Wolverines are the largest land-dwelling mustelids, with vast territory requirements that are being squeezed by climate change, trapping, and human encroachment.
Wolverines are among the most wide-ranging land mammals, making them acutely sensitive to habitat fragmentation. Leg-hold and conibear traps used for fur trapping cause significant injury and suffering. Climate change is reducing the deep snowpack wolverines require for denning, with mothers excavating snow tunnels to raise cubs. Warming springs expose cubs to cold and predation earlier. Wolverines have extremely low reproductive rates, making each individual critical. Road and infrastructure development fragments their vast territories. Listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in the US, they remain unprotected in much of Canada where trapping continues.