In response to a lawsuit by the Center for Biological Diversity and allies, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced this week that the seriously imperiled wolverine deserves Endangered Species Act protection -- but won't, in fact, get any. This decision reverses the wrongful Bush-era decision that wolverines didn't warrant protection (simply because Canada has its own populations). But the wolverine is no better off in its new place on the "candidate" list, better termed the "waiting" list -- a list that already includes hundreds of species whose protection is on hold indefinitely. (24 species have gone extinct while they waited.) The wolverine -- a large, lavish-furred mammal in the weasel family -- is fierce enough to make bears back away, but it can't withstand trapping, habitat loss, snowmobiles and now climate change, which shrinks the snowpack critical for its dens. If the wolverine is protected under the Endangered Species Act as it needs to be, it could be the first warming-threatened mountaintop species to have that distinction.
The Center first petitioned to earn Endangered Species Act protection for the wolverine back in 1994. Since then, we've filed another petition and two lawsuits. And with the support of our members, we won't stop until we win full protection for this incredible animal.
Today, fewer than 500 wolverines exist in the lower 48 states -- and they're still declining. This stunning predator now joins the ranks of 250 other candidate species the Center has sued to earn protection for through our Candidate Project.
Read more in the Denver Post.
