For most of us the wolverine is a reputation rather than flesh and blood. The film starts by looking at the legendary side of the animal, for example in the State of Michigan (where wolverines exist only in the zoo), and fans of the Michigan Wolverines college football team get a fail on their knowledge of biology. Two biologists, however, are finding ways to do research on the famously elusive carnivore. In British Columbia, researchers are fitting wolverines with radio transmitters to monitor their movements from that air. Following one of their subjects leads to a tragic discovery. Meanwhile, in Alaska, one biologist takes a maverick, less scientific approach that allows her to bond with two wolverine kits on a personal level out on the land. A trip to the Northwest Territories finds an indigenous creation myth that explains (in an animated film-within-the-film narrated by a renowned First Nations storyteller) how the wolverine got such an oversized and fearsome nature.

Length 1 hour
Producer
Christopher Sumpton

Director/Writer
Christopher Sumpton

Narrator
Raoul Trujillo

Cinematographers
Bill Schmalz
William Bacon III
Terry Zazulak
Steve Kroschel

Editor
Denis Takacs

Composers
Don Rooke
Michael White

Format: SD

First Aired
September 14, 2001
on Discovery Canada, and on Animal Planet in the U.S.