Wolverines threatened with extinction as climate change melts their snowy refuges: US
BILLINGS, Mont. — The North American wolverine will receive long-delayed endangered species protection under a Biden administration proposal released Wednesday in response to scientists’ warnings that climate change is likely to melt away the rare species’ snow-covered mountain refuges, leaving them with will be threatened with extinction.
Wolverines were exterminated in most of the US in the early 20th century due to unregulated trapping and poisoning campaigns. About 300 surviving animals in the contiguous US live in fragmented, isolated groups at high elevations in the northern Rocky Mountains.
Wolverines join a growing number of animals, plants and insects — from polar bears in Alaska to crocodiles in southern Florida — that officials say are at increasing risk as rising temperatures heat the planet, change snowfall patterns and raise sea levels to rise.
In the coming decades, global warming is expected to shrink the number of wolverine species in the mountains, where they dig their dens where they are born and raise their young.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision Wednesday follows more than two decades of disputes over the risks of climate change and threats to the long-term survival of the elusive species. Officials wrote in the proposal that protections under the Endangered Species Act were needed “particularly because of the ongoing and increasing impacts of climate change and associated habitat degradation and fragmentation.”
The animals resemble small bears and are the world’s largest species of land weasels. Also called ‘mountain devils’, they thrive in harsh alpine environments.
Protection measures were rejected under former President Donald Trump. A federal judge ordered President Joe Biden’s 2022 administration to make a final decision this week on whether to apply for protection.
Protecting the wolverines’ remaining habitats gives the animals a fighting chance, says former U.S. Forest Service research biologist Jeffrey Copeland.
Listing wolverines as endangered “means we haven’t paid enough attention to this creature to give it what it needs,” he said.
“It’s a failure. But in situations like this, this is the only tool we have.”
Republican lawmakers in Montana had urged the administration to delay its decision, saying the scientists’ estimates were too inaccurate to make a fair assessment of the dangers facing wolverines. The lawmakers, led by far-right conservative Rep. Matt Rosendale, warned that protections could lead to future restrictions on activities allowed in wolverine habitats, including snowmobiling and skiing.
Rosendale said Wednesday he would seek to revoke the endangered species status for the wolverine as quickly as possible if it is finalized.
“Whether it’s private property, state property or federal property, if we’re limited in the use of that land based on this status, that’s a tall order,” he said. “Is the federal government going to compensate the state for its lack of use? state lands? … I do not think so.’
In September, government scientists admitted there was some uncertainty about how quickly mountain snowpacks might disappear from wolverine areas each spring. They also said that habitat loss due to climate change – coupled with other problems such as increased development, including homes and roads – is likely to harm wolverine populations.
Habitat loss due to climate change and other stressors will likely “affect the viability of wolverines in the contiguous U.S. for the remainder of this century,” they concluded.
Fish and Wildlife Service officials said in documents released Wednesday that they were “not concerned” about the effects of existing developments such as ski areas, since wolverines are likely already avoiding those areas. But winter recreation could hurt wolverines in the future, they said, as activities such as backcountry skiing and snowmobiling have become more popular in some areas.
The scientists added that some of these losses could be offset if wolverines can recolonize areas such as California’s Sierra Nevada and Colorado’s Rocky Mountains.
Environmentalists have argued in multiple lawsuits against the Fish and Wildlife Service that wolverines will become locally extinct due to climate change, habitat fragmentation and low genetic diversity.
The proposal to protect them “gives the wolverine a chance of survival,” said Timothy Preso, an attorney with the group Earthjustice, which was part of that legal effort.
Another attorney said he was concerned that trapping of other species would be allowed in areas where wolverines live. The Fish and Wildlife Service proposal would allow the accidental killing of wolverines as long as trappers report any catches within five days and use best practices to avoid the animals.
‘I’m not sure that’s possible. Wolverines are scavengers – they go everywhere and eat everything,” said Matt Bishop of the Western Environmental Law Center.
Wolverine populations live in remote areas of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington state.
In recent years, individual animals have been documented in California, Utah, Colorado and Oregon. However, there is “no evidence” that the animals are establishing themselves and breeding in those states, officials said in Wednesday’s proposal.
The wildlife agency received a petition to protect wolverines in 2000, and the agency recommended protections in 2010. President Barack Obama’s administration proposed and later tried to rescind protections, but was blocked by a federal judge who said in 2016 that the snow-dependent animals “straight into the path of climate change.”
Protection measures were rejected in 2020 under Trump, based on research suggesting the population was expanding, not contracting. Federal wildlife officials at the time predicted that enough snow would remain at high elevations for wolverines to nest in mountain snowfields each spring.
They reversed course in a revised analysis published in September that said wolverines were “less safe than we described.”
The animals require vast wilderness, with habitats for adult wolverines covering as much as 1,580 square kilometers, a study shows.
According to scientists, they also need protection from falls. Wolverine populations in southwestern Canada have plummeted by more than 40% in the past two decades due to overfishing by trappers, which could have consequences beyond the U.S. border, scientists say.
Catching Wolverine was once legal in states including Montana.
Ten wolverines have been accidentally captured in Montana since the 2012 catch restriction. Three were killed and the others were released unharmed. In Idaho, trappers have accidentally captured 11 wolverines since 1995, killing three.