BILLINGS, Mont. >> The North American wolverine will receive long-delayed threatened species protections under a Biden administration proposal released Wednesday in response to scientists warning that climate change will likely melt away the rare species’ snowy mountain refuges and push them toward extinction.

Across most of the U.S., wolverines were wiped out by the early 1900s from unregulated trapping and poisoning campaigns. About 300 surviving animals in the contiguous U.S. live in fragmented, isolated groups at high elevations in the northern Rocky Mountains.

Wolverines join a growing number of animals, plants and insects that officials say are at growing risk as increasing temperatures bake the planet.

The decision Wednesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service follows more than two decades of disputes over threats to the long-term survival of the elusive species.

— The Associated Press