According to biologists, melting snowpack caused by climate change could make it impossible for wolverines to survive the next century without protections. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently withdrew a motion that would list the animal as a threatened species.
Hunted for their dense fur, there are only about 300 wolverines left residing in mostly Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. And now climate change is threatening their remaining U.S. habitats since these animal thrive in arctic environments.
While conservation groups continue to fight to save wolverines, a federal judge ruled in favor of their protection: “No greater level of certainty is needed to see the writing on the wall for this snow-dependent species standing squarely in the path of global climate change.”
It’s time the United States protect the wolverine from extinction and tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list them under the Endangered Species Act—it’s the “most powerful legal tool we have to protect imperiled species.”
