Gulo the glutton is the largest land mustelid
Wolverines (Gulo gulo)—also carcajou or quickhatch from East Cree—are the biggest terrestrial mustelids, roaming boreal forest, subarctic, and alpine tundra especially across the Northern Hemisphere's far north. Latin Gulo means glutton, a reputation partly blamed on false etymology and folklore.
The glutton label may rest on a linguistic accident. A rarer Norwegian name, fjellfross or "mountain cat," is thought to have drifted into German as Vielfraß, "devours much," and the idea spread: Finnish ahma, Hungarian "gluttonous badger" and French glouton all echo it, as does the Latin genus Gulo. English "wolverine," probably meaning "little wolf," and the Scandinavian jerv and järv carry no such charge. In French Canada the animal is the carcajou, borrowed from Innu-aimun.
The largest land-dwelling mustelid is about the size of a medium dog: 65 to 109 cm long, 36 to 45 cm at the shoulder, males usually 11 to 18 kg and females 8 to 12 kg. Its closest relatives are the tayra and the martens. Big five-toed paws with crampon-like claws carry it up cliffs, trees and snowy peaks, and dense, oily, water-shedding fur resists frost, which is why Arctic trappers prized it for parka linings. A back upper molar turned 90 degrees lets it shear meat frozen solid, and its jaw joint has the highest measured bone strength of any carnivore, ahead of the cheetah.
Carrion is the staple, especially in winter and early spring, and wolverines trail wolves and lynx to finish their kills. The frantic way they eat is now read as a response to scarcity rather than greed. They are also formidable hunters, taking deer, weakened moose and elk, Canada lynx in the Yukon, and even nesting golden eagles in Denali and Sweden. Strong scent marking earned the nicknames "skunk bear" and "nasty cat."
Wolverines still hold out in northern Canada, Alaska, Fennoscandia, Russia and Siberia, but trapping and habitat loss have driven a decline since the 19th century, and the southern fringes of the range are mostly empty. Scotland lost them around 6,000 BC. In the United States, lone animals have reappeared: one photographed in Michigan in 2004 was the first confirmed there since the early 1800s, and in 2020 a female with two young was seen at Mount Rainier for the first time in over a century.
Source: Wolverine
