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By Douglas Richardson, Head of Living Collections, RZSS Highland Wildlife Park
Recently we issued a press release with pictures of a proud wolverine mum and her two quite substantial offspring. Some would have noted that the kits were almost half the size of their mother, so somewhat more grown-up than other carnivore offspring have been when we release the news to the world. The kits had been born some considerable time before we first spotted them, but our policy of “assume a potential birth and don’t disturb mum” meant that we were basically unaware of what had transpired until the family was spotted at the entrance to one of the burrow systems.
In March 2015, following the death of the old female wolverine, we were allocated a new, young female who had been born at Boras Zoo in Sweden. She arrived and was eventually introduced to our resident male and mating was noted at various times during the summer. The female is actually quite young and given that there was only two females of a similar age that gave birth in their second year in the whole historical data-set of the wolverine breeding programme, we were not overly hopeful. But as there was a small chance, we opted to separate her from the adult male in mid-January of this year. Tina was given sole access to the large enclosure which had a number of natural and artificial cubbing burrows, and Xale was separated into the smaller enclosure, just in case he disturbed Tina. All carnivores need a secluded birthing den and no disturbance from keepers to ensure that they rear their offspring, and so we took all the usual precautions.
Tina was usually a pretty active individual but by the beginning of February she was becoming more and more of a recluse, sometimes not being seen for two to three days at a time. This secretive behaviour continued and as the primary birth month for wolverines is February, we just kept out of the way and left her in peace.
By early April we decided that it was time to have a proper look into the various dens within the wolverine enclosure to see if there were any extra furry bundles. Although wolverines have a fearsome reputation, it is generally undeserved and as long as you do not corner one, they are relatively safe to work around. We had picked a specific day to check the enclosure, but pressure of other duties caused us to delay going in until the following week, but later that morning I was called on the radio to come up to the wolverine enclosure; a kit had been spotted exploring the area of a juniper bush.
To most people, the breeding of tiger cubs or wolf pups would be a cause for celebration, which of course it is. But for the staff of RZSS Highland Wildlife Park, breeding the wolverines represents a significant success with a species that is more complex to manage. We are only the second zoo in the UK to breed wolverines and Tina is only the third female ever to produce and rear young at two years old. A proper result.
This piece was first published in the Strathspey & Badenoch Herald