Photo courtesy of Sarah Pizzo

Except, perhaps, my Michigan Wolverines! As a former University of Michigan athlete, I’m a dedicated Wolverine fanatic. I’ve been watching all season as the Michigan men’s basketball team returns to greatness. Not since “The Fab Five” of the early 90s has the team looked so good. The Wolverines ranked as high as #1 in the nation this year. And they just defeated two perennial powerhouse teams to make it to the NCAA Final Four. After two decades in the making, I think the Wolverines have an excellent shot at winning the Championship.

National Wildlife Photo Contest entry by Robert Postma.

It’s been decades in the making…I think the wolverines are ready for their comeback.

National Wildlife Photo Contest entry by Robert Postma.

Today, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced they want to add the North American wolverine, a mountain-dwelling carnivore known for its ferocity and audacity, to the Endangered Species Act list. With less than 300 wolverines existing in the wild in the lower 48 states, scientists fear that climate change could push them over the brink if actions are not taken to protect them and their dwindling habitat.

The Mountain Devil

Much like its movie and comic book counterparts, the wolverine is known for being a badass. Weighing between 26 and 40 pounds, the animal packs a big punch for its small size. They have been seen taking on 300-pound black bears and taking down prey much larger than they are, such as deer, caribou and elk.

Armed with sharp claws, strong jaws and thick, frost-proof hides, wolverines are extremely territorial animals.  And while they are famous for picking fights and having gluttonous eating habits, the reality is that wolverines have simply adapted to the harsh environments in which they live—boreal forests, alpine tundra and the snow-tipped mountains of Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and Washington.

Yet, with climate change, these animals face a threat that no amount of badassery can overcome.

Melting Snowpack Puts Wolverines At Risk

Wolverine populations have been steadily declining in the United States for quite some time. Once abundant throughout the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas, unregulated trapping and hunting wiped out most wolverine populations in the United States by the 1930s. Combined with habitat loss and fragmentation, wild wolverine numbers have dwindled to an estimated 250-300 in the lower 48 states today.

Now, wildlife biologists have added a new threat to this list: climate change. Female wolverines need deep snow to create the dens where they birth and rear their young. With spring arriving earlier every year, wolverines are literally watching their denning habitat melt away as a result of climate change.

Endangered Species Act to the Rescue

The good news for wolverines is that the Endangered Species Act provides a safety net for wildlife on the brink of extinction. As a listed threatened species, wolverines are eligible for critical habitat designations and captive breeding and reintroduction programs. In its 40-year history, the Endangered Species Act has helped recover species like the bald eagle and grizzly bear and saved others like the black-footed ferret from disappearing completely.

Right now, the Endangered Species Act is the strongest tool available for helping wolverines survive.

Safeguarding Wildlife in a Warming World

While the best way to help species like wolverines, polar bears, and ringed and bearded seals—all of which have been listed or proposed for listing on account of climate change—is to reduce the carbon pollution driving climate change, other steps must be taken right now to help wildlife cope with the changes already happening where they live.

For wolverines, this means providing the large intact landscapes they need to survive. Making sure that wolverines and other climate change-threatened wildlife have the room they need to roam and keeping it connected is a key principle of what National Wildlife Federation calls climate-smart conservation.

Without these actions, wolverines face a bleak future. And as much fun as it is to watch Wolverine take on Sabertooth in a movie, I for one would much rather know that somewhere, in the wild, is a real wolverine taking on an entire pack of wolves, just because he can.

You can help fight for wolverines and other climate change-threatened wildlife by urging President Obama to limit carbon pollution from coal-burning power plants.

"Wu" the WuShock Mascot

Wichita State Wushock

What is a WuShock you ask? Wichita State describes their mascot, the WuShock as big, bad, muscle-bound, bundle of wheat. Fitting, as back in the early 1900′s many of the Fairmont College (later became Wichita State) football players earned tuition by harvesting or “shocking” wheat during the summer. Unfortunately, this wheat bundle isn’t as invincible as he seems. Over the last 30 years, we’ve seen global yields for wheat decrease by 5.5%, and scientists predict that this trend will continue as temperatures rise. A recent study from Stanford University found that a two degree increase in temperature could reduce the growing season by nine days, resulting in 20% less yield.

ISU Cyclone

Iowa State Cyclones

You won’t see a college student donning a twister costume on the court of ISU athletic events–rather, you’ll see “Cy” the cardinal wearing red and gold. Story goes, that the cardinal was ISU’s mascot until 1895 when damaging tornadoes wrecked havoc on central Iowa. When ISU stomped Northwestern 35-0 in a football match up that year, the headline in the Chicago Tribune the next day read “Struck by a Cyclone: It Comes From Iowa and Devastates Evanston Town”. The name stuck. Destructive storms and tornadoes continue to occur in the heartland, and as our air warms and moisture in the atmosphere increases due to climate change, we can expect even more dangerous storms. Warming winters and springs may cause some twisters to happen earlier as well–for example, Nebraska recorded their first February tornado on record this year.

Credit: Robert Postma

Michigan Wolverines

There are varying theories of why Michigan’s mascot is the wolverine. No wild wolverines exist in the state as far as we know. My favorite theory goes back to the Ohio-Michigan rivalry: Michiganders were called ‘wolverines’ in 1803 when the two sides argued over where to place the state line. What is unclear, however, is if Michiganders called themselves wolverines due to their tenacity and strength, or if Ohioans coined the term due to the gluttonous habits of their neighbors to the north. Either way, wolverines today are extremely threatened by climate change. As few as 250 wolverines may be left in the contiguous United States, of which only 35 individuals are thought to be successfully breeding.  Snow is melting earlier, putting the wolverine, who requires snowy habitat to find mates, reproduce, and survive in danger.

Credit: OSU

Ohio State Buckeyes

Brutus Buckeye is the famous mascot of the Ohio State University and is named after Ohio’s state tree, the buckeye. Contrary to popular belief, squirrels (thanks Jon Stewart!) are not the only threat to Brutus Buckeye. Climate change is moving the Ohio buckeye north into–dare I say it–Michigan. The Forest Service recently published a Climate Change Tree Atlas that predicts northward movement of the Ohio buckeye tree with a warming climate. Ohio State University student Kristen Arnold said in a 2008 press conference, “As a die-hard Buckeyes fan, the only thing worse than losing to Michigan would be giving them our mascot. This is one thing Buckeye and Wolverine fans should team up on: work together on global warming so they keep their wolverines and we save our buckeyes.”

Monte from Montana

Montana Grizzlies

Montanans have long recognized the grizzly as a symbol of the state’s wild heritage. The famous mascot, Monte the Grizzly hails from the University of Montana. The University’s basketball team officially became the Grizzlies in 1923 when they joined the Pacific Coast Conference–this was the same year Montana became the first state the in the nation to designate grizzlies as a protected game animal. Grizzly bears are slowly expanding their habitat range higher into the Arctic, to areas once thought to too chilly for the bear. This more northern habitat has been traditionally dominated by polar bears, leading many scientists to wonder about the ecological impacts of this habitat clash. I wonder if any team will adopt the Grolar bear as a mascot in the future?

Albert & Alberta

Florida Gators

Albert and Alberta Gator (one of the few male and female mascot pairings in the NCAA) call the University of Florida home. Appropriately suited since over 1 million alligators live in Florida and in 1987 the state of Florida declared the American Alligator their official state reptile. Climate change threatens alligators as sea levels rise, causing an influx of saltwater to the gator’s freshwater and brackish habitat. What’s worse, we may be seeing fewer ‘Albertas’ in the future. Eggs incubated at warmer temperatures tend to be born as males–altering the male to female sex ratio.

Which mascot will fend off extinction elimination in the tourney? My guess is a more climate resilient mascot will win this year…

Robert Postma

Just the name wolverine evokes images of a ferocious fighter, able to take down prey many times its size. However, the U.S. government isn’t one of them.

The largest of the land-dwelling weasels, this predator has been named a Gulo gulo (from “glutton”) for its supposed voracious appetite. But much of what it eats it hasn’t actually killed itself but found as carrion while on the prowl. The wolverine’s long, shaggy coat allows it to survive in harsh arctic and subarctic environments in Alaska, boreal northern Canada, Europe and Asia, as well as in the alpine northern Cascades in Washington and Rocky Mountains in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming. Its incredible sense of smell can find prey beneath snow, its claws and teeth can tear apart even frozen carcasses and it can travel for hundreds of miles in a week scoping for food.

Their built-in survival gear, however, cannot protect them from being vulnerable to climate change. Wolverines need deep snow that lasts well into late spring to build dens for their newly born kits. But snow is melting earlier, and the wolverine’s formerly continuous forest is being fragmented into disconnected islands of limited habitat. As few as 250 wolverines may be left in the contiguous United States, of which only 35 individuals are thought to be successfully breeding. The population needs sufficient continuous, snowy habitat to find mates, reproduce and survive.

Dying in Wait

Putting the wolverine on the U.S. Endangered Species List could help preserve habitat vital to the species’ survival. Yet, as ferocious as this mighty woodland warrior might appear, the wolverine cannot muscle its way onto the list. It is among at least 252 “candidate species” waiting to get the protections the Endangered Species Act and its list affords from a variety of threats, such as overhunting, pollution and habitat destruction. The Endangered Species Act and its list are tools that have proven their worth. They have pulled animals back from the brink of extinction, including our nation’s iconic American bald eagles, wolves, Florida panthers and black-footed ferrets, just to name a few.

The Wolverine’s Other Opponent

This past summer, key leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives sideswiped animals both on the Endangered Species List and those species waiting for its protection with a potentially fatal blow. An “extinction rider” to the 2012 budget bill was proposed that would have prevented the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service from spending any money to implement some of the most crucial sections of the Endangered Species Act, including listing any new species, designating habitat as critical to a species’ survival or changing the status of any species from threatened to endangered.

This bold attack on wildlife was met with fierce resistance from the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). With the help of our supporters and wildlife champions in the U.S. Congress, NWF  led an effort to stop this dangerous proposal. By a vote of 224 to 202, the measure was defeated with bipartisan support on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Despite this victory, the battle is far from over. The “extinction rider” is only a preview of what could be in store for wildlife from Congress. National Wildlife Federation expects the attacks on imperiled species to come harder and faster in the coming months.

Speak Up for Wolverines

Help protect wolverines and other imperiled species by sending a strong message to Congress to stop the stealth attacks on wildlife. Even the mighty wolverine and all of those lying in wait for protection need us to be fighting in their corner.

Wildlife in the Crossfire – About this Series

This four-part blog series highlights wildlife caught in the crossfire of the federal budget battle raging in Congress and gives you the tools to fight back.  Now is the time to stand up for wildlife.

Fact: America’s investment in wildlife is not to blame for the budget problems we face today. Over the past 30 years, America’s investment in parks, wildlife, clean water and clean air has fallen from 1.7% to 0.6% of federal spending.

Fastest

Let’s start with the animal that runs faster than any other.  Many people already know that the cheetah, which lives in Africa and Asia, can run like the wind.  These cats can go from a standstill to 60 miles per hour (mph) in just three seconds.  Their top speed is about 75 mph which makes them more than twice as fast as a lion (35 mph).  A cheetah’s body is completely designed for speed as you can easily see from this video.   But, in an odd twist of nature, cheetahs, unlike most cats, are terrible climbers.

The bird that flies the fastest is the spine-tailed swift of Siberia at over 100 mph.  But the bird that runs fastest is the ostrich which can hit 45 mph as you can tell from this video.   Ostriches are the largest of all birds and are totally flightless.  They often weigh over 300 pounds and must rely on their legs for safety and getting around.   When threatened, those legs can deliver a powerful, even deadly, kick to a predator.

Leggiest

Giraffes win the prize for being the “leggiest” of all creatures. Their legs can grow to well over six feet long.   They need good legs because adult males can grow to be close to 20 feet tall and weigh over 4,000 pounds.  The giraffe is a cousin of deer and cattle but looks quite different.  It closest relative is the okapi.

The African elephant has the largest legs (measured in bulk) of all land creatures.  They have to because they can grow to 15,000 pounds. The animal with the most legs goes is the millipede (750 legs) and the creature with the smallest legs, as far as anyone can figure, is the fairyfly.

Biggest Bones

If one were to ask what animal has the largest leg bones or what is the largest animal with leg bones the answer would be the same and it might, for many people, be a surprise.  It is the blue whale! Whales once lived on land but they liked swimming so much they returned to the sea.  Their front legs evolved into flippers but their back legs “un-evolved” and grew smaller and retreated into their bodies to make them more streamlined.  But, for a 100 foot long blue whale, even these residual hind leg bones are huge.

Slowest Walker

The tortoise is considered by most experts to be the slowest walking animal.  A good-to-go giant tortoise will hit a cruising speed of about 1/6 mph.  It is probably a good thing that they often live to be more than 100 years old.

Those same experts would tell you that the slowest moving mammal is probably the three-toed sloth which has difficulty walking  but moves just as slowly as a tortoise only through the branches of a tree.  If you are looking for the slowest creature using a pseudopod (false foot) it is probably the garden snail which chugs along at about 1/30 mph putting the “go” in escargot.

Largest Crawler

One might say the giant tortoise moves at a crawl, but it is pretty likely that the coconut crab is the largest of the slow crawling arthropods.   Coconut crabs, really oversized hermit crabs, can grow to nine pounds and measure three feet across.  They live on indo-pacific islands and do most of their crawling at night.

The hands-down largest crawler in the world, however, is the saltwater crocodile of Australia which can grow to 20 feet and over 2,500 pounds.   These crocs can also hit some amazing speeds from the “crawl” position.  The largest insect crawler is the goliath beetle which weighs about ¼ of a pound.

The Largest Crawl

Each year, the red crabs of Christmas Island in the Indian Ocean, leave their forest homes and engage in a massive migration to the Island’s shoreline in order to mate and propagate.  This video can give you a sense of what it is like when 120 million crabs march to the sea all at once.

The Loneliest Walker

Most wildlife scientists would vote for the wolverine as the greatest and widest-ranging walking soloist of all time.  Wolverines walk hundreds of miles and are seldom, if ever, seen.   Those same scientists might offer an explanation that wolverines are just too bad-tempered to spend time with others.  That is probably a little harsh but this video shows how a wolverine chases down a spry hare.

Longest Commute

Among land animals, the caribou is the long-distance champion.  Caribou herds in North America can travel over 3,000 miles round trip each year, without the benefit of “frequent walker” miles.

Weirdest Walkers

There are a number of fish that like to walk on land or in the water.  The mud skipper is probably the best adapted fish for this dual role.  It can stay out of the water for days and moves easily on its foot-like flippers.

The walking catfish by contrast, can leave the water but it is wriggling more than walking as you can see from this video.

One of the most charming of the walking fish is the Mexican walking fish as you can see from the photo on the right or the newly discovered pink hand fish.  And, there is this video of a newly discovered bottom-walking fish that took the experts by surprise.

Humans who have trouble getting around will often use a cane or walking stick, but in the animal world there is an insect known as a walking stick that this video looks at up close and personally.

Coolest Looking Walkers

At the National Wildlife Federation, we are committed to addressing the threat of global climate change and to making all the world’s walking animals a little safer and little better off.  So let’s wrap up with a video of crew of emperor penguins walking off into the distance – happily ever after.

For a great poster on wildlife that walk or to learn more, visit:  National Wildlife Week