The Wolverine I Wasn’t Supposed to Find

In the high mountains of Montana lives a creature with a formidable reputation, a predator said to be capable of driving grizzly bears away from their kills. Gulo gulo, the wolverine, is without a doubt one of Montana’s rarest predators and one of the true symbols of the alpine wilderness.

It was early April, and I was hiking into the mountains to check on one of my camera traps, which I had set for mountain lions. A fresh layer of snow had fallen overnight, but by the time I reached the camera, the warm afternoon sun had already melted much of it away. As I approached the site, both of my huskies immediately put their noses to the ground and began sniffing around. I initially assumed they had picked up the scent of a big cat, especially since there was a fresh lion scrape nearby.

I opened the camera case and started scrolling through the images on the LCD screen. Skunks, a lion, and then—wait, what?! A wolverine!?

I could hardly believe what I was seeing. Even though my first impression was that it was a wolverine, I tried to convince myself it was probably just a small black bear. There was no way a wolverine could be in this area. Except there was.

I had indeed captured one of Montana’s rarest animals on camera, and the conditions could hardly have been better. Fresh snow covered the mountains, fog hung in the valleys below, and early morning sunlight illuminated the wolverine as it moved through the landscape. For me, it was a dream come true.

It’s moments like this that keep me spending countless hours in the mountains, checking cameras, following tracks, and setting traps in places where I know something wild might pass through. You never really know what you’re going to find when you open that camera case.