Jay Harbaugh sent out tweet, RE: Live Wolverine
Jay Harbaugh sent out a tweet last night asking if it was legal to own a Wolverine?
Although a deadly animal, I have always thought it would be kind of cool to have a Wolverine at the U of M. Of course in captivity in a nice posh zoo like dwelling, but this would be very cool.
Apparently back in the 20's and I have not verified this U of M did have one on the sidelines caged, but it was so ferocious they never done it again.
What do you think? Would this be something that would ever be possible or totally nuts?
I wasjust trying to lighten the blog a little with all that has happened with the disappointment from the Frat's.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:01 AM ^
Glad to see Jay embracing his new environment. I like what have seen so far from him.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:03 AM ^
Try this at home Jay:
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:08 AM ^
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January 23rd, 2015 at 9:11 AM ^
IIRC they're not an endangered species, and are in fact listed as "least concern".
You'd probably have to raise it from birth though to have any shot of it not ripping your face off.
Fuck it, let's get one.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:20 AM ^
He was embracing Michigan and just his curiosity on whether it was legal to own a Wolverine, I gave him props for that.
He did eventually embed a photo of a small Wolverine with a Michigan Scarf on it (baby wolverine of course) I don't know how to embed the tweets or I would have.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:22 AM ^
I think it was a ferret.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:40 AM ^
I believe also called it Wolverine and the colors were fabulous in the photo.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:49 AM ^
Michigan wouldn't be the only one that would have a live dangerous animal living on campus. Baylor has a live bear exhibit in the heart if their campus. They actually used to have students take the bears for walks accross campus.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:11 AM ^
are we going to start a thread every time one of our coaches tweets now?
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:33 AM ^
They are a little interesting. Such as wanting to know if it is legal to own a baby Wolverine? That just happen to come from one of our coaches.
Are you implying that a Wolverine has nothing to do with Michigan and/or Michigan Football? It's not like I relayed a tweet of what they had for breakfast or where they might currently be on their recruiting trip.
I wanted to lighten the mood on mgoblog a little today.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:33 AM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:13 AM ^
I like Jay's enthusiasm, but having a caged wolverine misses the point. Our mascot is a wild, elusive, ferocious animal, which is why we dont have one in person. Not having one in person is part of what it is - part of being a wolverine is its wild nature. To have one in person - whether actual beast or kitschy verisimilitude - would violate its meaning as a mascot.
I know we had one before, but this is my take on its manifestation now.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:23 AM ^
Read a book called "The Wolverine Way" by Douglass H. Chadwick, who was part of a research team monitoring wolverines in Glacier National Park. He describes how the wolverine is the ultimate wild and natural "badass". From his experience with how much they travel and how they interact, it would seem to be unfair to have a wolverine in captivity.
I get a kick out of that video showing a 35 lb. wolverine defending a carcass against a grizzly bear. Makes me that much more happy to be a Wolverine.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:32 AM ^
A great book - recommend it to anyone wanting to learn more about the wolverine.
January 23rd, 2015 at 10:28 AM ^
He also worked on the PBS documentary Wolverine: Chasing the Phantom.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:20 AM ^
I've always thought it would be cool to design a school logo with a group of militiamen circa Toledo War, since that's the probable origin of the name.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:21 AM ^
We could just bring back Willy.
[Ducks]
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:34 AM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:37 AM ^
Dave brandon is touching himself.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:39 AM ^
the founders of Groupon and billionares now? I recall reading that somehwere.
Any way I recall this thing when I was on campus and I hated it. Wasn't sure at the time how thye got away with it witho ut university permission.
January 23rd, 2015 at 10:56 AM ^
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January 23rd, 2015 at 9:31 AM ^
Maybe we could get one on loan for one game to see how it goes!
The best time to visit them at the zoo is in the winter.
I took one of my sons and some of his classmates to the zoo when he was in grade school. There was a front end loader adjacent to their area and it spooked them. One flew up a 50' tree in a couple of seconds. Impressive to say the least.
They live in glacial environments, so they are most active in the winter. I believe they are still an endangered species, so ownership would be unlikely. BO had a wolverine pelt on his wall in his basement. And he had to get a special permit in order to have it. I knew a coworker who attended Bo's garage sale after his death. He said the pelt was being sold for $250. I told my coworker he was nuts not to buy it.
Any time I have seen them in the summer, they are always sleeping in their cool den.
As I recall a couple of years ago just before the OSU game the zookeepers concealed their food in an OSU colored box and they filmed them ripping it apart.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:46 AM ^
They are active ALL THE TIME, even when you'd least expect it; however first thing when the zoo opens is one of the best times.
The staff work really hard to enrich the animals as much as possible, and compared to many other zoos, these animals are doing really well.
While their current enclosure is relatively small (though hardly a cage) I believe they are scheduled to take over the westernmost bear space soon, which would triple their current habitat!
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:32 PM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 1:38 PM ^
the ref he is reporting in as an inelligible receiver.
January 23rd, 2015 at 10:16 AM ^
I was there in the spring and those things are quick. They just kept running around and would never sit still. It was tough to get a good photo of them.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:34 AM ^
my entire life! How cool would that be??? Texas has the live longhorn, Airforce has the falcon, Navy the goat, etc. Hunter Thompson had TWO live pet wolverines, so it can be done if they are raised from birth in captivity. I like Jay's thinking!
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:48 AM ^
Hunter Thompson HAD two live pet wolverines. What happened to them?
January 23rd, 2015 at 10:51 AM ^
if that's what you're thinking. Thompson killed himself, and I've never heard of what happened to the wolverines. I assume they continued to be family pets with his survivors.
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:21 PM ^
My thought was did he release them back into the wild or donate them to a zoo! Why on earth would your thought be did he eat them?
The Wolverine is a beautiful animal and yes very ferocious. From everything I have learned of the Wolverine in the wild they do not have a known predator and will attack animals more than twice their size and have been known to go after a bear. The Wolverine is a magnificent animal.
When I stated that it would be cool in Ann Arbor to have a nice posh exhibit for the Wolverine, I was not thinking a cage on the sideline. The thought process was more of something that a zoo offers only better, much better from some of the zoos I have seen the animals in.
January 23rd, 2015 at 12:27 PM ^
That's what the wolverines want you to believe.
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:48 AM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:53 AM ^
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January 23rd, 2015 at 10:14 AM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 9:54 AM ^
There was a guy out West somewhere who found a baby Wolverine and decided to raise it. He would take it out on a leash and teach it what to eat. Halfway into the program I lost my cable signal and dont know what happened. This sums up my existence.
January 23rd, 2015 at 1:40 PM ^
when your neighbor doesn't pay his cable bill.
January 23rd, 2015 at 10:03 AM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 10:14 AM ^
January 23rd, 2015 at 11:27 AM ^
Way cool. You'll like what Doug Chadwick says at 29:00 to 29:17.
January 23rd, 2015 at 10:35 AM ^
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January 23rd, 2015 at 11:03 AM ^
Even if you had a good seat at the big house in the late 1920's, without a screen scoreboard, I doubt anyone would be able to make out what was in that cage. I can't imagine the crowd getting too excited over something they couldn't see but maybe I'm wrong.
ETA: Go to 45 seconds in this video and you can see classic early 90's graphics of a wolverine taking a bite out of the Big Ten conference logo....
January 23rd, 2015 at 11:08 AM ^
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January 23rd, 2015 at 11:11 AM ^
Whenever I see footage (like your link) of M football from 1992-1996 I always look for my friend the late great Steve King #27. You wouldn't happen to have any footage of him specifically that comes to mind do you?
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January 23rd, 2015 at 11:34 AM ^
I looked up his stats and there isn't a ton to work with, or at least ones I could find quickly. 85 tackles. 2 inteceptions, one against NC State and one against Boston College.
If you go to my channel and pm me your email address, I can send some plays to you some time this weekend.
January 23rd, 2015 at 11:05 AM ^
"The plan was for the wolverines to be walked around on leashes. And when Michigan faced Navy that November, the wolverines were going to meet Navy’s mascot, a live goat, at midfield. But Biff and Bennie proved too vicious for any of that. The live wolverines were a disaster. When Biff was first placed into his cage a week before the game, he snapped a bar in two with his teeth. Said Yost of the wolverine experiment, which ended after that first season: “It was obvious that the Michigan mascots had designs on the Michigan men toting them, and those designs were by no means friendly.”
http://michigantoday.umich.edu/a8003/
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January 23rd, 2015 at 11:13 AM ^
A joke at our own expense, but it's too obvious not to say and you have to be able to laugh at yourself once in a while.
Is it legal to own Wolverines? Ask the football team in Columbus, they've been doing it for a decade.