Editor’s Note: A previous version of this story quoted Andrea Zaccardi as saying, “Wyoming has been waiting for a long time for the federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.” The story has been updated with a corrected quote.
WYOMING — Wolverines might finally get their shot at being federally protected under the Endangered Species Act, according to the latest species assessment by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).
By the end of November, FWS will put out a final ruling via the federal register as to whether or not wolverines will be placed on the endangered species list.
Photo: National Park Service
The wolverine is the largest terrestrial member of the Mustelidae family and their relatives include other smaller carnivorous mammals, such as weasels, badgers, otters and martens. Adult males weigh 26 to 40 pounds and adult females weigh 17 to 26 pounds. Wolverines resemble a small bear with a bushy tail and have a round, broad head, rounded ears and small eyes. They have five toes on each foot, with curved and semi-retractile claws used for digging and climbing, according to the FWS.
Andrea Zaccardi, carnivore conservation legal director for the Center for Biological Diversity, says that this ferocious carnivore travels extremely long distances in search of a mate and typically crosses rugged terrain that a lot of other animals could not attempt.
Zaccardi approximates that only 300 wild wolverines remain in the United States. Climate change, increasing human presence and habitat degradation and fragmentation due to logging, highways, oil and gas drilling and land development threaten this already small and isolated population located throughout Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington.
According to the National Wildlife Federation, wolverines need deep snow to birth and rear their young and as snowpack continues melting earlier each year due to climate change, it’s estimated that within 30 years, about 30 percent of wolverine habitat in the lower 48 states will be gone and within 70 years, about 60 percent of their habitat will be gone. Scientists project wolverine habitat will shrink significantly by the end of the century.
“Wolverines have been waiting for a long time for the federal protection under the Endangered Species Act that this species needs and we’re hopeful that they will finally receive that protection this month,” Zaccardi said.
