Wolverine kill

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I'm old now and am in my 70's, but in my younger day I was quite the outdoorsman. I am looking forward to writing about my many experiences with wildlife encounters.

A large male wolverine will dress out at about 45 pounds. It is the largest member of the weasel family and is lightning fast, with a very bad attitude. A wolverine will fight anything at any time, and go out of it's way to do it.
Out here in the mountains of British Columbia if you see a wolverine, you know to get out of there fast!

It was a December morning and I was snowshoeing in one of my favorite deer trails. I ran into about 10 bighorn sheep but they were used to seeing me, and went back to pawing in the snow trying to find some grass.
About 30 minutes later I came apon a kill site. There was bright red blood everywhere on the white snow. And there was a lot of broken bone and white hare fur. I also saw wolverine tracks, and about 8 feet away at the bottom of a pine tree was also wolverine tracks. I saw the claw marks on the tree, and instantly guessed as to how the kill went down.

The clever wolverine had scampered up the tree and had waited, knowing that sooner or later something would have come along on the deer trail. The snow hare probably never knew what hit it.

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Here is an interesting fact. A wolverine's jaw is so powerful that it can crack the leg bone of a full grown moose. Even a 600 pound grizzly bear can't manage that one.

If you run into one they will stand their ground. And if you corner it you are a bloody fool.

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Please move this to "The Great Outdoors" section where it belongs, thanks.

[Deleted]

Jan 13, 2023 19:23:51 GMT @lbj said:

Here is an interesting fact. A wolverine's jaw is so powerful that it can crack the leg bone of a full grown moose. Even a 600 pound grizzly bear can't manage that one.

If you run into one they will stand their ground. And if you corner it you are a bloody fool.

It sounds like wolverines are very aggressively stubborn for a natural carnivoran. They do have a reputation, but I didn't realize they're quite that bold. If you stumble upon wolverine in the wild do they invariably take to flight like the typical bear (assuming they aren't cornered and have the opportunity to flee)?

Regarding bite force of wolverine and grizzly, here is a fairly good bite force: study www.academia.edu/239888/Bite_forces_and_evolutionary_adaptations_to_feeding_ecology_in_carnivores_Ecology_

According to that dry skull bite force study the wolverine's bite force quotient isn't anything off the scales, and absolute bite force is certainly far inferior to a grizzly.

For a 14.5 kg/32 lb wolverine they give a bite force of 232.6N at the canines and 348.5N at the carnassials, compared to that of a 251.2 kg/554 lb brown bear with a bite force of 1409.7N at the canines and 1894.9N at the carnassials.

And if you compare bite force quotients, the wolverine is about mid-range for a carnivoran, only a little higher than brown bear and moderately inferior to the big cat grouping.

They now believe that the bone crushing abilities of the hyena isn't really down to an otherworldly exponential bite force quotient, but down to possessing the dentition for cracking bone. While a decent bite force is obviously still required, it's not anything beyond the bite force quotients of many other robust carnivora, most of which aren't associated with ungodly bite forces.

And it fits for me, it just doesn't make sense that jaw muscles the size of a wolverine's are creating more force than the exponentially larger jaw muscles of the grizzly. Or that jaw muscles the size of a human bicep of the spotted hyena is creating more force than jaw muscles the size of our quadriceps of the lion.

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How do you think a big boar raccoon would compare to a female wolverine? Both in ''stats'' and combat.

[Hardcastle]

Jan 20, 2023 7:49:25 GMT @ajay said:

Jan 13, 2023 19:23:51 GMT @lbj said:

Here is an interesting fact. A wolverine's jaw is so powerful that it can crack the leg bone of a full grown moose. Even a 600 pound grizzly bear can't manage that one.

If you run into one they will stand their ground. And if you corner it you are a bloody fool.

It sounds like wolverines are very aggressively stubborn for a natural carnivoran. They do have a reputation, but I didn't realize they're quite that bold. If you stumble upon wolverine in the wild do they invariably take to flight like the typical bear (assuming they aren't cornered and have the opportunity to flee)?

Regarding bite force of wolverine and grizzly, here is a fairly good bite force: study www.academia.edu/239888/Bite_forces_and_evolutionary_adaptations_to_feeding_ecology_in_carnivores_Ecology_

According to that dry skull bite force study the wolverine's bite force quotient isn't anything off the scales, and absolute bite force is certainly far inferior to a grizzly.

For a 14.5 kg/32 lb wolverine they give a bite force of 232.6N at the canines and 348.5N at the carnassials, compared to that of a 251.2 kg/554 lb brown bear with a bite force of 1409.7N at the canines and 1894.9N at the carnassials.

And if you compare bite force quotients, the wolverine is about mid-range for a carnivoran, only a little higher than brown bear and moderately inferior to the big cat grouping.

They now believe that the bone crushing abilities of the hyena isn't really down to an otherworldly exponential bite force quotient, but down to possessing the dentition for cracking bone. While a decent bite force is obviously still required, it's not anything beyond the bite force quotients of many other robust carnivora, most of which aren't associated with ungodly bite forces.

And it fits for me, it just doesn't make sense that jaw muscles the size of a wolverine's are creating more force than the exponentially larger jaw muscles of the grizzly. Or that jaw muscles the size of a human bicep of the spotted hyena is creating more force than jaw muscles the size of our quadriceps of the lion.

I made this size comparison of a kangal skull and a wolverine skull for some reason, which is essentially exactly what a wolf skull vs wolverine skull looks like too (you need to bring out a magnifying glass to differentiate between a kangal and wolf skull)



This is based on their official skull measurements, it is also familiar to images a guy named "Kifaru" (really good member, too) used to post of his english mastiff x anatolian gently holding a wolverine skull he owned in it's mouth.

The wolverine shouldn't be mocked for this, it should actually be respected when you understand the magnitude of it's physical under-dog status when it does these amazing things like usurp a kill off wolves or a bear. But still, the mythologizing should be reigned in a little sometimes. It is a little varmint. It IS durable, and mustelids are just absurdly voracious and bold animals for their size a lot of the time, but still...

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Yeah the mustelids are something, wolverine, honey badger, what mentality. For wild animals they have impressive GAME. And I hear the wolverine can scale up a mountain quite impressively. And then another mustelid, the stoat, kills rabbits 10x it's size! There's something about mustelids.

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Jan 20, 2023 7:49:25 GMT @ajay said:

Jan 13, 2023 19:23:51 GMT @lbj said:

....

 If you stumble upon wolverine in the wild do they invariably take to flight like the typical bear (assuming they aren't cornered and have the opportunity to flee)?

When one runs into a wolverine (twice in my case) they do *NOT* run off. Instead they just look at you and show their teeth. If you walk off they will also. Not run, but they will walk off.