photo; spiegelonline
Some scientists are saying that the cold Spring of 2012 is due to excessive glacier melting in the North Pole. The colder water from the melt is making the northern Atlantic and Baltic waters colder and that in turn is making the Spring longer colder than usual. What they are also saying is that the glaciers are melting at a rate that will not enable refreezing for a good portion of it, signaling a precipitation of the melting trend caused by global warming.
One of the smaller victims of the cold spring are hares and rabbits in the German territory. Farmers have reported that they are finding numerous dead bunnies in the open fields.
But what is killing them might not just be the snow cover and extended winter, but farming practices.
In fact they are not dying because of the cold weather because they can tolerate dry snow and the chill, but, although the cold is not a threat to the small animals, the slushy wet snow is fatal.
Their habitat has also been changed by farming practices which makes finding refuge from the heavy wet snow impossible.
Modern farming eliminates hedging, a crucial part of the field where the critters find refuge. The hedges also protect them from predators.
What is also worrisome is that this is the season when rabbits and hares have their leverets. In desperation, some of these animals are venturing into towns, in the hope to find some food. If anyone finds leverets, they are asked to not pick them up. They are not being abandoned. They are left so that the mother can forage and so that the mother does not in the daylight give clues as to where her babies are.
Source: Spiegel online 3.30.13
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