Established in 1964, The International Union for Conservation of Nature’s (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species is the world’s most comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal and plant species. The IUCN Red List is a critical indicator of the health of the world’s biodiversity. It provides information about range, population size, habitat and ecology, use and/or trade, threats, and conservation actions that will help inform necessary conservation decisions.

The IUCN’s Red List most recent assessment of the wolverine’s status globally was conducted in 2015 and designated the global conservation status of the wolverine as a species of Least Concern. As explained in the wolverine assessment on the IUCN Red List’s website:

“The Wolverine is listed as Least Concern because of its wide distribution, remaining large populations, and the unlikelihood that it is in decline at a rate fast enough to trigger even Near Threatened. It occurs at low density and many populations appear to be relatively small and isolated (Ruggiero et al. 2007). There have been large past declines in some of its range but there is evidence of resurgence in some places of its historical distribution (Rowland et al. 2003). Thus although there is an overall continued decline due to human persecution and land-use change, the global decline of this species is not at a rate sufficient to qualify for categorisation even as Near Threatened as of 2015. However, in the mid-2000s the European Mammal Assessment determined that the European populations of Wolverine were in steep decline and would warrant a category of Vulnerable (A2c). Thus, the Least Concern global listing is driven by the large populations which remain in northern Asia and North America. Wolverine still faces some threats such as over-exploitation through hunting and trapping, predator-poisoning programmes and habitat resource extraction that caused the contraction of its historical range. More data on population trends, especially in northern Asia, might result in this species being re-assessed as Near Threatened or even Vulnerable in the near future.”

It is worth noting that a designation of Least Concern globally does not imply the species is secure everywhere — some regional populations are rare, declining, or have been extirpated historically and remain of conservation concern.

The category of Vulnerable (A2c) can be broken down this way:

–  VULNERABLE (VU):  A taxon is Vulnerable when it is not Critically Endangered or Endangered but is facing a high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term future, as defined by:

–  A):  Population reduction in the form of…

–  2):  A reduction of at least 20%, projected or suspected to be met within the next ten years or three generations, whichever is the longer, based on…

–  c):  a decline in area of occupancy, extent of occurrence and/or quality of habitat.