The wolverines kept on coming back the whole night. There were at least three different individuals. The first one was clearly an older male. He had very wide forehead and looked like he had been in many fights. And he seemed to know his way around the watching lodge. He walked and marked all the trees with meat but didn't bother to take them all right away. He wasn't very photograhic either. Whenever he stopped he made sure his backside was to the cameras.
The next wolverine was a totally different case. He was jumping, climbing the trees, running, scratching, looking at the camera and stayed to eat close by. What a show!
After a couple of hours wait came again a new wolverine. This one looked younger and a bit shy. Crawling at first and when getting the meat running nearer the forest.
Anyway, all the wolverines were much bolder than I had expected. And how happy they looked. I have seen animals and wolverines in captivity and they seemed somehow manic. I guess any animal in the Mustelidae family can seem a bit like that, and you could see it a bit in these wild ones too. But they weren't anxious.
Imagine a wolverine, a predator in the wild with nothing to fear than people, maybe some natural catastrophes and where he is going to get his next meal. These wolverines who live near the watching lodges can dismiss one worry.
Really beautiful animals! Sometimes they even looked like small bears (wishful thinking, the other lodges had seen some). When the wolverines were gone, the birds came for the booty.
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| Great Spotted Woodpecker |
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Eurasian Jay
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Lots of Gulls too and some Ravens cawing near by. We got a message from the other lodge 8 km away that they had seen and heard a wolf. An hour later we heard it too. I felt goosebumps rising on my arms. We watched intently to the forest but no wolf came. Still an amazing experience!
