The red fox creeps into the clearing, readying its paws to pierce through the frosty ground. Pounce, and finds its target. The red fox’s ability to find prey even when it resides deep under layers of snow, is critical to its survival. But if the snow melts, will the fox thrive, or not know how to go on.
“Winter has a lot of moving parts, and they’re all interacting with each other. » – Brent Sinclair, an associate professor in biology.
Determining which species will thrive and which will struggle to survive is a difficult task.
Key to predicting the results, are understanding each animal has different vulnerabilities. Changing conditions change different animal differently.
“We will cross pathogen and disease thresholds that we just don’t know about right now. » – Kevin McKelvey an ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service
The key going forward, according to McKelvey, is to make better choices about what scientists need to measure, so that we can move from less to more certainty – and faster.
Read more about how climate change will throw off the natural balances for a wide range of species « Harder Times Ahead » by Niki Wilson, in Canadian Wildlife magazine, Mar + Apr 2016 edition.