Wolverines (Gulo gulo) are wide-ranging carnivores whose welfare is increasingly threatened by climate change affecting snowpack, habitat fragmentation, and human conflict.
Wolverine welfare is primarily shaped by range requirements and snowpack availability. Climate change reducing persistent snowpack is a systemic welfare threat: females without adequate snow depth cannot create the dens needed for successful parturition and cub rearing. Cubs born in inadequate dens face exposure and hypothermia. Human conflict welfare impacts include trapping (which causes pain and stress before killing), shooting during livestock depredation events, and road mortality during wide-ranging movements. Wolverine conservation requires landscape-scale approaches: maintaining connectivity between habitat patches, implementing non-lethal livestock protection methods, and addressing climate change as the root cause of snowpack loss. Norwegian and Swedish wolverine management includes compensation payments to reindeer herders affected by predation — a coexistence model with welfare implications.