Wolverines' dependence on persistent spring snowpack for maternal denning makes them among the most climate-vulnerable mammals in North America, with individual denning success directly tied to snowpack depth and duration.
A wolverine mother whose den is disturbed and abandoned faces the acute welfare crisis of exposed kits in subzero temperatures without adequate shelter. Kits born without adequate snowpack insulation experience hypothermia stress during the most vulnerable period of their development. The systematic reduction of persistent spring snowpack across wolverine range eliminates denning habitat that individual wolverines have no behavioral alternative to — they cannot den successfully in insufficient snow. This climate-driven habitat loss affects individual reproductive welfare (failed denning attempts, kit mortality) long before population-level extirpation occurs. Each failed denning event represents a welfare harm to the mother and her kits that is directly attributable to climate-driven snowpack loss.