Wolverines to gain US federal protection as climate crisis threatens habitat

Fewer than 300 of the endangered carnivores believed to remain in lower 48 states, primarily in fragmented groups at high elevation

The North American wolverine, a species from the badger family that resembles a small bear with a bushy tail, will receive government protections under a Biden administration proposal after scientists warned that its harsh, prairie mountain habitat was being threatened by climate change.

The proposal by the US Fish and Wildlife Service to grant wolverines, sometimes called mountain devils", federal protections under the Endangered Species Act brings a close to 30-year fight by conservation groups who first petitioned for the species to be listed as threatened in 1994.