Before the world began,
according to the native Innu people of eastern Québec and
Labrador, humans lived in a hostile place called Tshishtashkamuku.
Then Kuekuatsheu built a big boat, into which he put all the
species of animals, and there was a great flood. Kuekuatsheu made
an island out of rocks and mud and brought the animals to it, and
it became the world.

The creator Kuekuatsheu is better
known to non-Innu as the wolverine, called Gulo
gulo (Latin for “glutton”) by scientists. The
wolverine’s mysteriousness, cunning and physical strength
earned it a reputation among Canadian tribes as a trickster and
link to the spirit world. But the wolverine has already disappeared
from Innu lands, and in the United States, its secretive nature has
fueled debate over whether the species is endangered or just
naturally rare. After 12 years of wrangling with environmentalists,
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has begun a status review to
finally answer that question and determine if the wolverine should
be listed under the Endangered Species Act.

To Jeff
Copeland of the U.S. Forest Service, who studies wolverines in
Glacier National Park, the animal embodies the image of wilderness.
“We see the grizzly as defining wilderness, but they
can’t stay away from our garbage cans,” he says.
“Wolverines don’t get in our garbage or go after our
livestock. They stay far away,” avoiding humans. Copeland
fears that small, isolated populations of wolverines could
“blink out” before scientists even know they’re
there.

The mostly nocturnal wolverines are close cousins
of ferrets, mink and badgers, but look more like small bears.
Sometimes called “skunk bears” because of their striped
bodies and the distinctive aroma they use to mark their territory,
these stout predators can weigh up to 45 pounds. Their big paws let
them travel on snow crusts too thin to support big ungulates,
allowing them to overpower moose and caribou that get bogged down.
After the snow melts, the omnivorous creatures, which can climb
trees and swim, eat anything from berries to eggs to small mammals.
They scavenge for carrion throughout the year, and have been
reputed to drive cougars, bears and wolves away from their kills.

Wolverines range over territories as large as 600 square
miles, preferring arctic tundra, boreal forests and high mountain
regions. “They’re an amazing mountaineer. There seems
to be no barrier to movement at all,” says Copeland, who once
watched a male wolverine climb 5,000 vertical feet on Mount
Cleveland in about 90 minutes. But the domain of wolverines has
shrunk as that of humans has grown.

Wolverines once
roamed most of the Western and Great Lakes states, but now are
found only in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington. Though as
many as 20,000 remain in western Canada, scientists estimate that
fewer than 750 live in the lower 48. They blame wolverine declines
during the early and mid-20th century on decreasing numbers of
large ungulates, wolf control programs using poisoned baits, and
fur trapping. Today, winter recreation threatens their reproductive
success, and trappers continue to pursue them (a pelt can be bought
on eBay for $300).

The elusive wolverine is notoriously
challenging to study — and that makes it hard to safeguard
under the law. Conservationists have been trying for more than a
decade to have the animals protected by the Endangered Species Act,
but listing petitions in 1995 and 2003 were rejected because of a
lack of data. “Wolverines naturally appear in low
densities,” said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when it
rejected the 2003 petition. “Lack of sightings does not
necessarily mean that wolverine numbers are declining.”

The nonprofit Defenders of Wildlife disagreed, and sued
the service in 2005. Last fall, the U.S. District Court of Montana
found that the agency was wrong to reject the petition, and ordered
it to do an in-depth review of the wolverine’s status by
early 2008. Public comments can be submitted until Aug. 6; the
agency will also be relying on wolverine data submitted by states,
the Forest Service, and researchers, said Diane Katzenberger,
spokeswoman for the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Copeland
thinks the best way to protect wolverines is to elevate public
awareness. He hopes that if the public learns more – and
cares more – about wolverines, land management agencies will
put greater resources into studying and conserving the species.
“I’m not sure if it’s in need of listing, as much
as in need of attention,” he says.

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