Climate change is affecting mortality of weasels due to camouflage mismatch

Abstract Direct phenological mismatch caused by climate change can occur in mammals that moult seasonally. Two colour morphs of the weasel Mustela nivalis (M. n.) occur sympatrically in Białowieża Forest (NE Poland) and differ in their winter pelage colour: white in M. n. nivalis and brown in M. n....

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Autores principales:	Kamal Atmeh, Anna Andruszkiewicz, Karol Zub
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2018
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/ff7725f46a754402b3cc34169c16ebd4
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:ff7725f46a754402b3cc34169c16ebd42021-12-02T15:08:25ZClimate change is affecting mortality of weasels due to camouflage mismatch10.1038/s41598-018-26057-52045-2322https://doaj.org/article/ff7725f46a754402b3cc34169c16ebd42018-05-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26057-5https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract Direct phenological mismatch caused by climate change can occur in mammals that moult seasonally. Two colour morphs of the weasel Mustela nivalis (M. n.) occur sympatrically in Białowieża Forest (NE Poland) and differ in their winter pelage colour: white in M. n. nivalis and brown in M. n. vulgaris. Due to their small body size, weasels are vulnerable to attacks by a range of different predators; thus cryptic coat colour may increase their winter survival. By analysing trapping data, we found that the share of white subspecies in the weasel population inhabiting Białowieża Forest decreases with decreasing numbers of days with snow cover. This led us to hypothesise that selective predation pressure should favour one of the two phenotypes, according to the prevailing weather conditions in winter. A simple field experiment with weasel models (white and brown), exposed against different background colours, revealed that contrasting models faced significantly higher detection by predators. Our observations also confirmed earlier findings that the plasticity of moult in M. n. nivalis is very limited. This means that climate change will strongly influence the mortality of the nivalis-type due to prolonged camouflage mismatch, which will directly affect the abundance and geographical distribution of this subspecies.Kamal AtmehAnna AndruszkiewiczKarol ZubNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 8, Iss 1, Pp 1-7 (2018)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Kamal Atmeh Anna Andruszkiewicz Karol Zub Climate change is affecting mortality of weasels due to camouflage mismatch
description	Abstract Direct phenological mismatch caused by climate change can occur in mammals that moult seasonally. Two colour morphs of the weasel Mustela nivalis (M. n.) occur sympatrically in Białowieża Forest (NE Poland) and differ in their winter pelage colour: white in M. n. nivalis and brown in M. n. vulgaris. Due to their small body size, weasels are vulnerable to attacks by a range of different predators; thus cryptic coat colour may increase their winter survival. By analysing trapping data, we found that the share of white subspecies in the weasel population inhabiting Białowieża Forest decreases with decreasing numbers of days with snow cover. This led us to hypothesise that selective predation pressure should favour one of the two phenotypes, according to the prevailing weather conditions in winter. A simple field experiment with weasel models (white and brown), exposed against different background colours, revealed that contrasting models faced significantly higher detection by predators. Our observations also confirmed earlier findings that the plasticity of moult in M. n. nivalis is very limited. This means that climate change will strongly influence the mortality of the nivalis-type due to prolonged camouflage mismatch, which will directly affect the abundance and geographical distribution of this subspecies.
format	article
author	Kamal Atmeh Anna Andruszkiewicz Karol Zub
author_facet	Kamal Atmeh Anna Andruszkiewicz Karol Zub
author_sort	Kamal Atmeh
title	Climate change is affecting mortality of weasels due to camouflage mismatch
title_short	Climate change is affecting mortality of weasels due to camouflage mismatch
title_full	Climate change is affecting mortality of weasels due to camouflage mismatch
title_fullStr	Climate change is affecting mortality of weasels due to camouflage mismatch
title_full_unstemmed	Climate change is affecting mortality of weasels due to camouflage mismatch
title_sort	climate change is affecting mortality of weasels due to camouflage mismatch
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2018
url	https://doaj.org/article/ff7725f46a754402b3cc34169c16ebd4
work_keys_str_mv	AT kamalatmeh climatechangeisaffectingmortalityofweaselsduetocamouflagemismatch AT annaandruszkiewicz climatechangeisaffectingmortalityofweaselsduetocamouflagemismatch AT karolzub climatechangeisaffectingmortalityofweaselsduetocamouflagemismatch
_version_	1718388166526763008

Climate change is affecting mortality of weasels due to camouflage mismatch

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