Wolverine Loses But Polar Bear Wins in Endangered Species Rulings
Updated: An unexpected February sighting of a wild wolverine in California, where the animal was thought to be extinct, has sparked a renewed, but unsuccessful, call for protection under the Endangered Species Act.
But, due to shrinking habitat caused by global warming, the polar bear won such protection today under a U.S. Department of the Interior ruling, reports the Washington Post.
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said he reluctantly decided to list the polar bear as threatened, because the inflexible statute “prevents me, as secretary, from taking into account economic conditions and adverse consequences in making listing decisions.”
Kempthorne also was pressured to act by a federal court deadline, set in a lawsuit filed by conservationists seeking to force a decision about protecting the polar bear. Perhaps 25,000 are in existence worldwide, according to the Post.
Both Kempthorne and conservationists questioned whether the ESA offers all that much protection to polar bears, albeit for different reasons. The interior secretary says protecting their habitat from further global warming requires a worldwide effort by multiple countries that will not easily be achieved. The conservationists contend that Kempthorne’s reluctance to protect the polar bear and suggestion of possible changes in the statute signal oil companies whose activities threaten their habitat that no changes may be needed, according to the newspaper.
Meanwhile, no protection is being offered under the ESA to wolverines. Renowned for their ferocity, the animals, which weigh up to 40 pounds and are members of the weasel family can still be found in small numbers in some western states, and a large population exists in Canada, reports Bloomberg. Estimates vary, but there may be as few as 200 or 300 left in the entire United States. Canada, by contrast, had an estimated 19,000 in 2003.
Although wildlife conservation groups have called for the wolverines to be protected under the Endangered Species Act, federal wildlife officials have so far declined to do so. Because the wolverines seen in the western United States aren’t a “distinct population segment” that can be differentiated from their cousins in Canada, protection is not appropriate, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a March 2008 press release.
“After reviewing the best available scientific and commercial information, the Service has determined that the wolverine population in the contiguous United States is not discrete, because it is not separated from wolverine populations in Canada, and is likely dependent on them to some degree for maintaining genetic diversity,” the agency writes.
DNA testing of wolverine droppings found near the California-Nevada border suggest that the animal caught on a researcher’s motion-activated camera in late February could indeed have come from elsewhere, Bloomberg says, and further testing is under way.
“It is the timing of the appearance that raises the most questions,” writes the Times-Standard. “The scientific community had recently been proposing to consider the California population extinct; the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service was determining whether the animal should be deemed endangered in the West; and the fact that it happened to show up where cameras were known to be set seems too coincidental to many.”
At the same time, however, the recent photograph was preceded by other claimed sightings, the newspaper says.
Additional coverage:
Wall Street Journal (sub. req.): “Polar Bear to be Designated As Threatened Species”
Boston Globe: “With Arctic ice melting, polar bear placed on endangered species list”
Defenders of Wildlife: ” Government Again Spurns the Wolverine”
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (2003): ” Wolvervine Will Not Be Considered for Listing Under the Endangered Species Act”
Updated at 6:40 p.m., central time, to include polar bear coverage.
