Female wolverines build dens to give birth and raise their young in. A loping or bounding gait and stiff hairs on the bottom of the feet help the animal to move across the snow. Wolverine fur, which typically doesn't accumulate frost, was once used to trim parka hoods. Wolverines are occasionally able to capture a deer, or chase another predator away from a kill. A wolverine may range over 50 miles a day in search of food.
Females typically select a den site on a rocky mountainside near or above timberline.
They may den in caves, under cliff ledges, in hollow logs, or under rocks. Females give birth to a litter of from 1-4 kits in late winter. In North America, before European settlement, wolverines were found in a broad range of habitats, over much of the northern continent from the east coast to the west, and south into Arizona, New Mexico, and the midwest. Historically, in California, wolverines were seen from Mt. Shasta in the north, through the Sierra, to the mountains of Tulare County in the south. They were also sighted in the north coast area.