Wolverines live across the northern reaches of North America, Europe, and Asia, sticking to cold, remote landscapes where deep snow persists well into spring. They are a circumpolar species, meaning their range wraps around the top of the globe through boreal forests, alpine tundra, and mountainous terrain. In the contiguous United States, their range has shrunk dramatically, and they now occupy only isolated pockets of high-elevation wilderness in the northern Rockies and Cascades.
Range in the Contiguous United States
Wolverines in the lower 48 states are rare and geographically restricted. Verified sightings since 1985 have occurred in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Wyoming, and Alaska. The core populations survive in high-elevation areas of northern Washington, northwestern Montana, south-central Idaho, and northwestern Wyoming. These animals depend on rugged mountain habitat typically above 2,000 meters (roughly 6,500 feet), where snowpack lasts long enough to support denning from January through May.
Historically, wolverines ranged much farther south and east, with populations in Colorado, Minnesota, Nevada, North Dakota, and Utah. Trapping, poisoning campaigns, and habitat loss wiped them out of most of these areas by the early 1900s. Today, occasional wolverines show up in unexpected places like California and Oregon, likely young males dispersing long distances from established populations to the north.
Alaska and Canada
The bulk of North America’s wolverine population lives in Alaska and Canada. Their range stretches from the Aleutian Islands of Alaska eastward across Canada’s boreal and subarctic regions. In British Columbia, wolverines use mature spruce and fir forests at low and mid-elevations and move into alpine meadows during summer. In the Yukon, they occupy a mix of regenerating pine and spruce forests interspersed with alpine tundra. Farther north in the Northwest Territories, they use tundra habitats in winter and white spruce forests year-round.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has noted that wolverine populations in the contiguous states are connected to Canadian populations, which is partly why these southern animals weren’t given federal protection for many years. Canada’s wolverines act as a source, with dispersing animals occasionally crossing the border to replenish the thin populations in Washington, Montana, and Idaho.
Eurasian Distribution
On the other side of the globe, wolverines range across northern Scandinavia, Finland, Russia, and into Mongolia and parts of northern China. Scandinavia supports small but studied populations in Norway, Sweden, and Finland, where wolverines inhabit mountain and boreal forest ecosystems. Russia holds the largest Eurasian population by far, with wolverines spread across Siberia and into the forested mountains of the Eastern Sayan range. In Mongolia and central Asia, they persist in remote mountain habitats at northern latitudes.
Across their entire range, wolverines share the same basic requirement: vast stretches of cold, sparsely populated wilderness. They avoid areas with significant human activity and need enormous territories to find enough food.
Why Snow Defines Their Range
More than any other factor, persistent spring snow determines where wolverines can live. Females dig dens in deep snowpack to give birth and raise kits, relying on snow tunnels for insulation and protection from predators. This denning period runs from roughly January through May, and the snow needs to stay on the ground the entire time. In western Canada and the northern Rockies, that means wolverines are concentrated above 2,000 meters, where snowpack holds through late May under current conditions.
In California, wolverines have historically been recorded at elevations ranging from 400 to 4,300 meters, with an average around 2,425 meters. That wide band reflects their seasonal movements: lower elevations in winter to scavenge carcasses, higher alpine zones in summer. But the denning habitat that truly limits their distribution is always in the snowiest, highest terrain available.
How Climate Change Is Shifting Their Range
Wolverine habitat is projected to shrink significantly as warming temperatures reduce snowpack. Hydrological models for the Canadian Rockies predict that by 2051 to 2080, elevations below 2,000 meters will be snow-free by the end of May in half of all years. Deep, reliable snowpack (the kind wolverines need for denning) is projected to persist only at the very highest elevations, above 2,750 meters.
This creates a squeeze from both directions. Wolverines lose lower-elevation winter habitat to earlier snowmelt, and the remaining high-elevation snow zones get smaller and more fragmented. At the same time, backcountry recreation is increasing in exactly the terrain wolverines depend on, with winter sports enthusiasts and denning females both drawn to persistent north-facing snow. For wolverines in the contiguous U.S., already living at the southern edge of the species’ range, this combination poses the greatest long-term threat.
Federal Protection and Reintroduction
After decades of debate, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the contiguous U.S. population of wolverines as a threatened species, effective January 2, 2024. The listing recognized that while wolverines aren’t in immediate danger of extinction, habitat loss from climate change and other stressors makes them likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future. This applies only to wolverines in the lower 48 states, not to the much larger populations in Alaska and Canada.
Colorado is now working to bring wolverines back. The state legislature authorized a restoration program in 2024, and Colorado Parks and Wildlife plans to relocate up to 15 wolverines per winter for three or more years, aiming for a total of 45 animals. Three release zones have been identified in high mountain areas: one north of Interstate 70 near Rocky Mountain National Park, one in the Elk and West Elk Mountains between I-70 and Highway 50, and one in the San Juan Range in the southwest corner of the state. Each animal will be fitted with GPS tracking devices to monitor survival and movement. The program has received over $850,000 in combined state funding to get started, though releases depend on securing additional federal regulatory approval.
Wolverines were part of Colorado’s native wildlife until they were wiped out in the early 1900s, and the state’s high-elevation terrain could potentially support a self-sustaining population. If successful, the effort would mark the first significant expansion of wolverine range in the contiguous U.S. in over a century.