posted to YouTube by AJ Survey in April 2020. It starts with a wolverine plodding along a snowy landscape as two wolves stand nearby. At first, the wolves don’t seem too interested in the lone critter. But soon, they run toward it, face it down, and attack.
One wolf growls and bites at it from the front while another tries to flank it. Meanwhile, the wolverine spins quickly and lunges at its attackers. After a couple of minutes in which minimal damage is inflicted, the wolves seem to give up, and the wolverine saunters way as though nothing unusual has happened. See it for yourself below.
According to the National Wildlife Federation, the wolverine is the largest land-living species in the weasel family. Even so, they typically weigh less than 40 pounds and stand just 1.5 feet tall. Despite their relatively small stature, wolverines are known to be savage predators capable of taking down big game prey including deer, elk, and caribou.
Wolverines once roamed much of the Western U.S., but their range was decimated due to fur hunting and human development. Currently, there are small established populations in the North Cascades and Northern Rockies, as well as Canada, Russia, and Alaska.