Coat color mismatch improves survival of a keystone boreal herbivore: Energetic advantages exceed lost camouflage.

Autor: Kennah JL; Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada., Peers MJL; Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada., Vander Wal E; Department of Biology, Memorial University of Newfoundland, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada., Majchrzak YN; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada., Menzies AK; Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada., Studd EK; Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada., Boonstra R; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada., Humphries MM; Department of Natural Resource Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada., Jung TS; Department of Environment, Government of Yukon, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada.; Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada., Kenney AJ; Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada., Krebs CJ; Department of Zoology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada., Boutin S; Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Ecology [Ecology] 2023 Feb; Vol. 104 (2), pp. e3882. Date of Electronic Publication: 2022 Dec 01.
DOI: 10.1002/ecy.3882
Abstrakt: Climate warming is causing asynchronies between animal phenology and environments. Mismatched traits, such as coat color change mismatched with snow, can decrease survival. However, coat change does not serve a singular adaptive benefit of camouflage, and alternate coat change functions may confer advantages that supersede mismatch costs. We found that mismatch reduced, rather than increased, autumn mortality risk of snowshoe hares in Yukon by 86.5% when mismatch occurred. We suggest that the increased coat insulation and lower metabolic rates of winter-acclimatized hares confer energetic advantages to white mismatched hares that reduce their mortality risk. We found that white mismatched hares forage 17-77 min less per day than matched brown hares between 0°C and -10°C, thus lowering their predation risk and increasing survival. We found no effect of mismatch on spring mortality risk, during which mismatch occurred at warmer temperatures, suggesting a potential temperature limit at which the costs of conspicuousness outweigh energetic benefits.
(© 2022 The Ecological Society of America.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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