Would you walk the distance from Vancouver to Maple Ridge in one day for dinner? A wolverine would.

It seems hard to believe, but at 30 cm tall and 90 cm long, this largest member of the weasel family will travel up to 45 km in a single day - at a sustained speed of 15 km/hr - for food and other necessities. In fact, wolverines need undisturbed areas of at least 500 square kilometres to survive, and protected areas such as our provincial parks are one of few places that can provide enough habitat for the wolverine to survive.

There was a time when you could find wolverines all across the tundra, forests, and open plains of North America. They ranged from Alaska, through Canada, and south to California, Colorado, Indiana and Pennsylvania. Now, due to habitat loss and climate change, these fierce and solitary creatures have disappeared from much of this area. In fact, there are very few undisturbed areas left in B.C. that are large enough to support a wolverine's survival and that have spring denning sites with deep enough snow.

B.C. is fortunate to have a number of parks large enough to sustain a wolverine, including: Tweedsmuir North and South, Wells Gray - Cariboo Mountains - Bowron Lakes, Spatsizi - Edziza, Garibaldi - Pinecone Burke - Golden Ears, E.C. Manning - Skagit Valley and the Purcell Wilderness and St. Mary's Alpine. Elusive and powerful, wolverines are unique creatures that rely on our park system to provide them with the space they need to thrive.

British Columbia's provincial park system celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2011. A century ago, B.C. created its first provincial park - Strathcona. Today B.C. has more than 1,000 parks and protected areas. Currently, 13.6 per cent of the province is protected - more than any other province in Canada.

Why it matters:

Wolverines are one of B.C.'s treasures. While our provincial parks are great places for people to go and visit, they also serve the important role of providing habitat and protection for our wildlife.

Quick Facts:

• Wolverines are solitary animals, recognized by their thick dark brown coats and marked with a lateral stripe running from shoulder to rump and continuing down to the tail.
• Mostly nocturnal, wolverines have poor eyesight but a keen sense of smell, and can bring down prey five times their size.
• Wolverines are good climbers and excellent swimmers.
• The wolverine is known to chase wolves and bears from its food.
• Wolverines appear to require deep snow for their denning sites.

Learn More:

The BC Parks website has all the info you need to plan a visit to a B.C. park: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/things_to_do.html

The BC Parks 100 events calendar has details of centennial celebrations happening in parks all over B.C. The calendar is frequently updated, so check back often: http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/bcparks/events/calendar/#eventList

Media Contact:

Suntanu Dalal
Media Relations, Ministry of Environment
250 387-9745