It's unclear what type of impact the federal government's decision not to list the wolverine on the Endangered Species List will have in Wyoming, a research biologist who studies the animal said Tuesday.

The wolverine is a scavenger that is found in the highest elevations of Wyoming's Rocky Mountains, including the Gros Ventre and Absaroka Mountains. It is also found in parts of Alaska and Canada and in the midwestern United States.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released a statement Monday saying the animal did not warrant protection as a threatened or endangered species.

The wolverine is a member of the weasel family, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, and can weigh between 17 and 40 pounds. They are found, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service, in boreal forests, tundra and mountainous regions, often above the timber line.

"After reviewing the best available scientific and commercial information, the Service has determined that the wolverine population in the contiguous United States is not discrete, because it is not separated from wolverine populations in Canada, and is likely dependent on them to some degree for maintaining genetic diversity," the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wrote in a statement.

The decision against federal protection was panned by the Washington, D.C.-based Defenders of Wildlife, which filed a lawsuit in 2006 asking for a review of an earlier petition that rejected endangered species protection for the animal.

David Gaillard, a Bozeman, Mont.-based Rocky Mountain representative for the Defenders of Wildlife, questioned the federal government's decision not to list the animal partly on the grounds that it is found in contiguous parts of Alaska and Canada.

"If we took the same tack with bald eagles or grizzlies, we'd never have gotten them on the Endangered Species List," Gaillard said in an interview Monday.

Gaillard said the organization may yet try to challenge the federal government again on its decision.

"We're going to do whatever we can," he said.

Jason Wilmott, a researcher with the Northern Rockies Conservation Cooperative in Jackson, said the oft-misunderstood wolverine presents a paradox for researchers and the federal government alike.

It's possible it hasn't been listed because there's so little research on the animal, he said, and therefore, federal agencies don't have enough information to act.

Wilmott said he doesn't necessarily advocate for or against a listing of the animal. He said there about 20 known wolverines in Wyoming, but there could be more. A listing of the animal could have helped, from a research standpoint, in delineating its distribution in Wyoming and in other parts of the United States.