Wolverines have some of the largest territory requirements of any carnivore their size, making them sensitive indicators of landscape connectivity and wilderness integrity.
Wolverines confined by roads, development, and human activity to less than adequate territory face chronic food insecurity in an environment where caloric demands are already extreme. Subadult males dispersing from natal territories face the highest mortality risk as they cross human-dominated landscapes seeking unoccupied territory. Trapping, historically used for the fur trade, subjects wolverines to the prolonged suffering of leghold traps before death. Genetic isolation reduces immune function and reproductive success at the individual level. Connectivity conservation that maintains large blocks of roadless wilderness is the most effective welfare intervention for this wilderness-dependent species.