Today, spring comes three to four weeks earlier than 50 years ago. And according to the Swedish University of Agriculture (SLU), it is the result of climate change. Therefore, SLU will investigate whether it affects when the red fox, badger, marten, ferret, hare, hare and beaver have their young.
– It is a general pattern that we see that reproduction times change with climate change. But in just these seven species we lack knowledge, says Fredrik Widemo, who is a university lecturer at SLU in Umeå.
“From an ethical perspective”
The reason is that the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency is currently reviewing the hunting times.
– They are partly determined based on when the animals have their young. Simply from an ethical perspective that you shouldn’t hunt the animals when they have cubs that might then become orphans, says Fredrik Widemo.
Is there any geographic location that is more affected?
– It is clear that there can be big differences in when the young are born if we compare Skåne and Norrbotten if we take the extremes. Or the coast and mountains for that matter.
According to Fredrik Widemo, there are mainly three factors that affect childbirth: the temperature, the amount of snow and the length of the day.
And SLU is now calling on the public and hunters to send in pictures on young or family groups from the seven species.