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The cool of the forest is a welcome escape on a hot day. This is especially true for mammals in North America\u2019s hottest regions, according to a study from the University of California, Davis. The study indicates that, as the climate warms, preserving forest cover will be increasingly important for wildlife conservation.<\/p>\n
The study, published today in the journal PNAS, found that North American mammals \u2014 from pumas, wolves and bears to rabbits, deer and opossums \u2014 consistently depend on forests and avoid cities, farms and other human-dominated areas in hotter climes. In fact, mammals are, on average, 50 percent more likely to occupy forests than open habitats in hot regions. The opposite was true in the coldest regions.<\/p>\n
\u201cDifferent populations of the same species respond differently to habitat based on where they are,\u201d said lead author Mahdieh Tourani, who conducted the study while a postdoctoral researcher at UC Davis and is now an assistant professor of quantitative ecology at the University of Montana, Missoula. \u201cClimate is mediating that difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tourani points to the eastern cottontail as an example. The study showed the common rabbit preferred forests in hotter areas while preferring human-dominated habitat in colder regions.<\/p>\n
Her example illustrates \u201cintraspecific variation,\u201d which the study found to be pervasive across all North America\u2019s mammals. This runs contrary to a longstanding practice in conservation biology of treating all populations of the same species the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis shows that not all populations of the same species respond the same.\u201d Said co-author Roland Kays, from the NC Museum of Natural Sciences and NC State University, \u201cEven within the state of North Carolina we found differences, with cottontail rabbits in the cooler western mountains being less dependent on forest habitat whereas in hot regions they were 50 percent more likely to use forest.”<\/p>\n
For the study, the authors leveraged Snapshot USA, a collaborative monitoring program led by the NC Museum of Natural Sciences with thousands of camera trap locations across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe analyzed 150,000 records of 29 mammal species using community occupancy models,\u201d Tourani said. \u201cThese models allowed us to study how mammals respond to habitat types across their ranges while accounting for the fact that species may be in an area, but we did not record their presence because the species is rare or elusive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTo get at these differences between populations of the same species you really need a lot of data across a large area,\u201d said Kays. \u201cThe network of Snapshot USA scientists running camera traps made it possible to ask this research question in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n
The study provides a pathway for conservation managers to tailor efforts to conserve and establish protected areas, as well as enhance working landscapes, like farms, pastures and developed areas.<\/p>\n
Additional co-authors included Rahel Sollmann of the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Jorge Ahumada of Conservation International and Arizona State University, and Eric Fegraus of Conservation International. The study was funded by Conservation International.<\/em><\/p>\n https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.2304411120<\/a><\/p>\n For more information about our upcoming activities, conservation news and groundbreaking research, follow @NaturalSciences on Instagram<\/a>, Twitter<\/a> and Facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90691,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/90688"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/90688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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