Science Article #6

Climate Change Causes Wolverine Decline in Canada

Walker, M. “Climate Change Causes Wolverine Decline in Canada”. BBC – Earth News.
Retrieved February 5, 2010 From
http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_8494000/8494397.stm

In the scientific community, there are evidences of climate change. The climate change does have an impact on the biodiversity of animals that lives and survives in cold environment. It has been said that the shrinking polar ice in the Arctic Circle is responsible for the decline of Polar bears. Unfortunately, Polar bears are not the only species that are being affected by this climate change. The Wolverine is showing a decline in its populations in various parts of the world.

The reasons for its declining population could be from the reduction of the snowpack as well as the lack of prey it feeds on. The climate change is responsible for less and less snowpack – layers of snow that accumulates over time in different regions or high altitude. The wolverine and other animals rely on snowpack for insulation, as funny as that sounds to build a shelter.

The lack of snowpack is also responsible for driving its prey such as rodents and hares away for the same reason – shelter. Without food and shelter, this would dramatically affect the population of the Wolverine. The cold and unforgiving terrain of the north does tend to kill off the weakest of the species such as elks, moose, and caribou and Wolverines feed of its carcass. The warmer weather would help those animals survive longer and the Wolverines would not have that much meat to store as energy.

Any changes in its means of survival will change the Wolverines way of life and eventually stop procreating. It is an evolved animal to be a lean, mean, survival machine of the winter wonderland and without snow it takes away its sole purpose.