The wolverine is the biggest member of the weasel family. Even though it’s not very tall and weighs around 40 pounds at most, it’s known for being incredibly strong and fierce. It’s also known for being very hard to find. Spotting a wolverine is extremely rare. On March 5, 2022, MacNeil Lyons, who owns a tour company called Yellowstone Insight, was guiding a father and his daughter, Carl and Maya Kemp, through snowy Yellowstone National Park. During their trip, they came across a wolverine, a creature that is usually difficult to see, and managed to take a video of it.
At first, the group thought the fluffy animal on the road might be a young bear, but they soon realized it was actually a wolverine based on its movement and long fluffy tail. MacNeil Lyons, who used to be a park ranger, quickly took out his camera, while Carl Kemp recorded the encounter on his phone. A video on Kemp’s YouTube channel shows the wolverine moving back and forth, even sitting down in the snow as if observing the humans from a distance. Once the wolverine left the road, Lyons found a better spot to take more amazing pictures of the unusual creature. Maya, who is 9 years old, told KTVQ, “It was really special to see. My dad said it was like finding a unicorn in Yellowstone. It was unbelievable.”
During Lyon’s 22 years of exploring the park, he has only spotted a wolverine one other time. Wolverines have a wide roaming range, traveling long distances by themselves and favoring forests in elevated areas. It is believed that there are only six or seven wolverines in the entire 2.2 million acres of the park. These creatures can also be found in Scandinavia, Russia, Canada, and the United States, and they are notoriously difficult to observe and study. If you ever happen to be lucky enough to see one, it’s important not to approach them. Despite their smaller size, wolverines are capable of killing moose, elk, and lynxes. Lyon mentioned, “This was a unique and probably the only time I will ever have such an encounter.”
Tour guide MacNeil Lyons, along with father and daughter Carl and Maya Kemp, had the incredible opportunity to witness something extremely rare and hard to find in Yellowstone National Park—a wild wolverine.
The wolverine is a strong and solitary mammal that belongs to the weasel family. It has powerful muscles.
It is believed that there are only six wolverines living in Yellowstone National Park.