White-furred animals are in danger of dying out because climate change is causing a fall in snow cover, leaving them exposed and vulnerable, a new study suggests.

 

一项新研究指出，白毛动物正面临灭绝的危险，因为气候变化导致冰雪覆盖范围减少，从而让白毛动物难以藏身、易受攻击。

 

Scientists in Poland have been following the worrying case of the white-coated weasel, which sheds its tawny¹ covering in the winter for a milky² coat allowing it to blend effortlessly into its icy environment.

 

But researchers have discovered that between 1997 and 2007 the number of days with permanent snow cover in Białowieża Forest, Poland, halved³, from 80 to 40.

 

It means that the little creatures are being caught out in a completely unsuitable environment, where they are easy prey⁴ for predators⁵ like foxes and crows.

 

The team at the Polish Academy of Sciences found that on days when there was little winter snow cover, the number of white-coated weasels they managed to capture fell to as low as 20 percent of the total, suggesting the rest had been killed.

 

Previously⁶ they would have been dominant⁷, because their coats would have given them a survival advantage.

 

The problem is likely to affect other white-furred mammals and birds living in areas vulnerable to climate change such as the Arctic fox as the snow cover increasingly gives way to a landscape of greens and browns.

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