Conservation for species impacted by climate change often occurs at scales impractical for local land managers. Snowshoe hares (Lepus americanus) are one of the most well‐documented species declining from climate change–specifically a reduction in snowcover–yet clear management strategies have yet to emerge. To test whether camouflage mismatch is reducing hare survival we translocated 96 hares to a site recently extirpated of snowshoe hares, and monitored coat color change, mismatch with snow, habitat use, and weekly survival in winter‐spring of 2017. Hare survival was low during periods of camouflage mismatch, and mismatched hares were 3.2 × less likely to survive, but this pattern varied by habitat. We found that aspen‐alder stands >5 hectares negated the mortality costs of mismatch. We provide experimental evidence that mismatch is driving the range contraction of snowshoe hares, and identify specific habitats to buffer the consequences of climate change on this declining winter specialist.

中文翻译：

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实验易位确定了栖息地特征，这些特征可以缓解雪兔的伪装失配

保护受气候变化影响的物种通常发生在当地土地管理人员不切实际的规模上。雪兔野兔（天兔座美洲）是证据最丰富的物种之一，由于气候变化而下降（特别是减少积雪），但尚未提出明确的管理策略。为了测试伪装不匹配是否会降低野兔的生存率，我们将96只野兔转移到了最近被除雪的野兔身上，并监测了外套颜色的变化，与雪的不匹配，栖息地的使用以及2017年冬春季的每周生存。迷彩失配和野兔失配的生存期减少了3.2倍，但这种模式因栖息地而异。我们发现，白杨站立的面积大于5公顷，抵消了失配造成的死亡成本。我们提供的实验证据表明，不匹配会导致雪鞋野兔的范围缩小，