DENVER-
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday launched a court-ordered review of whether the wolverine should be classified as endangered.
The review follows at least two petitions by environmental groups asking the agency to consider listing the animal as threatened or endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Fish and Wildlife rejected the petitions, saying they didn’t present enough information indicating that the wolverine should be federally protected.
Environmentalists, Defenders of Wildlife, and other groups filed a complaint in 2005 claiming Fish and Wildlife used the wrong standards to assess the petition. A federal court in Montana ruled this year that the agency’s finding was in error and ordered a review of the wolverine by Feb. 28.
The agency will take public comments through Aug. 6.
“The service will evaluate all existing and new information to determine whether impacts to the wolverine warrant a listing proposal,” said Mitch King, director of the regional Fish and Wildlife Service office in Lakewood.
The wolverine, the largest land species of the weasel family, has thick brown fur with lighter brown or blonde fur along its sides. Adults are about the same size as a medium dog, weighing 17 to 40 pounds. They have large feet for crossing snow and strong jaws so it can feed on frozen carrion and bones.
Wolverines are thought to exist primarily in the northern Rockies—Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington, Oregon and possibly California. They’re secretive and live in rugged and remote country.
Abigail Dillen, an attorney with the Bozeman, Mont., office of Earthjustice, which is representing the environmental groups, said the wolverine is considered the “poster child” of species that need protection.
“They’re so rare that even people who study them haven’t seen them,” Dillen said. “If we don’t act now, this species is going to go extinct.”
Biologists believe wolverines have been eliminated from much of their historic territory through trapping, loss of habitat to development and other activities.
The Colorado Division of Wildlife considered restoring wolverines along with lynx. The state started releasing lynx from Canada and Alaska in 1999, but didn’t pursue restoring wolverines.
Wildlife Division spokesman Tyler Baskfield said the main reason for not starting a wolverine program at the same time was that biologists didn’t want to divide their resources.
“It’s still a possibility that we could go ahead with that. Nothing’s been taken off the table,” Baskfield said.
In 1998, state biologists said restoring lynx and wolverines to Colorado would allow the state to manage the animals on its terms rather than have a federal plan imposed if the species were declared endangered.
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