Wolverine Ecology Examined In-depth in Special Section

Newswise — The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) was recently petitioned to list the wolverine as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. As a valuable tool for the USFWS to evaluate this potential listing, a special section of eight papers discusses the wolverine's current challenges as well as its historical distribution, habitat relations and interactions with humans. The special section is published in the latest issue of the Journal of Wildlife Management.

The series of papers focused on the wolverine in southern North America where they occur primarily in tundra, taiga and subalpine environments. These environments become increasingly fragmented at southern latitudes, where wolverine populations occur at low densities and are potentially vulnerable to human-caused mortality.

The special section includes these topics:

- A comprehensive analysis of historical and current wolverine distribution- An assessment of current distribution and abundance in British Columbia- Genetic data for the evaluation of historical connectivity between wolverine populations, with an emphasis on the California wolverine- An analysis of habitat use by wolverines in Idaho and British Columbia- Population-level responses of wolverines to harvest- Efficacy of rapid, low-cost aerial survey methods for wolverines in Ontario

Knowledge of wolverine ecology and population dynamics based on peer-reviewed research remains limited. However, these papers substantially increase our knowledge of wolverine ecology and population dynamics in North America, in many cases replacing previous speculations and informed judgments with empirical information.

To read the articles, click here: http://www.allenpress.com/pdf/wolverine_article.pdf

The Journal of Wildlife Management is the official publication of The Wildlife Society. The Wildlife Society (TWS), founded in 1937, is an international non-profit scientific and educational association dedicated to excellence in wildlife stewardship through science and education.

To learn more about the society please visit: http://www.wildlife.org.