Judge orders U.S. to address climate threat to wolverines

Source: Reuters

World | Mon Apr 4, 2016 11:14pm EDT

Judge orders U.S. to address climate threat to wolverines

SALMON, IDAHO | BY LAURA ZUCKERMAN

A federal judge on Monday rejected a decision by U.S. wildlife managers to deny wolverines Endangered Species Act protection, ruling the government erred in discounting the threat posed by climate change to the weasel-like predator of the Northern Rockies.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2013 proposed an endangered species listing for the estimated 300 wolverines believed to still inhabit the Lower 48 states, most of them in the snowy peaks of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

The Interior Department agency said then that human-caused global warming was lessening mountain snows needed by wolverines for building dens and storing food.

But the Fish and Wildlife Service abruptly reversed itself in 2014, deciding against special protections for wolverines on grounds that it lacked sufficient evidence that climate change was harming the animals.

Conservationists challenged the decision in court and accused the agency of ignoring scientific data that supported a listing for the wolverine, a large cousin of the weasel known for a feisty disposition and ferocious defense of its young.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-wolverines-idUSKCN0X2070