The North American wolverine received protection from the federal government Wednesday, with conservation efforts to protect the threatened species under the Endangered Species Act coming as a result of climate change, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced.
“Current and increasing impacts of climate change and associated habitat degradation and fragmentation are imperiling the North American wolverine,” Pacific Regional Director Hugh Morrison said in a statement from the wildlife service. “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.”
The wildlife service updated its 2018 species status assessment for the species in September 2023, the statement said. The assessment evaluated updated information related to climate change, “habitat connectivity, trapping, snow, population density, and impacts on genetic diversity, as well as considered changes in regulatory mechanisms and conservation measures.”
In 2013, the Wildlife Service proposed listing North American wolverines as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but seven years later it was determined to be unwarranted, the statement read. The District Court of Montana allowed for this decision to be vacated and for the species to be reconsidered for federal protection.
North American wolverines are medium-sized carnivores found within the Northern Rocky Mountains and North Cascade Mountains in alpine regions and boreal forests in the contiguous United States, and tundra of Alaska and Canada.
Wolverines were once found across much of the United States, including in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New York, North and South Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin,and Wyoming, according to PBS. Hunting and habitat loss both contributed to the species’ population decline.
In recent years, wolverines have been spotted in parts of the country where they are not commonly found. One was seen in California’s Yosemite National Park and two were found in the Golden State’s Inyo National Forest, CNN reported in June 2023. These appearances marked the second time the animals were seen in California in a century.
The fate of the wolverines in New England is a different story. According to the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, wolverines are listed as extirpated, or extinct, from the state. The agency noted that there was one record of one seen in Western Massachusetts before 1835.
