Wolverines are wide-ranging predators sensitive to climate change and human disturbance whose welfare requires large-scale landscape conservation approaches.
Wolverine welfare is primarily determined at landscape scale — individuals require vast territories that cannot be provided through small conservation areas. Climate change impact on snowpack directly threatens denning success and therefore reproductive welfare of the species. Individual welfare concerns include trapping injuries and incidental capture in snares set for other species. The welfare and conservation priorities are closely aligned: landscape connectivity, snowpack habitat protection, and minimizing trapping mortality serve both individual welfare and population viability. Climate advocacy is therefore simultaneously wolverine welfare advocacy.