Elusive predator hunted to local extinction returns to its historical range (abcnews.go.com)

submitted 2 weeks ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/biodiversity@mander.xyz

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A species that was hunted to local extinction made a comeback on its historical range, scientists who witnessed the population recovery via satellite imagery said.

The wolverine, listed as endangered due to over-hunting in the 20th century, has returned to the forests of southern Finland, according to a paper published last month in Ecology and Evolution.

Wolverine populations are distributed throughout boreal regions in the northern hemisphere, including arctic and subarctic regions and western North America, the Wolverine Foundation noted.

Historically, in Europe, they could be found as far south as Norway, southern Sweden and northeast Poland. Today, wolverines are only found in the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland and Russia.

In Finland, the wolverine was classified as endangered in the 1980s. While they were known to have inhabited southern parts of the country as recently as the 19th century, hunting eradicated the species from the region, according to researchers at Aalto University in Espoo, Finland.

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this post was submitted on 31 May 2025

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Biodiversity is a term used to describe the enormous variety of life on Earth. It can be used more specifically to refer to all of the species in one region or ecosystem. Biodiversity refers to every living thing, including plants, bacteria, animals, and humans. Scientists have estimated that there are around 8.7 million species of plants and animals in existence. However, only around 1.2 million species have been identified and described so far, most of which are insects. This means that millions of other organisms remain a complete mystery.

Over generations, all of the species that are currently alive today have evolved unique traits that make them distinct from other species. These differences are what scientists use to tell one species from another. Organisms that have evolved to be so different from one another that they can no longer reproduce with each other are considered different species. All organisms that can reproduce with each other fall into one species. Read more...

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