Wolverines are wide-ranging carnivores that depend on deep persistent snow for denning and food caching. Climate change threatening snowpack is the primary welfare and conservation concern for this iconic wilderness species.
Individual wolverine welfare in warming mountains is shaped by declining food availability and nesting success. Female wolverines that establish dens in insufficient snowpack experience den collapse, exposing kits to lethal cold before they are thermoregulated. Scavenging wolverines face food stress when winter ungulate carcasses become less available due to smaller deer and elk herds in degraded range. Trap-based wolverine capture for research and management causes acute stress in a species adapted for solitary wilderness living. Climate action is the most impactful available intervention for wolverine welfare at population scale.