
Wolverines: The Future of Search and Rescue - curtis
http://www.outsideonline.com/2067281/wolverines-future-search-and-rescue
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ioddly
There was a Soviet study back in the day that domesticated wild foxes in just
a few generations. While the article talks about training them in captivity, a
few generations of selection for human-friendliness might do an even better
job of ensuring they don't injure their handlers or avalanche victims.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Domesticated_Red_Fox](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Domesticated_Red_Fox)

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micro_cam
Wolverine's are awesome and I have no doubt they could be be trained for this.

However I'm not sure it makes any sort of economic sense due to the
difficulties in breeding and keeping wolverines and the need for avalanche
rescues to happen extremely quickly.

Statistics show that avalanche rescue needs to happen in less then 10-15
minutes for a victim to have a good chance of survival. Backcountry skiers
wear radio transceivers so their partners can respond instantly for this
reason.

Big ski areas will have a few trained dogs who hang out in ski patrol shacks
at the top of runs so they can be deployed quickly in the event of a rare
inbounds slide that traps people not wearing beacons.

Any backcountry skier who takes risk and safety seriously will tell you that
dogs, and even beacons are really just for body recovery though and avoidance
is key.

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sandworm101
The dogs are the product a thousand generations of selective breeding. Both a
labrador and a wolverine could kill me, but I wouldn't want to be stuck in a
gondola with the later.

> even beacons are really just for body recovery though and avoidance is key.

In my day (more than a decade ago) there was much debate about the beacons
giving people too much confidence, that they caused more accidents than they
saved lives. I always used them, but understood why some disliked their
effects. I shutter to think what would happen should someone develop a
smartphone app to 'replace' traditional radio beacons.

Imho the real dangers came from speed. Snow machines and helicopters moved
people through terrain without them spending the time to know the snow. When
you spend most of the day walking up a hill you have a better appreciation for
what is happening under your feet.

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koverstreet
A lab, kill a person? An adult?

If you've ever had large dogs, and played with them - they're really not
remotely formidable opponents. Anything but maybe the largest breeds bred for
fighting doesn't stand a chance against a person who's wrestling/grappling
them, they're not flexible or muscled in the right ways.

A wolverine though? I've never interacted with one, but I do know what ferrets
are like - small, terrifying balls of pure muscle that can bend and twist
every which way and are unbelievably fast. That's scary enough in a ferret
size package, but a wolverine? Oh HELL no.

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sandworm101
My lab-bernese cross is 80lbs. She's a big puppy, but her arms are as long as
mine. If she was so inclined, she has the teeth to tear my throat out. We
forget how powerful a dog can be because that part of them hides behind the
breeding. We have both evolved to not be afraid of each other.

I once read an old army survival manual that mentioned fighting guard or
search dogs. If one dog, attack from low upwards. Go for the soft parts of the
throat, rather than raining blows from above. But if facing two dogs, run.

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koverstreet
You must have play fought with your dog from time to time though, right? You
certainly have an idea of your relative strengths. How does it usually go?

I've had dogs and had experience with many more, often playing very rough with
them, and I've had to break up fights between dogs which generally meant me
being directly in the middle. A dog is remarkably easy to pin and subdue such
that they are completely at your mercy and those teeth can't do one bit of
good.

Yes, if it's a dog that actually wishes you harm you're going to get chewed up
in the process, but still - worst case, as long as you keep your head you can
end the fight with at worst a chewed up arm.

Btw, I completely agree with what the survival manual says, including if
there's two dogs.

I maintain that a wolverine that actually wanted to kill you would be a
completely different story. WTF would you do? I have no idea. How would you
fight an animal that's been known to kill bears? Dogs (singly) don't fight
bears and win, ever. Wolverines do.

Which would you rather fight?

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todd8
I just found a beautiful red fox in my front yard. It was stretched out as if
sleeping on the grass: dead and probably hit by a car, sad.

It really was a lovely animal except for one thing, in comparison to a similar
sized dog its mouth was full of sharp teeth and the muzzle gave the impression
of being more feral. I think a live wolverine's mouth would be even scarier.
Maybe a muzzle with a red-cross on it over the wolverine's mouth would make it
less terrifying to a trapped victim.

Dogs have teeth smaller than similar wild canine species. The suggestion is
that there has been (human driven) selective evolutionary pressure during the
20,000 years or so of dogs domestication to make them more compatible with
life around humans. [1]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_domestic_dog](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_the_domestic_dog)

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KyleBrandt
The linked video in the article isn't very impressive from a scientific point
of view (i.e. it could smell the owner doing the burying etc).

But it is super cute!
[https://youtu.be/nNgv3opJqoQ](https://youtu.be/nNgv3opJqoQ)

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YeGoblynQueenne
Very interesting, but one more snag might be the way people will tend to react
to a wolverine snout suddendly erupting through the pile of snow trapping them
(like in the video). Personally, if I was ever trapped and any wild animal
came near me I'm pretty sure I'd scream my lungs out and kick with all the
strength left to me. Trained wolverines will have to be marked very, very
clearly to avoid this sort of reaction.

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Qantourisc
Looked at some pictures, they don't look that much scarier then a dog. I would
probably like YES I am free, with a CRAP what is that ?!?

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andrewl
They're fascinating animals. They are also apparently one of the most
aggressive animals in the world, and pound for pound the most formidable. I'd
be much more scared of a wolverine than any dog. Besides the teeth, with which
they can crush bones like a hyena, they also have huge claws. They're worth
reading about (and avoiding fights with).

