Wolverines Threatened With Extinction , Receive Federal Protection.
On November 29, the Biden administration
released a proposal to give the North American
wolverine long-delayed federal protections.
ABC News reports that the proposal comes following warnings by scientists that climate change is likely
to destroy the rare species' snowy mountain habitat.
By the early 1900s, wolverines had been mostly
wiped out across the U.S. as a result of
unregulated hunting and poisoning campaigns.
An estimated 300 surviving wolverines continue
to live in the contiguous U.S. in isolated groups at
high elevations in the northern Rocky Mountains.
Increasing temperatures are expected
to reduce the mountain snowpack, which
wolverines rely on to birth and raise their cubs.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to protect
wolverines comes after over two decades of debate
regarding threats to the species' long-term survival.
According to officials, the new protections are , “due primarily to the ongoing and increasing
impacts of climate change and associated
habitat degradation and fragmentation.”.
ABC reports that wolverines, which resemble
small bears, are the world's largest
species of terrestrial weasels.
A 2020 lawsuit against the Fish and Wildlife Service claimed
that wolverines face extinction due to a combination of
climate change, habitat loss and low genetic diversity. .
Scientists have suggested that some of the species'
losses could be offset if wolverines are allowed to
recolonize in areas like California's Sierra Nevada