Wolverines Threatened With Extinction , Receive Federal Protection.<br />On November 29, the Biden administration <br />released a proposal to give the North American <br />wolverine long-delayed federal protections.<br />ABC News reports that the proposal comes following warnings by scientists that climate change is likely <br />to destroy the rare species' snowy mountain habitat.<br />By the early 1900s, wolverines had been mostly <br />wiped out across the U.S. as a result of <br />unregulated hunting and poisoning campaigns.<br />An estimated 300 surviving wolverines continue <br />to live in the contiguous U.S. in isolated groups at <br />high elevations in the northern Rocky Mountains.<br />Increasing temperatures are expected <br />to reduce the mountain snowpack, which <br />wolverines rely on to birth and raise their cubs.<br />The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's decision to protect <br />wolverines comes after over two decades of debate <br />regarding threats to the species' long-term survival.<br />According to officials, the new protections are , “due primarily to the ongoing and increasing <br />impacts of climate change and associated <br />habitat degradation and fragmentation.”.<br />ABC reports that wolverines, which resemble <br />small bears, are the world's largest <br />species of terrestrial weasels.<br />A 2020 lawsuit against the Fish and Wildlife Service claimed <br />that wolverines face extinction due to a combination of <br />climate change, habitat loss and low genetic diversity. .<br />Scientists have suggested that some of the species' <br />losses could be offset if wolverines are allowed to <br />recolonize in areas like California's Sierra Nevada
