World-First Footage Shows Baby Wolverine Take First Steps Above Ground

Incredible footage from the BBC documentary series Mammals shows a rarely-seen baby wolverine taking its very first steps above ground.

Wolverines are extremely elusive animals that inhabit the most remote parts of the cold world. As a result, footage of wolverines is rare.

However, in world-first footage of its kind, the BBC captured the the extraordinary moment that a baby wolverine emerged from his den after his mother, taking his very first steps above ground in the cold.

The footage, which was filmed in Northern Alaska for the David Attenborough-narrated series Mammals, shows a mother wolverine emerging from the snow followed by its three-month-old baby.

Attenborough describes how this may well be the first time that the baby wolverine has seen a glimpse of the world above the snow. The baby wolverine is seen bounding behind its mother as the pair go in search of food together.

Wolverines are solitary animals, usually only ever coming together to mate. Individual wolverines can travel 15 miles in a single day in search of food. They can survive on the Earth’s extreme frozen habitats which are undisturbed by humans.

When nearing birth, the mother wolverine digs a deep snow den that may have tunnels 15 feet from the surface. They then den in the snow to give birth in late winter or early spring.

Young wolverines, called kits, sometimes live with their mother until they are two years old.

In an interview with the BBC, Mammals series producer Scott Alexander says that this moment was among his favorite scenes in the series.

Alexander says that the footage was a world-first due to the immense challenges of filming wolverines.

“It’s such a difficult animal to film but we’ve got the most amazing sequence of this unique behavior that no one’s ever seen before,” the producer says.

‘Wolverines are Ridiculously Hard to Film’

Alexander says they were able to capture the footage because the camera crew decided to stick around in the same spot after seeing a male wolverine drop a piece of carcass seemingly in the “middle of nowhere” in the snow.

“We stayed around, and what we discovered was that the wolverine was making food deliveries to its mate, who was still in the den,” Alexander explains.

“Then we hung around, and by the skin of our teeth, we got this footage of the female emerging with her kit.

“It’s the first time that this behavior between the father and the mother and then the kit emerging has been filmed.

“It is an absolutely amazing achievement because wolverines are ridiculously hard to film.”

Alexander says that the clip is even more astounding because male wolverines are not typically known to raise their kits.

“Oddly enough, male mammals aren’t actually very good at caring for their children,” Alexander explains.

Not many of them take that much responsibility in raising their offspring. It’s quite a rare event in the mammal world.

“Around 90% of male mammals don’t really get involved with any parental care. So to see this animal doing that was lovely.”