Karelia #2 (Wolverines)

I spent about 36 hours in the photography hide over the two days I spent in Karelia. The vast majority of that time was spent being hyper vigilant to any movement that could indicate a wolverine was nearby. That vigilance was finally rewarded on several occasions. Each sighting involved a single animal briefly visiting the area. It would have been all too easy to miss their arrival since the timing of their visits were unpredictable.  On Friday the initial visit occurred at about 7:30 pm (1930) and the lighting conditions were less than optimal. I was also a bit over eager to get any photograph at all so I may have rushed composing the shots.

 

The following morning a single animal came across the frozen pond at 0400. It was already light out but obviously less than ideal conditions for photographs.

On Saturday I was able to catch some rest between 0900 and 1100 when I left the hide. I discussed my plans with two Finnish photographers that used the forest hide on Friday night. I debated which way to go – spend another night at the pond site or move over to one of the forest hides. The forest hide was being frequented by bears but it had very few wolverine sightings this Spring. I decided to return to the pond in the hopes of another set of wolverine sightings. That decision was made a bit easier knowing that I have seen bears before.

The weather forecast on Saturday was calling for rain in the late afternoon and early evening. I steeled myself to the possibility Sunday would prove to be a washout. I returned to the pond hide at 2:00 pm and around 4:30 that afternoon caught movement out of my eye. Finally a wolverine arrived and there was decent sunlight.

The wolverine stayed in the area for about 10 minutes making it the longest visit of the trip. A brief second visit occurred later that evening as the rain began to fall – this animal never came that close to the hide and it was “just passing through”.

I felt pretty good about that day’s photographs. The rain came relatively hard for several hours so I put my camera gear away and just watched the few birds that remained. I tried to sleep around 11 pm knowing that the remaining light would be insufficient for photographs. It was fairly cold (as was the night before), below freezing, and my fitful sleep was interrupted at midnight to the sound of splashing water. There was ample light to see the wolverine’s silhouette against the water and ice. This happened once again at 0200 when the animal fell through the weakened ice. As I was trying (unsuccessfully I might add) to catch some sleep I thought about old written accounts of wolverines pursuing trappers back in the 1800s.

Sunday morning broke cold and clear. No additional visits occurred that morning and at 0800 I headed out. I’m not sure how many different wolverines I saw – there were at least two based on their coat markings. I’ll be returning back to this location in a few weeks. Melanie and I will be staying in the “plush” observation hide which lacks the camera ports. Hopefully we’ll be able to share this experience then.

On reflection, it’s very rare to see wolverines in the United States. Seeing them in Karelia was obviously helped by using food to attract them. Maybe that gives us an unfair advantage – but I still like knowing that this iconic animal has a few wild places left to roam. It’s estimated that there are less than 500 of these animals in the wilds of Finland. I’m quite fortunate to have had this opportunity.

Let the adventure continue…