Wolverines (Gulo gulo) are associated with wilderness areas with minimal human-caused habitat degradation and mortality. However, their future is uncertain, as an increasing portion of their range that was de facto wilderness now overlaps with industrial development, recreation, and fur harvest. We reviewed the North American wolverine literature, with insights from Fennoscandia, to determine the relative effects of nonlethal and lethal human disturbances on wolverines and whether populations in non-wilderness habitats can be viable. …. We found a relatively clear link between population decline and lethal human disturbances at local and intermediate scales, particularly in fragmented habitats in the southern mountains, although we are uncertain how this relationship translates to broader scales. We suggest the viability of wolverines in non-wilderness habitats will vary based on the type and magnitude of human disturbance, with populations potentially capable of overlapping with low-intensity nonlethal human disturbances if mortality is controlled. Wolverine conservation should focus on the creation of refugia, but we propose numerous methods to achieve this outside of creating protected areas that include land-use planning, caribou habitat management, reduced incidental harvest, and management of industrial attractants. Lastly, our review highlights the need for monitoring and enhanced research aligned with the knowledge gaps in wolverine ecology that we identified.

Wolverine distribution contracted along the southern periphery of its range in North America during the 19th and 20th centuries due primarily to human influences. This history, along with low densities, sensitivity to climate change, and concerns about connectivity among fragmented habitats spurred the recent US federal listing of threatened status and special concern status in Canada. To help inform large scale landscape connectivity, we collected 882 genetic samples genotyped at 19 microsatellite loci. We employed multiple statistical models to assess the landscape factors (terrain complexity, human disturbance, forest configuration, and climate) associated with wolverine genetic connectivity across 2.2 million km² of southwestern Canada and the northwestern contiguous United States. Genetic similarity (positive spatial autocorrelation) of wolverines was detected up to 555 km and a high-to-low gradient of genetic diversity occurred from north-to-south. Landscape genetics analyses confirmed that wolverine genetic connectivity has been negatively influenced by human disturbance at broad scales and positively influenced by forest cover and snow persistence at fine- and broad–scales, respectively. This information applied across large landscapes can be used to guide management actions with the goal of maintaining or restoring population connectivity.

The Fennoscandian wolverines have the lowest genetic diversity out of all the wolverine populations in the vast Eurasian continent. The new study covers the Eurasian range of the wolverine, which has not been studied on such a large scale before. Samples were collected across a wide geographical area from Norway to eastern Russia. The study, led by the University of Oulu, Finland, reveals significant insights into wolverine (Gulo gulo) population structure, genetic diversity, and demographic history across the Eurasian range. …. “Now we know the distribution of genetic diversity of the Eurasian wolverine. We know where it is the most diverse and where the least, which populations are well-connected, and which need reconnecting. The results of our study help us to specify how we should invest the management strategies in Fennoscandia,” concludes Dominika Bujnakova, a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Oulu.