Global Warming Puts Wolverines on the Endangered Animals List

Conservationists living in the United States have for some time now been asking that the country's high officials agree to list wolverines as a species threatened by both climate change and global warming.

Furthermore, they demand that green-oriented projects and campaigns, aimed at making sure the species does not soon fall off the biodiversity map, are rolled out as soon as possible.

Interestingly enough, it looks like the country's government has finally agreed to give into these pleas, hence their proposing this past Friday that wolverines be included on the list of species threatened by climate change.

As explained on the official website for the US Fish & Wildlife Service, wolverines came fairly close to extinction in the early 20th century, mostly because of broad-scale predator trapping and poisoning programs.

Still, they somehow managed to make a remarkable recovery and, at least for the time being, find themselves out of harm's way.

On the other hand, the US Fish and Wildlife Service wishes to make it quite clear that, “Unfortunately, climate warming over the next century is likely to significantly reduce wolverine habitat, to the point where persistence of wolverines in the contiguous United States, without intervention, is in doubt.”

“We are, therefore, proposing to protect the North American wolverine as a threatened species under the ESA [Endangered Species Act],” the organization goes on to add.

Should the North American wolverines eventually be listed as a threatened species, killing them on purpose will be strictly prohibited all across the country.

However, the US government has no intentions to outlaw activities such as snowmobiling, backcountry skiing and the like within these animals' habitat, provided of course that these do not impact on the wolverine's wellbeing.

Starting February 4, the general public has a total of 90 days at their disposal in order to comment on this proposal of listing wolverines as a species threatened by climate change.