U.S. moves to protect wolverines as climate change melts their mountain refuges

This photo provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, from a remote camera set by biologist Chris Stermer, shows a wolverine in the Tahoe National Forest near Truckee, Calif., on Feb. 27, 2016, a rare sighting of the elusive species in the state. Scientists estimate that only about 300 wolverines survive in the contiguous U.S. (Chris Stermer/California Department of Fish and Wildlife via AP, File)

BILLINGS, Mont. — The North American wolverine will receive long-delayed threatened species protections under a Biden administration proposal released Wednesday in response to scientists warning that climate change will likely melt away the rare species' snowy mountain refuges and push them toward extinction.

Across most of the U.S., wolverines were wiped out by the early 1900s from unregulated trapping and poisoning campaigns. About 300 surviving animals in the contiguous U.S. live in fragmented, isolated groups at high elevations in the northern Rocky Mountains.