Wolverines in Scandinavia face licensed hunting designed to control populations, with welfare implications for targeted individuals and orphaned kits.
Wolverines shot during licensed hunting may experience acute trauma including wounding before death. Kits orphaned when mothers are shot during late winter denning are highly vulnerable and face cold exposure and starvation. Wolverines persecuted illegally face unmonitored suffering from poisoning, trapping, and shooting. Reindeer herding conflict drives illegal killing with welfare costs for individual wolverines that are poorly quantified. Climate warming reduces the deep snow habitat wolverines require for denning, adding environmental stress.