(CN) — The wolverine population in the lower 48 states is now protected under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Wednesday.
The protection comes after an almost 30-year fight to include wolverines under the act, said Andrea Zaccardi, carnivore conservation legal director with the Center for Biological Diversity. Additionally, it shows the service has recognized climate change as a significant threat to the animal.
“It’s been a pretty long-fought battle,” Zaccardi told Courthouse News.
Wednesday’s decision by the service gives more protections to wolverines and their habitat. The animals need areas with deep snow into late spring: Pregnant wolverines dig dens into the snowpack to give birth and raise their offspring.
Specifically, the decision prohibits importing, exporting, transporting, possessing and selling wolverines. It also forbids “take,” which includes hunting, killing and capturing the animals.
It’s estimated that there are no more than 300 wolverines in the lower 48 states. Alaska and Northern Canada have healthy populations of the animal. There are none in Hawaii.
The animals once extended across the northern United States, as well as Southern California, the Rockies and New Mexico. Trapping and the loss of habitat have reduced their numbers to small populations in Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and northeast Oregon.
“The science is clear: snowpack-dependent species like the wolverine are facing an increasingly uncertain future under a warming climate,” said Michael Saul, with Defenders of Wildlife Rockies and plains program director, in a statement. “The protections that come with Endangered Species Act listing increase the chance that our children will continue to share the mountains with these elusive and fascinating carnivores.”
Wolverines face danger from traps, human encroachment, fragmenting habitats and severely low population numbers stemming from a lack of genetic diversity. Zaccardi said that the Endangered Species Act will protect the carnivores and the ecosystem.
“Wolverines, for example, help control the rodent population,” she added. “That’s one of their sources of food.”
They also scavenge elk and deer killed by other animals.
Conservationists said federal protections are essential to stopping wolverines from disappearing altogether.
George Sexton, conservation director for Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center, said in a statement that wolverines have been pushed from the Klamath Mountains, a former habitat of theirs. Brad Smith, North Idaho director for the Idaho Conservation League, said Idaho could lose over 40% of its wolverine habitat over the next 35 years without any action.
“This decision allows us to move forward on recovery actions to prevent such extensive loss of wolverine habitat and recover wolverine populations,” Smith said.
Conservation groups first petitioned the government for protection for the wolverine in 1994, followed by another attempt in 2000. The Center for Biological Diversity said the Fish and Wildlife Service regularly delayed and obstructed attempts to list the animal. That led to court action, which conservationists won through favorable rulings or settlements.
“With only a few hundred remaining in the entire lower 48 states, Endangered Species Act protections are critical to recovering the wolverine,” said Bonnie Rice, national wildlife campaign manager for the Sierra Club, in a statement.
According to Zaccardi, a 60-day comment period will be held on the exemptions to the wolverines’ listing.
Those exemptions include allowing “take” when it supports conservation actions, if kept at minimal levels and has no negative impact. Exemptions also include allowing “take” for scientific research by a federal or tribal biologist; incidental “take” because of forest management to lower wildfire risk; and incidental “take” from legal trapping.
“We’re hopeful the protections will stay in place and they’re on the path to recovery,” Zaccardi said.
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