History was made at the Minnesota State Zoo when a pair of wolverines gave birth for the first time in decades. The animal was put on the endangered species list and almost forced to extinction, but now it is making its way back.
The female wolverines, also called kits, are now on display at the Minnesota State Zoo, one of fewer than a dozen zoos to house the animal and the United States’ only zoo with a mating pair in captivity. Since arriving in Minnesota, the wolverines have had little contact with humans.
The less-than-40-pound animal once lived in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, but hunting by trappers led to its near extinction in the early 1900s. Now the lower 48 have an estimated 300 to 1,000 left.
Known for its power, the wolverine looks like a cross between a large badger and a small bear and was known to even take down an adult moose in the wild.
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Wolverines are only found in remote parts of the Rocky Mountains and the Arctic. Currently, their future in the U.S. is uncertain because of the difficulty that zoos have when breeding them in captivity. They are almost as difficult to breed as pandas, according to the Star Tribune.
"It's extremely tricky," said Laurie Trechsel, assistant curator at the Minnesota Zoo. "They're very secretive animals, and they just don't like to be watched when they're trying to breed."
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While the animals can hold their own in the wild against other predators, they don’t do so unless needed.
"They have such a bum rap," she said. "If you put a wolverine up against a bear or a wolf, they'd hold their ground. But unless they have to, they try to stay away and are actually very mellow. The kits are always playing and rolling around like puppy dogs."
The best time to see the wolverines is in the morning before they get tired out by the heat.
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