The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced Wednesday morning that wolverines in the lower 48 states will be bumped into the “threatened” category under the Endangered Species Act on Dec. 30, a listing that brings a host of new legal protections and recovery programs for the species.

Wolverines, also known as “carcajous,” once roamed as far south as the Sierra Nevadas, but hunting and trapping pressure nearly wiped out the species in the U.S. by the early 1900s. Fewer than 300 wolverines live in Idaho, Montana, Washington and Wyoming today, according to U.S. Fish and Wildlife.

The wolverine—a solitary carnivore and scavenger—requires a particularly large territory of up to 300 square miles. The animals also depend on deep, lasting snowpack, as females build dens in the snow around February to raise their young then use the shelters well into May.