Wolverines use extensive scent marking to communicate across vast territories. Understanding their social behavior informs welfare assessments for both captive and wild individuals.
Wolverines in captivity frequently develop stereotypic behavior reflecting inability to express territorial ranging drives. The use of scent in communication is suppressed in clean zoo enclosures where marking opportunities are limited. Dispersing young wolverines entering unfamiliar human-modified landscapes face high mortality from roads and human persecution. The behavioral complexity of wolverine territorial and caching behavior suggests cognitive sophistication that increases the welfare significance of environmental impoverishment. Zoo wolverine welfare has improved as evidence of their behavioral needs has accumulated, but providing adequate scent enrichment and complex foraging challenges remains difficult in typical zoo facilities.