The Wolverine Way

I enjoyed the book but was beyond irritated by the spelling substitutions. I bought the Kindle edition because the print book was too hard on my elderly eyes. I can tolerate the occasional typo, but errors that totally change the meaning are inexcusable. (For instance, substituting "submitted" for "summited" and "summering" for "summiting.) It took extra careful attention to even discern what the author was trying to write. Ditch the Spellcheck and hire an experienced copy editor.

I have always enjoyed learning about wild animals, and the wolverine is one of those species that one has to appreciate from afar as the chances of ever seeing one in the wild are slim to none. Not that I wouldn’t love to see one in the wild, but I felt like reading this book and seeing the great photos (wish there had been more and more color photo plates for sure) was likely the closest I will ever come to actually seeing a wolverine. But learning about their ecology and history and conservation from a leading expert on wolverines definitely puts this book as the top choice for wolverine books (of which there are not that many). Highly recommend to other lovers of wildlife, especially North American wildlife.

"Wolverines belong to the carnivore family known as the <i>Must elide</i>, more commonly called the weasel family after its most familiar members. From a public relations standpoint, this is a bit unfortunate, considering how corporate shills, slammers, faithless lovers, and hedge fund managers keep giving weasels a bad name."This book is at once an uplifting account of wildlife biologists and volunteer assistants studying wolverines in the wild; the beauty of wilderness and a heart-rending exposure of the harsher side of Nature's sway; and yet more maddening evincing of how prevalent ignorance and cruelty are in the human condition.I have a deep respect for the hardy souls that labor so perseveringly to help us understand the natural world that enables our existence, and that do so for a pittance, or simply because they care deeply. To me they exemplify the rare wisdom and good in humanity.My favorite chapter epigraph in the book is:A man cried: O Heavenly Spirit, speak to me that I may know You exist and care for my fate. And a sparrow appeared on a nearby branch, singing its heart out.The man didn’t understand. O Creator, he cried again, let me hear your voice.And in front of the man’s face, a bee buzzed past bearing pollen from flower to flower. A butterfly followed, floating on rainbow wings to sip nectar.Still the man did not understand. Instead, he called more loudly yet: O Maker of All That Is, if You won’t speak to me, let me feel Your touch just once, I pray.The Creator touched him. As the wolverine that had just bit the man on the ass loped away, the man shook his fist toward the sky, yelling: Now I am suffering because of a beast with a terrible nature. Why, oh why won’t You ever give me a sign?And the Creative Spirit sighed: I wish I had designed these hairless apes with more intelligence. But even I don’t always get it right the first time. ~ Chadwick, Douglas. The Wolverine Way. Patagonia.

I've loved wolverines since the day my son and I discussed raw meat with the pair at Cheyenne Mt. Zoo (who subsequently escaped from the zoo and, according to folklore, helped jump-start the reintroduction of wolverines to Colorado). About the same time, I heard James Dickey read "To the Last Wolverine," one of the great American wildlife poems (an audio is available on-line).Chadwick's book is almost as much fun as the conversation at Cheyenne Mountain, if not as heart-gripping as Dickey's poem (which surfaces in bits throughout the book). As Chadwick says, most of us -- and most of the scientific community -- have at best a cartoon grasp of the wolverine. He's a sort of indigenous Tasmanian Devil at best, and at worst a representation of everything we see as adversarial in Nature. Chadwick not only gives the wolverine its first real book, but offers proof of a radically different animal than our cartoon nightmares. The very model of ferocity? Well, yeah, but there's so much more.Contrary to mythology, wolverines are social. The study team that Chadwick joined found social interactions not just between mother and kits, but between fathers and their adolescent sons, both adult sized and ranging through Glacier Nat'l Park on training sessions. Their socialization is rare among mammals, rarer among predators, inconceivable in an animal legendary for its vicious, raging, competitive individualism.The book follows multiple generation of named animals, and you come to know them as individuals, cheering their successes and grieving for their deaths. One poignant picture shows a young wolverine who slipped crossing a cliff and fell her death. The body was found with its mother's track all around it. Chadwick is not giving us an antidotal Disney view of things; he documents what appears to have been a fratricide.Wolverines. We have 300 left in the contiguous states, barely enough to maintain a population. They are on the same brink that the polar bear is facing, their habitat threatened by the immediate risk of human incursion and animosity and the distant but looming threat of climate change. Chadwick documents how specific climate changes are changing the environment faster than selection can adapt.If you want to know why you should care, read Chadwick's book. If you want to help, find The Wolverine Foundation on-line, and make a donation. Maybe we can't save the last wolverine, but shame on us, if we don't try.

very informative about this elusive wolverine. very inspiring as to the lengths to help with efforts of preservation for these very powerful animals. Highly recommend. Easy and fun reading

When I hear "wolverine" I think "honey badger", and we've seen their videos. It turns out they're related. A male wolverine was apprehended this March in Rich County, UT after slaying 21 sheep one morning. Amazingly, the animal was trapped, given a free physical, and released on the north slope of the Uinta mountains. Long may he run. The author is thorough, speaks his mind, and is in my mind right minded. I enjoyed every hit of this book too.

Bought this for a ten year old who loves wolverines . Not a lot of choice if you want a book on this topic, but he loved it. He knows lots of facts and found it interesting

Well-written, extremely informative, very interesting - an excellent book, all round. The book is produced in a quality format, physically, and it's contents are easy to read (not at all boring or heavy going). An authoritative but very personal study of the much-misunderstood wolverine. Highly recommended.

Doug Chadwick is one of my favourite outdoor writers on various topics. He just happens to be exceptionally good writing about wolverines. Like the other researchers on the Glacier NP study, he came to greatly admire these animals for their quintessential wildness .. or as he would put it, their "badassness"! His accounts of how they learned to track, trap, tag and monitor these animals are fascinating. His humour in speaking of how they would "kiss them goodbye" upon release just adds to the enjoyment of the story. I liked this book so much I bought it in both paperback and electronic form, so I could get back to reading it whenever I had time. Highly recommended for anyone who desires a window into the lives of the most seriously wild critters around.

This is not a typical scientific book, but more of a fascinating scientific story of a group of researchers trying to study (and save) one of the most elusive species of animal on earth, the wolverine. No doubt it is the best book you could find about this unknown, strong, tireless creature.The writing is nice and enthusiastic, and the single chapters are well structured; but on the whole the book suffers from lacking a cohesive narrative story. It is really a big missed opportunity.The author (D. Chadwick) simply told the story in a chronological order: it jumps from a wolverine to another one, and alternate them with the internal stories of the group of researchers. It could have worked if it had a purpose; but here it's all really segmented. And too much space is given about researchers and other issues. I'm not saying it's not interesting, but it all should have been at least written in a more catchy way; you know, like a book.I eventually I gave it 4\5 stars though, because the good here is very good. It is well written, easy to read, and with many pictures (black and white, and colors). The chapters about the wolverines's life are fantastic.I love the researcher's difficulties with the wolverine's elusiveness, and the fact that they never see them, like ghosts of the forest: they can only follow their tracks and make hypothesis. And above all I love the writer's enthusiasm and growing reverential respect for the wolverine. It makes you deeply understand the toughness of the wolverine's life, the dangers it has to face, and the unbelievable physical strength and capacity for adaptation it must have to live and survive. No other animal is like it.As one of the experts put it: "There's tough, and then there's wolverine".

I could not put this book down. The author had a great way of weaving the results of the study into a story with amazing details the wolverines & their way of life. I know of 2 local book clubs who have used it for a reading & several of the people I have loaned the book to have purchased copies for Christmas presents. On a side note I live in an area described in the book & many years ago my father who was a trapper captured a wolverine. Reading the book gave me a new appreciation for the people who worked so diligently on this study.