While some of you might say, why an article on Winter Weather and Wildlife when we are having 100 degree weather across much of the USA, we will blink and the Fall will be upon us with the recent memory of record snowfall across much of our northern tier in the East and Midwest.............The past hard winters have been associated with a 60 percent reduction in the number of New England cottontails in Maine........... In New Hampshire, researchers discovered that last year all the radio-collared rabbits that they were monitoring died after the heavy snows........Heavy snows with a sinking depth of more than 10 inches in Maine lead to a high death rate for bobcats, with Lynx gaining habitat advantage over their sympatric felid under these conditions

https://usfwsnortheast.wordpress.com/2015/03/28/how-does-a-harsh-winter-affect-wildlife/

HOW DOES A HARSH WINTER AFFECT WILDLIFE?

  Posted on March 28, 2015 By meaganraceyFWS

  1 Comment

This story comes from Mother Nature Network. We can finally see the ground in parts of New England, and my mind has officially transitioned into spring. But will the aftermath of this winter have lingering effects on our wildlife?

If turkeys can’t find food on the ground through two-to-three feet of snow, they will spend most of their time up in the trees roosting.
Credit: USFWS

By Tom Oder
Freezing temperatures and record amounts of snow in New England have been tough on humans this winter. They’ve also made life difficult for many forms of wildlife. For some, including salmon and an endangered mussel, the worst may still be ahead because quickly melting snow could lead to heavy spring floods.

But the news isn’t all bad for wildlife. Deep snows have given biologists a special opportunity to study some species such as the rare New England cottontail. Scientists are watching other creatures, such as the snowshoe hare, migratory birds and wild turkeys, to determine what impact the winter might have on their populations.

Can you spot the New England cottontail? Credit: Tony Tur/USFWS

New England cottontail: The deep and lingering snow has had varying affects on a rare rabbit, the New England cottontail across its range, according to Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife biologist Walter Jakubas. The snow, for example has helped biologists and volunteers find and study the rabbits in Rhode Island. Radio-collared rabbits there have been surviving the winter.

However, in Maine and New Hampshire deeper and longer lasting snow has made it more difficult to find rabbits because they move less and burrow under the snow. The past hard winters have been associated with a 60 percent reduction in the number of New England cottontail sites in Maine, Jakubas said. This year in New Hampshire all the radio-collared rabbits died after the heavy snows, he added.

Canada lynx. Credit: USFWS

Bobcats and lynx: One of the snowshoes hare’s predators, the bobcat can have atough time during severe winters. For at least 25 years, Maine’s bobcat management system has considered heavy snows with a sinking depth of more than 10 inches to be a high mortality factor for bobcats. Some biologists have suggested that bobcats at the northern edge of their range did poorly in the deep snow during the harsh winters of 2008 and 2009 and then recovered after subsequent mild winters. It’s too early to know how this winter’s snows will impact populations, Jabukas said.

The severity and length of the winter, though, can provide opportunities for the Canada lynx. This lynx is typically dominated by bobcats and consequently relegated to snowier parts where their exceptionally large feet allow them to seemingly float on the snow and cover large territories. Snow track surveys next winter will help biologists understand whether lynx or bobcat ranges changed in response to the deep snows this winter.