I know many may not know that the largest mustelid in the world - the
Wolverine (gulo gulo) is not doing well. I think of the wolverine as a
gigantic ferret. One site states " Wolverines are one of the largest
members of the family Mustelidae and are unmistakable in appearance".
<http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Mustelidae/>

It's a wonderful animal and unfortunately has been losing ground for
many years and killed - mostly as you can guess by humans, but also has
lost habitat because it needs cold snowy condtions. Please take a
moment and send your support for the listing to the site

<https://www.federalregister.gov/articles/2013/02/04/2013-01478/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-threatened-status-for-the-distinct-population-segment>

The comment period only runs for another day and a half (until Monday -
May 6) and we need more people to add to the current comments. I was
unaware that there was a proposed listing as threatened for this
wonderful animal.

If you go to the site
<http://www.regulations.gov> you will see
"You may submit comments by one of the following methods":

(1) Electronically: Go to the Federal eRulemaking Portal:
<http://www.regulations.gov>
In the Keyword box, enter Docket No. FWS-R6-ES-2012-0107, which is the
docket number for this rulemaking. Then, in the Search panel on the
left side of the screen, under the Document Type heading, click on the
Proposed Rules link to locate this document. You may submit a comment
by clicking on Comment Now!"

I did not know that the FWS were finally getting around to doing
something for this wonderful mustelid. Wolverines are famously known as
being fearless and aggressive, but in reality have lost habitat in most
of its ranges, and although found in many countries in northern areas,
they are not doing well. Warming climate is not good for a species that
likes cold climates: see

http://wolverinefoundation.org/distribution/ for a good brief
description of their numbers around the world.

This site
http://fwp.mt.gov/mtoutdoors/HTML/articles/portraits/wolverine.htm
states they look like a small bear - but look at that face - I see a
rather chunky ferret myself! Albeit with bigger teeth I expect.

"The wolverine's worldwide presence (fundamental niche) is congruent
with the distribution of persistent spring snow cover and may reflect
adaptations toward elevated thermal avoidance (Copeland et al. 2007)"
<http://wolverinefoundation.org/?page_id46>

So help one of our ferret's relatives and go the federal register site
and help the wolverine be designated threatened.

Meryl

[Posted in FML 7781]