By Steve Carmody, Michigan Public Radio Network
LANSING, MI –
State biologists say Michigan's only known wild wolverine apparently died of
natural causes.
The body of the 28-pound female wolverine was found in March along a trail in
Michigan's Thumb.
Tom Cooley is a state wildlife biologist. He says the 9-year old wolverine's heart and liver showed signs of decline.
"What the wolverine basically died from was a General cardio miopry," he explains. The term for it is just congestive heart failure is what it amounted to."
State wildlife officials have been tracking the wolverine for the past few years. The animal's origins remain a mystery. It's the first documented wolverine in Michigan in two centuries.