UPDATE 5:35 p.m.

HELENA — The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has agreed to reconsider denial of Endangered Species Act protection for the wolverine, a snow-dwelling furbearer at the center of a lawsuit filed last year by Defenders of Wildlife and eight other groups.

The reconsideration is in an agreement, filed Wednesday, to settle the case. The agreement requires the approval of U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy in Missoula.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said in March 2008 that even if wolverines disappeared from the contiguous 48 states, the species would survive because wolverines in the United States are connected to larger populations in Canada. Defenders of Wildlife said documents show the Fish and Wildlife Service supported protecting the wolverine under the Endangered Species Act, but the support was overridden by politically driven officials in the Interior Department.

The settlement requires the Fish and Wildlife Service to issue a determination of the wolverine's status by December 2010.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has estimated the U.S. wolverine population, excluding Alaska, consists of a total of 500 animals in Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and Washington. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit say that figure may be high by 20 percent or more. The Canadian population has been estimated at 15,000 to 19,000 wolverines.

"We're very pleased that the wolverine is going to get a second chance," said Tim Preso, a lawyer at Earthjustice, an environmental law firm based in Bozeman. "This is consistent with the new (Obama) administration's desire to ensure the scientific integrity of agency decisions."

Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Diane Katzenberger at the agency's regional office in Denver said the case still is considered ongoing litigation and therefore she had no comment on it.

The status review requires the agency to consider new information about projected effects of climate change on the Rocky Mountains and the Northwest. Spring snowpack in the mountains shelters female wolverines during reproduction.

"Clearly, climate change is a significant concern for the wolverine because its habitat is pretty much dependent on snow, and persistent snow into the spring," Preso said in a telephone interview.

The settlement calls for the government to pay $12,663 for attorney fees and other costs.