Wolverines are trapped across North America and Eurasia for their fur, with steel-jaw leghold traps causing significant suffering — while the species faces additional pressure from climate change.
Wolverine trapping causes welfare harms at two levels: the acute suffering of trapped individuals and the population-level pressure on a species already stressed by climate change. Leghold traps cause lacerations, fractures, and exhaustion during prolonged restraint; animals may gnaw through their own limbs to escape. Even "catch and release" trapping for research involves handling stress in an animal with extremely high cortisol responses to restraint. Climate change represents an emerging existential welfare threat at the population level: wolverines are obligate cold-climate species whose reproductive success depends on deep spring snow for den insulation. Improving trap welfare standards (mandatory quick-kill traps for target species, reduced trap-check intervals) and supporting carbon reduction policy both contribute to wolverine welfare.