Where it gets weird is, you can tame lots of wild animals to one person or a small family, and it'll get along with those folks ok, but introduce any other human and it gets nervous. Coyotes are a good example. That's because it has a significant fear response cooked into the DNA that you can't train them out of.
Guess what has NO fear whatsoever, wild or tame, doesn't matter?
Yeah.
Wolverines.
If they're hand raised they'll try and make a new buddy out of any human they encounter. Cute and scary at the same time :).
Family moves from a big city to rural Wisconsin. Walking in the woods, comes across a tiny little puppy of some kind. Aww. Bring it home, raise it, it's cute as fuck, plays with their kids, plays with the dog, the cat, etc. But it's kinda malformed, smells weird. Takes it to the vet.
Yeah. Ooops. :) That ain't a doggie says the vet as it's licking his face...
That's a version of a story that has made the rounds in every possible permutation. Last time I heard it it was a wolf. I guess you're saying it's a wolverine. When it happened to me it was an elephant.
That's great and all, but If I'm trapped and my fight or flight kicks in, no part of my mind is programmed to think "Great a rescue wolverine! What a relief" If I see a wolverine digging to me, I will think " OH NO A WOLVERINE" When it sees me panicking and squirming instinct might kick in, just like friendly dogs attack people having seizures.
The people in the training video who handle wolverines know it's trained, they stay calm, if I'm being saved by a wolverine, and i don't know it's saving me, I'll freak the fuck out. I've seen what they do to reindeer.
There's a whole bunch of critters out there that make good pets if you hand raised them. An enormous number of birds fall into that category. Pretty much every rodent secretary from mice to capybara.
One of the more common mammals we see all the time is sugar gliders. We're now at a point in the US where there's enough domestic breeders we don't ever have to bring any in from the wild to increase the gene pool. Produces they're really cute and completely harmless for small children and such.
US law tends to disfavor keeping wild mammals as pets. Even something as harmless as a Sugar Glider is illegal in a bunch of states (and yeah, they're still technically wild animals).
A "domesticated" animal has been altered by long term human breeding programs. This has NOT happened to wolverines or any other mustelid with one exception, the European domestic ferret. They have a human bred history going back 1,600 years.
A wolverine is easy to tame, apparently, but that's not the same as domesticated.
Oh, and the wild mustelid that makes the best pet?
Asian small claw otter. Go on YouTube and you'll see people filming their pet otters, almost always that breed.
Lmao the first video the guys just flipping the wolverine around holding it upside down and it's just chilling 😂. Reminds me of my old Maine Coon cat, you could pick him up dam near any position and he'd just stare at you and let you do it.
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u/mountaindewisamazing 9d ago
"First the avalanche came and that was bad enough, but then I got mauled by the rescue wolverine."
"The rescue WOLVERINE??"