Wolverines face a dual threat from trapping-related welfare harms and climate change reducing the snowpack they depend on for denning and food caching — with ESA listing debates ongoing in the United States.
Wolverines caught in traditional leg-hold or body-gripping traps suffer immediate pain, injury, and prolonged distress while awaiting the trapper. Body-gripping traps designed to kill rapidly may not do so instantly, causing death through prolonged suffocation or drowning. Non-target wolverine captures in traps set for other species are additional welfare costs. Climate-driven snowpack loss threatens wolverines at the population level by removing denning habitat, but also creates individual welfare impacts as females fail to establish dens or lose young through insufficient snow insulation. Each female wolverine that successfully dens and raises kits represents a welfare-positive outcome in a species where reproductive opportunities are limited by habitat quality.