OT: Wolverines, the animal variant, being tasked with saving lives

Submitted by jaydubya on

Apparently, wolverines are more than mere efficient killing machines.  

In Alaska, search and rescue teams are attempting to train wolverines to search for and discover victims of avalanches.  Folks at the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, who traditionally use dogs for such efforts, have found that the far more powerful nose of a wolverine is useful for sniffing out persons covered under several feet of snow and debris.

The article reads, in part:

Wolverines, Miller says, were born to do this; smelling a creature 20 feet below the snow is instinctive for them. They’re known to run along avalanche lines searching for dinner among the animals buried deep in the slide. The squat, bear-like member of the weasel family is famed for powering up difficult terrain that would require professional climbing equipment for humans... “Anything you can train a dog to do, you can train a wolverine to do, five times quicker,” Miller says.

Who knew?

The challenge, of course, is whether wolverines can be trained to discover an avalanche victim without, you know, mauling him to death.

http://www.outsideonline.com/2067281/wolverines-future-search-and-rescue?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=tweet

PopeLando

April 11th, 2016 at 1:01 PM ^

I remember the last time this was posted.

IIRC, the consensus was that being rescued by a wolverine is a terrifying prospect. "Oh thank God, I'm sav---oh shit oh shit oh shit no no no."