Wolverines and the Endangered Species Act

WC has only seen three wolverines the wild. And none of them resulted in a photo.

WC saw the first on the third day of a torrential rainstorm, washed out of an attempt to climb Scott Peak, hiking out down Sunset Creek in Denali National Park. That wolverine was loping steadily upstream – the gait is unmistakable – on the other side of the flood-swollen creek in the hard rain, not looking any happier drenched than we did.

The second was on a canoe trip down the Delta River. Another canoe had capsized, and we were on the west bank, drying stuff out and warming the cold, wet folks up, when a wolverine came down a cut bank maybe 50 meters downstream on the other side of the river. The animal calmly drank a little water, sniffed the…