Wolverines are among the rarest large carnivores in the lower 48 states, requiring vast remote wilderness and persistent snowpack for survival in a changing climate that threatens both their habitat and food availability.
Wolverine welfare is expressed through their ability to maintain the vast territory and deep snow access that defines their ecological role. Climate-reduced snowpack limits both denning success (females abort litters in inadequate snow conditions) and food caching capability. Wolverines crossing mountain ranges to reach suitable habitat must traverse lower-elevation human-dominated landscapes where road mortality and persecution occur. The welfare of individual wolverines - their capacity to express the wide-ranging, solitary, snowbound lifestyle they are adapted for - requires climate protection that no other intervention can substitute for.