Wolverine Winter — Finnish Taiga Territory Mark
234.40 £
A wolverine in its winter territory in northern Finland — the snow-adapted mustelid crossing a frozen lake in the characteristic loping gait, its wide footpad prints visible in the fresh snow trail behind, the boreal forest horizon ahead.
Description
The wolverine — the largest terrestrial mustelid and the carnivore most difficult to photograph in its natural behaviour — is a phantom of the boreal forest and sub-Arctic tundra, covering 40-kilometre daily distances across territories of up to 1,500 square kilometres. Successful field photography without camera traps is achieved only through the intensive work of tracking teams in the Finnish Lapland winter, following wolverine tracks and predicting movement patterns. This image was made from a snow-mobile-towed sled camera platform, following a tracked wolverine at 200 metres as it crossed a frozen lake in its territory. The loping gait — the wolverine’s characteristic bounding run with both front feet striking simultaneously — is frozen in the image, the animal in the extension phase with all four feet off the ground. The wolverine’s characteristic broad, round face, dark coat, and pale facial stripe are visible at 400mm from the following distance.
