The Southern and eastern parts of the United States are experiencing harsh temperatures which create equally miserable conditions for the wildlife as much as it does for the humans.
Many animals adapt to extreme climates so that they can survive in the coldest of temperatures. Like Arctic foxes, red foxes and snowshoe hares with long thick fur and frostbite-proof feet are adapted exclusively for colder climates.
Some of the species have expanded their range recently due to climate change and other factors, but when sudden cold strikes occur they are not well prepared for it.
It’s difficult to know how this recent harsh cold weather will impact wildlife in the United States. Some of the below species will not fare well due to this extreme climate.
The New England cottontail
These rabbits live in a dense spinney that makes them difficult to locate, but they leave trails behind, making it easy to know about their presence. It is easy to find them in fresh snow. Due to long-lasting snow, it has been not easy to find these cottontails, snowshoe hares because they burrow under the snow and move around less.
The past severe winters have seen around 60 percent decreases in the number of New England cottontails in Maine and the region where they are found.
Bobcats and lynx
Bobcats are also one of the predators of snowshoe hares. They can have a tough time during harsh winters. For about 25 years, the bobcat’s adapting skills have been subdued, such as having difficulty adapting to heavy snows and 10 inches or more sinking depth. This is considered one of the factors of the high mortality of bobcats. Some biologists suggest that bobcats at the northern edge of the range tend to adapt poorly in the deep snow during the severe winters of 2009 and 2008. They subsequently recovered after a few mild winters
