Wolverine!

I had gotten back out of the tent to look for some dropped glasses and then stayed up a little longer bit to clip some nails before retiring for the night. Meaningless details other than they kept me awake just long enough to hear something approaching along the gravel and grass of the beach where we were camped. So I was looking out the front, tunnel-like vestibule of the tent when this animal comes into view about five feet from the tent and looks right in at me. After a few seconds my excuse for a brain registers what it is. While it is staring in at me, and me out at it, I am reaching behind me, shaking Marilyn who is already asleep and saying in a shouted whisper "Marilyn, MARILYN, it's a WOLVERINE!" over and over until she finally regains consciousness and stares out at it as well, confirming what otherwise might have been considered a hallucination. We have seen a wolverine twice previously, both times on different trips above the Arctic Circle and at a considerably greater distance. It is a very rare, beautiful and secretive animal and I never expected to see one in Prince William Sound. I was able to get my camera out, step out of the tent (it had already moved along a few feet) and start to film it as it walked near our tent, kayak and tarp, rolling around, eating and scent-marking. It ultimately continued along the beach, away from our tent and finally back into the forest behind the beach. It is incredibly fortunate to even see a wolverine at all let alone so close, and for so long. They have an undeserved bad reputation. This one obviously meant no harm, going about his own business even though all our food was at one point only a few feet away, bagged up on the ground. This clip is unedited. And I am still amazed.