The wolverine’s future looks just a little bit brighter today.
As winter snow started to fall across the country yesterday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that the imperiled wolverine deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act. Hopefully that will happen sooner, rather than later, as the wolverine may not have much time.
There are only an estimated 250 to 300 wolverines in the wild in the lower 48 scattered across remote alpine habitats in the Rocky Mountains and Northwest. The species is highly dependent on snowpack that persists into spring, which provides much-needed cover for their young that spend the first few months of life in a secure den up to 8-feet deep. Heavy snow also gives the wolverine a competitive advantage over rivals during long winter months when food is scarce.
Importantly, the Service’s finding acknowledges that global warming poses a serious threat to the species’ survival. Like the polar bear, wolverines are finding fewer and fewer places to call home as seasons get shorter and snowpack diminishes–the large, snowy areas that wolverines need are getting smaller and more isolated from each other.
Unfortunately, the Service also deferred any immediate action until higher priority species are adequately protected. The wolverine was given a priority number of six (on a scale of 1 to 12), putting it half-way down the list of 250-some candidate species already awaiting protection.
While the decision is a landmark achievement and a reversal of the Service’s prior determination that protections were not warranted, the wolverine’s future may still be in jeopardy. Defenders was instrumental in getting the Service to revisit its decision, and we will continue to work with our colleagues at the Wolverine Network to ensure that Gulo gulo is here to stay.
Read our full statement here.
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