Canadian Wolverines in Sharp Decline

In another unfortunate turn of events, it would now appear that even wolverines are falling prey to the ruthless weather effects brought forth by global warming and climate change. Across North America, increased temperatures translate into less snow settling each year, and also into more ice melting with each warm season. Without the ice spreads on which they have evolved, the tenacious and strong predators that are the wolverines cannot endure. Recent statistics show that their numbers have diminished considerably over the past few years, the BBC News reports.

The paper accompanying the finding, which appears in the latest issue of the respected scientific journal Population Ecology, is the first to show the loss of such a large, land-based species, due to a significant loss of ice. Though it may seem a lot easier to live on solid ground, and not on ice, the wolverines are especially adapted for this. They have a very thick fur that would not allow them to survive in warmer climates, as well as feet that are oversized in regards to the size of their bodies. These feet allow them to run and hunt on the ice, where they feed mostly on hares, marmots, smaller rodents, and carrion.

According to official data, the animals – the largest members of the weasel family – live in Scandinavia, Russia, China, Mongolia and North America (mostly in six Canadian provinces). The animals prefer arboreal forests, where they are the most adapted to endure. “It occurred to me that a good first place to look for ecological impacts of that snowpack decline would be with a snow-adapted species like the wolverine. Fortuitously, Canada has good records of both snowpack trends over time as well as trends in the harvest of all sorts of fur-bearing animals,” University of Montana wildlife biologist Dr. Jedediah Brodie says. He conducted the work with colleagues from the Pennsylvania State University.

The researcher was interested in analyzing the effects that the melting of ice had on ecosystems. He had previously discovered that snowpacks in the region had fallen sharply between 1968 and 2004, and was curious as to what type of effects this would elicit on wildlife living here. “In provinces where winter snowpack levels are declining fastest, wolverine populations tend to be declining most rapidly. Spring snowpack also appears to influence wolverine population dynamics,” the investigators say. “Recent work shows that wolverines appear to use areas with deep snowpack for dispersal. So reduced snowpack could make dispersal more difficult or dangerous, potentially reducing the success rate with which individuals can establish new home ranges,” Brodie concludes.