Wolverine: One Tough Mother

FOR TERRA MATER & SMITHSONIAN NETWORK

An immersive look into the life of one of the world’s most fabled and iconic species. Set in the wild forests of ‘No-man’s-land.’

Glamorised by Hollywood and villainised by ancestral folklore, the wolverine is both a fabled icon of the Northern Hemisphere and a modern-day superhero.

Our heroine of this story, Freya, is a 3-year-old female wolverine – shy and elusive and rarely caught on camera, she inhabits a mysterious and unforgiving world – deep in the rugged wilderness between Russia and Finland. Freya thrives in ‘No-man’s land’ – so named for good reason; it’s a remote and remorseless habitat; no man could survive here.

In this unique and intimate blue-chip natural history documentary, we show how Freya is built for this landscape, armed with special adaptations that maximise her survival success; weatherproof fur, ‘snowshoe’ paws, specialised teeth and claws that carve through ice, agility, stamina and most importantly the grit and tenacity that is characteristic of wolverines – both young and mature.