On tip toes, quietly, immobile in my little corner glinted to a tree. I saw the most beautiful canine of them all the wolverine. This animal's natural range extends from mid-northern Canada as far north as it is possible to get on the Canadian land mass, yet in winter it does not turn white or resort to any special sheltering arrangements. In fact, it is the only northern mammal whose fur turns darker in winter, and it rarely takes any kind of shelter, even in the worst snowstorms.
If the wolf and the fox are legends in more civilized places, the wolverine is the legend of the north. This is known between the natives living near as almost pets. They claim it has supernatural gifts. In any case the wolverine is certainly an example of nature at it's most efficient. Although its weighs little more than forty pounds, its relentless ferocity is complemented by a tremendous range of natural faculties.
It has prodigious endurance, prowling day and night with hardly a let-up for distances of up to 80 miles in a 24 hour period. Its feet are so large that its tracks could be mistaken for those of a wolf. Some of the inborn natives claim that it's nasty smell and nasty habits is what makes it the most unpopular animal in the forest and on the tundra. If only the smell kept this beautiful animal to the most part between those that would never be extinct.
Unlike the wolf, a lone wolverine can kill a caribou or a moose. Some Native swore that they have seen a solitary wolverine drive a wolf pack away from the carcass of a caribou that wolves have killed.
In spite of its name, and looks, a wolverine is not a wolf but the largest member of the weasel family. In fact, it is more like an amalgam of all of the most resourceful animals of the wilderness.
Labradorians will tell you that it is more cunning than a fox, stronger than a bear, and more savage in its attack than a lynx.
