my new favorite animal

Well...it's really been in my top 5 animals for some time now. But after reading this great article in the NY Times, I have to say that the wolverine has a comfortable lead over cougars and blue whales.



Now I know you thought I was going to say ermine.



Don't get me wrong...I love ermines. Ever since I saw one with my brother this winter in Utah at 10,000 feet I have been obsessed. Unfortunately, both wolverines and ermines are in the weasel family and they both inhabit the western mountains. So I can't even make them my favorite animal in some subclass of favorite animals. Of course the wolverine's range has been shrinking over the last 70 or so years, there are none in Utah anymore, so I suppose the ermine could be my favorite Utah animal. Ok.

I mean, wolverines are just so fucking cool. They are so cool looking and they are bad asses to boot. Their home ranges are like 500 square miles, the same size as grizzly bears, but they are like 1/25 the size of a grizzly...at least. I saw an old lassie episode once where lassie got all tangled up with a wolverine and that wolverine fucked lassie up.

Badgers are cool too.