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Present day wolverines, , have been declining globally despite their many adaptions to live in challenging, rugged environments.

These large land-dwelling weasels evolved to scramble up trees and climb steep, snowy mountains. Wolverines' snowshoe-like paws, heavy frost-resistant fur and powerful muscles let them thrive in some of the coldest places on Earth. Their sharp claws and strong jaws allow them to and from ground squirrels to elk.

While wolverines have been and , they are extremely vulnerable, rarely seen and hard to study. globally due to heavy trapping and predator killing by humans as well as habitat loss, climate change and various other factors. , but population densities vary a lot and numbers are difficult to estimate.

Our shows that the best ways to protect remaining wolverine populations are to reduce trapping, minimize predator control pressures and connect the large blocks of intact habitat they need to survive.

Not as resilient as you might think

Wolverines are private, generally solitary, species. They are slow to reproduce and have an average of two cubs, or kits, every two to three years.

They are and defend territories as large as 500–1,000 square kilometers, or sometimes more. These traits make them vulnerable to human impacts around the world.

Since the Europeans colonized North America, fur trapping and landscape development . South of the wide Arctic range, wolverines can be found only in the western boreal forest and mountains. But they used to live from coast to coast and as far south as New Mexico.

Today, in the United States, and high elevations of the mountain ranges. Wolverines are restricted to northern countries in Eurasia and are in Fennoscandia.

As tough as they are, wolverines are sometimes . As scavengers, taking food from a hungry bear or pack of wolves is a risky lifestyle. Their habitat is degraded by resource development, including , and . People still trap wolverines in Canada, often . They can also be .

All this human activity makes life better for wolverines' competitors—coyotes. Where coyotes exploit developed landscapes, they come into conflict with wolverines, .

Piled on those problems is the impact of climate change on wolverine habitat. that wolverines have sought south of the Arctic are now thawing. Wolverines need snow to , to raise their and to keep lowland competitors away. The one-two punch of landscape change and climate change are making matters worse for wolverines.

Building blocks for wolverine conservation

Wolverines need large, . The only way to protect them in the long run is to help protect and connect their fragmented blocks of habitat.

Creating more protected areas and managing human activity within and next to them will help. Protecting ""—the last bastions of cold wolverine habitat—is an important priority. Landscape planning to across busy degraded valley bottoms is sorely needed, especially in southern Canada and the United States

Work to maintain or improve ecological connectivity is happening in some places, such as from Yellowstone to Yukon and .

Roads and industrial development cut up major sections of prime habitat. We can fight habitat fragmentation by making better decisions about road-building, including when to decommission roads built for resource extraction and on wolverines and other wildlife. Habitat protection, connectivity and restoration are critical for wolverines.

We also need transboundary co-ordination. We need to think across larger landscapes, especially regions that still support wolverines on both sides of a border—like between Canada and the United States or between Norway and Sweden.

No longer ignorant nor blissful

Globally, governments have insufficiently protected wolverines.

Sweden's and British Columbia has stopped wolverine trapping in small locales.

Otherwise, large-scale wolverine conservation has been on the back burner. In the U.S., a . Canada lacks a federal management plan and British Columbia's most recent wolverine plan is from 1989, while Alberta lists the species in the "data deficient" category.

For years it seemed like not much was known about wolverines, and policy-makers have rested on wolverines' mystery to excuse inaction.

The truth is, science knows a lot about wolverines. Research from around the world clearly shows what we need to do.

Wolverines may have evolved in the cold but the heat is on us to act now. We must to make the changes needed to conserve wolverines.

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