Body mass
Pre-hibernation fat stores were strongly related to body mass (β= 0.597, F1,171 = 826.7, p = <0.001, adjusted R2 = 0.8276; Figure 2). Latitude (Northing; β = -0.08, p-value = 0.07) and the number of days below freezing (Daysfreeze; β =0.04, p-value < 0.001) best predicted fat mass across the species’ distribution (AICc = 162.57; Table S4). However, the model including latitude, number of annual days below freezing, and elevation performed similarly (ΔAICc < 2; Table S4).
Given the best model, the median predicted pre-hibernation body mass across the species’ distribution of M. lucifugus was 8.65 g (mean = 9.14 g, sd = 1.84 g) and 95% of the cells predicted values between 7.04 g and12.52 g. Median pre-hibernation fat stores were predicted at 2.32g (mean = 2.61 g, sd = 1.10 g) with 95% of cells predicting available fat available ranging between 1.36 g and 4.63 g.