Talk:Wolverine

Gluttony not reflected in English?

"Purported gluttony is reflected neither in English nor in North Germanic languages. The English word wolverine (alteration of the earlier form wolvering of uncertain origin) probably implies 'a little wolf'. The name in Old Norse, Jarfr, lives on in the regular Icelandic name jarfi, regular Norwegian name jerv, regular Swedish name järv and regular Danish name jærv."

Yes, except 'to wolf' has come to mean 'to devour voraciously' and a wolf 'a cruelly rapacious person.' [dictionary.com].

So, if there was a false etymology it might have been aided by the associations people brought to it by comparing it to a wolf. If wolves were thought of in terms of their eating habits; people might imagine it as more gluttonous than a wolf in its eating habits because of its smaller size. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.121.247.40 (talk) 07:04, 30 June 2009‎ (UTC)

The translator from Russian to English of Dersu Uzala, Vladimir Arsenyev’s 1923 memoir of travel in the far east, uses “glutton”, bringing me here to figure out what animal he is referring to.

Dersu Uzala (Russian: Дерсу Узала; alternate U.S. titles: With Dersu the Hunter and Dersu the Trapper)

Author V. K. Arseniev Language English Subject Travelogue Publisher McPherson Publication date October 1996 Publication place United States ISBN 978-0-929701-49-3

Question

description by chantell october 6:38 2009 wolverines are very rair speche they have very sharp claws there discription is they have not to long but long claws they are in a group and in a family of mustelidae.wolverines are from anamali these wolverines are very hard and very rair to find.these wolverines can kill humen speche.I barely know about wolverines somewolverines are very smart.I dont know my question is do wolverines travel? do wolverines live or like the cold? orhot?.please who ever would like to take the time and effort to answer all my questions please and thankyou i would like my answer by tommorrow. but you probabaly cant right answers anywere so you can erase all of mine and right a reply of an answe rplease znd thankyou for your time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.164.215.85 (talk) 01:50, 19 October 2009‎ (UTC)

Kleptoparasitism to a bear by a wolverine.

In a book published in 1959 known as "Demon of the North" (originally "Tupu-tupu-tupu", by Peter Krott, but renamed in the translation from original German), there is mention of an incident in which a wolverine drove a bear away from its kill (a moose calf).

And given that the events described in the book take place in Scandinavia, one can assume they are referring to a brown bear.

Although the bear, being so busy killing the moose calf, was kicked by the mother moose until she gave up, as she tried to save her calf.

The wolverine, an well indentified wild large male named Paul, attacked the bear’s nose, taking advantage of the bear’s slow, stiff and pained movements as it tried to defend its kill, causing it to retreat.

https://archive.org/details/demonofnorth0000krot/mode/1up

(See the preface and pages 3, 12, 150–153).

As the book’s title might cause some to doubt its veracity, here are some reviews of the book from academic sites. So you can see that this information is reliable.

https://doi.org/10.1038/183354b0

https://doi.org/10.2307/1376595 LeandroPucha (talk) 22:07, 27 May 2026 (UTC)

Protection was a good idea

Let's face it: in this case protection is good. Otherwise this page would face constant spam threats, whether it be from X-Men fans, people making references to "Red Dawn" or even people who are part of the whole Michigan/Ohio State feud (#GoBlue). ~2026-32212-63 (talk) 14:00, 16 June 2026 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 17 October 2026

Suggest link to the 'Local Extinction' page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_extinction) at the first mention of 'extirpate' (Distribution section, second para). (A Wikipedia search for extirpation redirects here) SidMac73 (talk) 12:09, 17 October 2026 (UTC)

 Done Day Creature (talk) 16:39, 17 October 2026 (UTC)