US Lists Wolverine As Threatened Species Due To Climate Change

The North American wolverine was granted protection as a threatened species in the United States, based on concerns that the species’ snowy habitat is endangered by climate change.

This decision overturns a previous determination in 2020, which had deemed the classification unnecessary. In 2022, a federal court ruling in Montana mandated the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to reconsider their stance.

On Wednesday, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the wolverine, the largest land-dwelling species of the Mustelidae family, is now classified as a threatened species in the contiguous United States. The Service cited climate change as the main reason for this decision, as the rising temperatures are fragmenting the species’ snowy habitat.

“Current and increasing impacts of climate change and associated habitat degradation and fragmentation are imperiling the North American wolverine,” said Pacific Regional Director Hugh Morrison. “Based on the best available science, this listing determination will help to stem the long-term impact and enhance the viability of wolverines in the contiguous United States.”

Approximately 300 of these creatures inhabit the high regions of Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, and Washington state. In the past, robust populations of wolverines roamed vast areas of the northern Cascades, the Rocky Mountains, and the Sierra Nevada. The situation is different in Alaska and Canada, where wolverines number in the thousands.

Long-Awaited Decision

Environmental groups, which initially petitioned for the government to recognize wolverines as a threatened species back in 1994, celebrated Wednesday’s decision.

“This long-awaited decision gives the wolverine a fighting chance at survival,” said Timothy Preso, an Earthjustice attorney who represented conservation groups in the long-running legal campaign to protect the wolverine. “There is now hope for this icon of our remaining wilderness.”

“The science is clear: snowpack-dependent species like the wolverine are facing an increasingly uncertain future under a warming climate,” said Michael Saul, Defenders of Wildlife Rockies and plains program director.

“The protections that come with Endangered Species Act listing increase the chance that our children will continue to share the mountains with these elusive and fascinating carnivores. Now it’s time to support the species’ future by bringing them back to the mountains of Colorado as well.”

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