Defenders of Wildlife Blog

Kylie Paul, Rockies & Plains Representative 

Wolverines may finally be getting the federal protections they need. In response to well over a decade of successful legal efforts by Defenders and a few of our partners, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced in February its proposal to list the wolverine as a threatened species in the lower 48 states under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Alongside the proposed listing, FWS also announced its proposal to designate the southern Rocky Mountains (southern Wyoming, Colorado and northern New Mexico) as an experimental population area for wolverines, which opens up the possibility of a reintroduction of wolverines to Colorado.

If approved, these proposals will give wolverines a fighting chance for survival in a warming world. There are only an estimated 300 wolverines spread across the entire western United States, and scientists predict they could lose up to two-thirds of their suitable snowy habitat by 2099 due to climate change. That’s why we’ve been busy over the past few months educating wildlife enthusiasts about this amazing critter and encouraging them to support wolverine conservation through the public participation process on this proposal to protect wolverines.

Film Screenings
Defenders of Wildlife collaborated with our conservation partners in Colorado and Montana to introduce the public to these mysterious, cold-loving critters through the PBS award-winning documentary, Wolverine: Chasing the Phantom. This informative documentary highlights the challenges facing the wolverine. These powerful carnivores are specially adapted for winter existence and survive in the rugged, snow-covered alpine environment by scavenging and storing food. Wolverines’ large paws act like snowshoes that allow them to stay on top of deep snow, and their crampon-like claws help them to climb up and over steep cliffs and snow-covered peaks. Unfortunately, these awe-inspiring creatures are not invincible – climate change is expected to melt away much of their snowy habitat over the next several decades.

Wolverines are incredibly rare, and even the researchers that dedicate their lives to studying this remarkable creature can go years without seeing a wolverine in the wild. Many biologists rely on wolverine tracks, scavenging sites and images they capture through remote cameras to learn more about this elusive critter. Fortunately, in Chasing the Phantom, the audience is offered a glimpse into the wolverine’s world through the eyes of researchers with the Glacier National Park Wolverine Project. Viewers also get up-close and personal, following the movements and behavior of two wolverines raised in captivity. They are beautiful, playful and ridiculously cute!

(c) Ken Curtis

Almost 300 wildlife enthusiasts attended the film screenings in Denver, Bozeman, and Missoula. Each screening was followed by a panel discussion and Q&A session with experts from a variety of backgrounds. In Denver, the audience was especially interested in the potential reintroduction of wolverines into Colorado. Bridget Fahey with the FWS and Eric Odell with Colorado Parks and Wildlife explained that some climate models show that Colorado – with the highest average elevation of any state in the Lower 48, including 54 peaks over 14,000 feet – will likely retain the continuous cold temperatures and snow cover necessary for the wolverine to survive, even as the climate continues to change. All of the panel experts, including Caitlin Balch-Burnett with Defenders, emphasized that getting wolverines on the ground in Colorado could be one of the greatest steps we can take to ensure that wolverines survive the effects of climate change.

In Bozeman, the producer and filmmaker of Chasing the Phantom, Gianna Savoie, joined the panel to share her experiences working on the documentary and how she created a film on such a remote creature. Bob Inman with Wildlife Conservation Society discussed wolverine biology and research, and I talked about the proposed listing of wolverines under the Endangered Species Act. The event in Missoula offered Mike Schwartz, a leading wolverine conservation genetics team leader, who discussed many of the incorrect myths about wolverines.

FWS public hearings
The FWS hosted three public hearings on their wolverine proposals in the southern and northern Rocky Mountains: Boise, Idaho; Lakewood, Colorado; and Helena, Montana. We reached out to our supporters in the area and encouraged them to attend – many took the opportunity to speak directly to the federal officials and biologists that will be involved in the final decision to list the wolverine under the ESA.

There was widespread support for wolverines at the public hearings, especially in Boise and Lakewood, where nearly all of the public comments were positive. Alex Marks, a Defenders member who attended the Lakewood hearing, commented:

“I wanted to testify at the Fish and Wildlife hearing about the dual proposals for the wolverine because I wanted to let the agency know how important it was for these proposals to move forward .… The ESA was established to both “stabilize” and “revitalize” any species in need of its protections.”

We were thrilled with the amount of support and positive feedback we have been seeing for the listing proposal and the Colorado reintroduction – it all bodes well for the future of wolverines in the U.S.!

Coast to Coast” is a summer blog series highlighting some of America’s most imperiled wildlife. By using the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s new state-by-state endangered species map, we will tell stories about native plants and animals in unique landscapes where Defenders will be focusing its conservation efforts in coming years.

Imagine that you’re trudging through the heavy Colorado snow, hiking close to 10,000 feet. You suddenly spot what appears to be an overgrown house cat. You stop in your tracks, careful not to make a sound, peer closer and see it’s a Canada lynx. The lean grey form bounds through the snow on long legs after a snowshoe hare, the lynx’s favorite food. Its large paws keep the cat from sinking into the snow, while it listens with tufted ears to track the hare’s path.

Canada lynx are highly elusive forest cats that prey on snowshoe hares in remote alpine reaches of the Rockies.

A scene like this may be relatively common throughout Canada or Alaska, but it’s a rarity in the southern Rockies where life has been pretty rough for this mid-sized carnivore. Originally pursued by fur trappers, these critters nearly vanished from the southernmost portion of their range by the 1970s. However, in 2000 lynx were listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, and as a result lynx populations have started to recover. After a successful reintroduction program in Colorado (more on that later), an estimated 1,000 lynx are now spread across the U.S. from Washington to Colorado. But the Canada lynx is still threatened by habitat loss and other human activities including logging, collisions with vehicles, and trapping.

This species is famous in biology classes for its population cycles. If the snowshoe hare population goes up, a few years later the lynx population follows. Then more lynx eat more snowshoe hares, depleting the population and leaving less food for future generations. Thus the cat’s population goes down, and the cycle repeats itself. This cycle goes back and forth for each generation and keeps the populations in check. Unfortunately, for the last century or more, man has had his thumb on the scale, making it harder for lynx to rebound.

The cat’s population is spread thin, putting an already imperiled species at great risk. The lynx need higher elevation forests, filled with spruce, fir, or lodgepole pine, to survive. Unfortunately these forests are often depleted by excessive logging, mining, energy exploration, and even backcountry recreation. Lynx are relatively reclusive animals, so even the occasional thrill-seeking heli-skiier or seasonal mountain chalet may be enough to scare lynx away from vital habitat they might otherwise use for hunting, denning or finding a mate. And as the forest diminishes, so do the snowshoe hares, leaving lynx with little to eat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service explains the threats the lynx is facing in this podcast:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Thankfully, there have been some positive steps forward for the lynx in the past few years. In 1999 an initiative was launched to reintroduce the cat to Colorado. While this population followed the species’ typical ups and downs, overall it has been a huge success. In the past decade, more than 200 animals were released and 103 kittens were born. In 2009, the Forest Service added an amendment to eight regional management plans to soften human impacts of logging and other resource extraction and recreation on lynx.

While these are certainly steps in the right direction, sadly, this cold-loving critter could face more serious challenges as a result of climate change. The changing climate affects the type of snow that falls in its habitat, which could allow other predators to reduce snowshoe hare populations. Jeff Corwin explains in this video how climate change hurts these elusive cats:

For decades, Defenders of Wildlife has pushed for federal actions on key predators like the Canada lynx. Defenders recognizes that by preserving habitat and securing connectivity between vital areas, sparse populations will have more room to roam and a better shot at maintaining a healthy gene pool. The next step for lynx recovery is to secure a nationwide recovery plan that will allow these important predators to make a strong comeback in more places.

But we can only do so much. The American public barely knows about the Canada lynx or the trouble it’s in. That’s why raising awareness for this rare carnivore is a top priority–the more people that know about this cool cat, the brighter its future will be!