Climate change may melt the 'freezers' of pygmy owls and reduce their overwinter survival
Wednesday, August 5, 2020 - 10:51
in Earth & Climate
Ecologists at the University of Turku, Finland, have discovered that the food hoards pygmy owls collect in nest-boxes ("freezers") for winter rot due to high precipitation caused by heavy autumn rains if the hoarding has been initiated early in the autumn. The results of the study show that climate change may impair predators' foraging and thus decrease local overwinter survival. The study has been published in the internationally esteemed Global Change Biology journal.