Less snow leaves weasels exposed to predators: scientists

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Fluffy white weasels that once frolicked in snowy fields unnoticed now have a target on their back thanks to global warming, scientists said Thursday.

It's a question is "camouflage mismatch".

The population of white-coated Mustela nivalis nivalis in Poland's Bialowieza Forest, they found, has declined sharply as climate change reduced the number of snow-covered days by half in 50 years.

Compared to the 1960s, snows in the forest's high-altitude regions disappear each year nearly a month earlier, and well before the nimble mammal's fur molts into earth-coloured tones.

This exposes the weasel to foxes, wolves, raptors and other predators, the researchers reported in the journal Scientific Reports.

"Climate change will strongly influence the mortality of the M. n. nivalis weasel due to prolonged camouflage mismatch," Kamal Atmey from the University of Bordeaux and two colleagues in Poland concluded.

Wearing a winter coat after the Spring thaw "may lead to local extinction."

The common weasel is native to Canada and Eurasia, and has been introduced in many other regions of the world, accidentally or for pest control.

The slight, furtive animals live on a diet of small rodents, especially mice, and sometime larger prey, such as young rabbits.

Only the M. n. nivalis subspecies in snowy regions has evolved the capacity to don a luxuriant white coat for the winter, losing it gradually as cold weather gives way.

Read more at: https://phys.org/news/2018-05-weasels-exposed-predators-scientists.html#jCp