Wolverines are wide-ranging carnivores facing threats from trapping, climate change, and habitat fragmentation that significantly affect both individual welfare and population viability.
Wolverines face welfare threats both from direct human persecution through trapping and from climate-driven habitat change. Leg-hold and body-grip traps cause acute pain and injury. Beyond direct trapping mortality, wolverines dependent on snowpack for denning face a warming world that undermines their reproductive success, leading to population-level suffering as cubs die in warm, snow-poor springs. Restricting trapping in wolverine core habitat, listing them under protective legislation, and addressing climate change are all directly relevant to wolverine welfare.