Wolverines represent wilderness values and ecological integrity that hold intrinsic worth beyond their direct welfare. Protecting them is both a welfare and an intergenerational responsibility.
Wolverine conservation has dimensions beyond individual animal welfare — the persistence of wolverine populations represents an intergenerational welfare commitment to future animals and a legacy of ecological integrity for future humans. Individual wolverines living in intact wilderness represent a form of animal flourishing that has intrinsic value beyond their mere absence of suffering. The loss of wolverines from an ecosystem reduces the welfare opportunity of future wolverines who will never have the chance to exist. Conservation of existing populations is thus simultaneously about the welfare of currently living wolverines and the welfare potential of generations yet to come. This temporal dimension of welfare consideration — thinking about what we owe to future animals, not just those alive today — is an important and underappreciated component of conservation ethics.