As every Coloradan should be aware of, wolves were reintroduced to the state in December of 2023 and they’ve been making headlines ever since. Less discussed is the impending wolverine reintroduction, which will mean adding another long-gone predator species to the state’s landscape within a relatively short timespan assuming plans come to fruition.

While both the wolf and the wolverine had breeding populations in the Centennial State into the early 1900s, it’s been many decades since both species have interacted in Colorado, begging the question: what will happen when these two species meet?

An academic piece featured in a publication called Ecology and Evolution in 2023 takes a look at this specific scenario, seeking to address a subject that authors described as understudied in North America.

Research found that wolves and wolverines tend to occupy a similar habitat, also seeking out similar food sources. In a sense, this pits them against each other in the fight to survive and means that – despite each species’ elusiveness and low population density – interactions may occur.

While a brazen wolverine might be able to fight off a lone wolf, that’s less likely to be the outcome should a wolverine encounter a pack. The paper took a look at three instances that a pack-encounter occurred over the course of 13 months, each of which resulted in the wolverine’s demise.

The key takeaway from the research, however, wasn’t that wolves killed the wolverine – after all, wolves tend to be opportunistic hunters with a palate for a wide range of prey. Instead, the takeaway was that in each case where the wolves killed the wolverine, the apex predators opted not to consume the wolverine’s carcass.

According to researchers, this likely means that the killings were the result of “defense of a food resource, territoriality, interspecific competitive killing, or some combination of those behaviors.” After all, wolves don’t generally kill for sport with even ‘surplus killings’ – wolves killing more animals that can be consumed – tends to be unusual behavior.

So, there you have it – if a wolf pack encounters a wolverine on Colorado’s landscape and the wolverine is unable to escape (keep in mind that wolverines are really good a climbing trees), there’s a good chance the wolverine will be killed and left to rot.

Find the full research paper here.

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