Wolverines from my sketchbook.
Armed with long claws, powerful jaws, pungent anal scent glands and with stories of them fighting off animals much bigger than themselves (including wolves and bears), wolverines have a reputation for being highly formidable, aggressive animals. Some unflattering other names for them include ‘glutton’, ‘nasty cat’, ‘stink bear’ and ‘woods devil’.
This is kind of a pity though, as there actually isn’t any documented evidence of wild wolverines ever attacking a human, and actually don’t even attack other large carnivores all that often either, contrary to popular belief—in general, they’d much rather just avoid conflict unless necessary (though I’ll admit their big teeth are fun to draw!).
Their so-called ‘gluttonous’ behaviour may be explained by the fact that food sources where they live can be scarce, especially in winter, so when they come across a meal they gorge themselves as much as they can, in order to sustain their energy and fat reserves.
The wolverine used to roam over many areas of Europe and North America, but now are only restricted to more remote areas of northern Europe, western Russia, northern Canada and the US state of Alaska, with just a handful of populations outside this state. Hunting and trapping for fur has played a toll on their numbers, as well as habitat loss, but a more current threat is climate change; mother wolverines need deep snow to birth their kits, and are just generally best-suited to colder climates and the ecosystems within them. As more people encroach into northern wildernesses, wolverines are also less likely to reproduce and will retreat further and further away from their normal hunting spaces.
So overall, wolverines aren’t really quite so ferocious as they’re made out to be, but just regular little creatures doing their best to survive in what little is left of the ancient wildernesses that they call home.
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Wolverine! Largest terrestrial mustelid, great climbers, and ambush predators!
[ID: an illustration of a Wolverine running to the right, with its front paws raised. It is in a simple snowy landscape. End.]
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Did this drawing of Chie
She doesn't really look like a pine marten though, I'm sorry, but if I draw her again (in fullbody), I might try to pull it off.
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new ref?
if I change my mind about my gender then I will simply delete the ref ;.; I also dont know if I would pick a new name and I am still experimenting w/ pronouns so I left that unlabeled.
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Faketober day 15, "Poison Type"
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via: Mustelid Madness Rescue
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