Enviros Sue to Force Wolverine Listing

Environmentalists have challenged the Bush Administration's refusal to list the wolverine as an endangered or threatened species. In a complaint filed Sept. 30 in federal court in Missoula, MT, the plaintiffs argue that there is "substantial genetic discontinuity" between Canadian and U.S. populations of the mammal and no substantial migration or cross-breeding and thus that the American wolverine population is "discrete" and entitled to Endangered Species Act protection.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service denied a petition to list the wolverine in March on grounds that the species would survive even if all American individuals were extirpated because of genetic links between those wolverines and wolverines in Canada.

The case involves wolverines outside of Alaska.

Global climate change is an issue related to the fate of the wolverine, as the creature requires spring mountain snowfall to rear young.