courtesy of the National Parks Traveler
by Todd Wilkinson
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in December 2010 released a biological assessment. The service found that wolverines warrant being added to the federal threatened species list, but other animals merit greater priority. So action has to wait.
Here’s a fact, the service’s widely-quoted estimate that it has used over the last decade for wolverines across all of the Lower 48—500—was actually dialed dramatically downward in the latest report.
The new guesstimate is that there are only between 250 and 300 wolverines across all of the geography mentioned above, which includes a crazy quilt pattern of national parks that serve as protected islands of habitat.
And over that vast area, the Fish and Wildlife Service admits, there are a scant number of adults reproducing.
Teklanika Nature Photography 