Groups Revisit Wolverine Listing Lack Of Information Derailed 1994 Effort

Six environmental groups have petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the wolverine as a threatened species throughout the contiguous 48 states.

They contend protecting roadless areas as President Clinton has proposed is critical to the animal’s future.

“The wolverine is a classic example of a wilderness-dependent species,” said Gary Macfarlane of Friends of the Clearwater. “They are sensitive to human disturbance and need large tracts of wild land or wilderness to survive.”

But like the recently listed Canadian lynx, little is known about wolverines, making it difficult to build a case that the elusive predator runs the risk of becoming endangered and eventually extinct. The lack of information derailed an effort by environmentalists to list the species in 1994.

Described as a cross between a bear and a weasel, the wolverine is secretive and generally inhabits rugged and remote country. Wildlife biologists do not have a good estimate of their numbers. The conservation groups say the populations are primarily in Montana, Idaho, Oregon, Washington and northern California, where estimates put the overall number at 700.

Idaho Fish and Game Department biologist Jeff Copeland has conducted one of just six studies worldwide on wolverines.

“There are hundreds of wolverines in Idaho, but there certainly aren’t thousands,” he said.

It is likely they inhabit a forested mountain area that stretches from the Canadian border south to central Idaho’s Sawtooth range and the headwaters of the South Fork of the Boise River.

Washington Department of Wildlife spokeswoman Madonna Luers said no one knows how many wolverines live in the state.

“We know they’re rare,” she said. “This is not a species that’s ever been incredibly abundant.”

Copeland believes the biggest threat to wolverines is winter recreation - snowmobiles, helicopter and cross-country skiers - in high mountain cirques. Females are exceptionally sensitive to disturbance while they are denned with their young, called kits. The slightest intrusion between mid-February and May can cause the animals to leave the den and move the kits, and frequent disturbances can result in dens being abandoned.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has 90 days to decide whether to conduct a nine-month study on the status of the animal.

The petitioners include the Friends of the Clearwater; the Predator Conservation Alliance; Biodiversity Legal Foundation of Boulder, Colo.; Defenders of Wildlife of Washington, D.C.; Northwest Ecosystem Alliance of Bellingham and the Superior Wilderness Action Network of St. Paul, Minn.

The petition to list the wolverine as endangered was released Tuesday. That same day, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced a proposal to change the status of wolves from “endangered” to “threatened.”

The groups petitioning for protection of the wolverine oppose the down-listing of the wolf.