Winter camouflage

In Scotland it is often snowy in the winter and it is an advantage for a handful of animals to turn white for the sake of camouflage. If, as is increasingly happening because of climate change, they are white when there is no snow they will find themselves anything but camouflaged.

Ptarmigan, stoats, weasels, mountain hares and snow buntings turn white in winter and all are found at Rannoch.

Should climate change continue to make snow less frequent there can be little doubt that those animals that can evolve to have white hair for a shorter period, or not at all will do so. It may be that the ptarmigan which only lives on the mountain tops in Scotland will be forced higher and higher until there is nowhere for it to go whether white or not. It may well go extinct in Scotland.