Wolverine settles in Colorado

State wildlife biologists say they think M56, the solo male wolverine that migrated more than 500 miles to Colorado from Wyoming last spring, appears to have settled in at the snowy edge of Rocky Mountain National Park, raising hopes for the survival of the species and other threatened carnivores. Climate change appears to be shrinking nationwide the snowy habitat needed to sustain predators including wolves, wolverines and lynx, wildlife experts said Monday at a conference on climate change put on by the advocacy group Defenders of Wildlife. Colorado, with its abundant federal lands at elevations higher than 12,000 feet, increasingly is seen as a prime refuge where threatened and endangered species could be reintroduced. "We have to focus on areas that are most resistant to climate change, and Colorado is one of them," said David Gaillard, northern Rockies representative for Defenders of Wildlife. "We'd love to help the state raise money" for a project. Colorado biologists who successfully reintroduced lynx in high-mountain terrain now are beginning to talk about the wolverine...read more