Humankind isn’t the only species that have to adjust to the impacts of climate change and global warming.
A new analysis issued in Trends in Ecology & Evolution exhibits that certain warm-blooded species are starting to “shapeshift” their anatomy concerning climate change.
Scientists determined new data to back up the hypothesis that increasing temperatures are causing changes in the behavior and physiology of some warm-blooded creatures, such as longer legs, ears, and beaks in some avian species.
Humanity has wreaked havoc on the ecosystem on a global scale. Behavioral changes are the first adaptation of many organisms to changing environment.
Although ecological changes occurred well before human’s arrival, the abrupt and comprehensive pattern of anthropogenic changes means that organisms are challenged with environmental situations they have never experienced before.
Most creatures’ immediate response to human-induced changes in their environment is acclimating to the changes. Such behavioral changes may boost an organism’s chances of surviving and breeding in a changing climate.
Some species, for instance, have modified their feeding behaviors to avoid humans and automobiles as urbanization spreads towards wild habitats. In contrast, others have tweaked their acoustic patterns to be audible in urban situations.
However, not all modified behavioral reflexes are helpful. Human-created variables, for example, can compromise the accuracy of animal indicators used to judge ecological integrity, leading to poor habitat selections that can have a negative influence on reproductive fitness.
Environmental impacts can also diminish organisms’ ability to launch an adequate conditioned change by impairing sensory stimuli or interfering with physiological functions.
The fact that wildlife is migrating is becoming apparent to biologists, farmers, and nature enthusiasts worldwide. Butterflies are residing higher up on hills, and vegetation in North America and Europe is shifting north.
Homeowners in North Carolina are still terrified of nine-banded armadillos that have infiltrated the state from the south.
According to a 2011 analysis of data on dozens of migratory species, the median shift was observed to higher altitudes of 36 feet (11 meters) every ten years, and the median change to higher latitudes was 10.5 miles (17 kilometers) every decade.
As ocean water temperature rises, coral reefs, which are essentially colonies of individual organisms called polyps, have seen widespread bleaching. They discharge the vibrant symbiotic algae that reside within them when the water becomes too hot.
According to scientists researching corals around American Samoa, many corals in warmer water pools had acclimated to global warming and not bleached. The following is a list of 10 such animals who have changed their behavior due to climate change.
Table of Contents
1. European large banded snails
A change in the number of gigantic European banded snails with light-colored casings is one of the most robust pieces of evidence of natural development in tackling climate change. Shell color is inherited, and the genetics that controls it are well-known.
It has been demonstrated that snails with light-colored casings have a reduced skin temperature than those with black or dark shells in a specific region.
Over time, light-colored shells have become more common in the Netherlands, especially in forested, shaded areas where one may expect dark shells to predominate.
2. Pink Salmon
Despite various difficulties posed by humanity, salmon have remained relatively stable to date. According to Discover Magazine, when the fishing industry endangered Chinook salmon from Alaska to California in the 1920s, the fish had a shorter life span and reduced body size.
And, due to climate change, pink salmon have now evolved to migrate sooner. In reaction to rising sea surface temperatures, salmons voyage from the ocean to the river two weeks earlier than they used to 40 years ago.
Furthermore, according to Mental Floss, this isn’t simply a behavioral shift, but a genetic modification as well, with natural selection preferring fish that migrate earlier.
3. Tawny Owl
In Finland, tawny owls changed their coloring in reaction to warmer temperatures. The owls are originally pale gray or reddish-brown.
Formerly, more owls were pale gray, which allowed them to camouflage in with the snow and evade predatory animals.
An owl’s feather color is determined solely by the amount of a pigment called pheomelanin that wound up in its feathers, which is determined by several genes.
According to a 2011 contemplation printed in Discover Magazine, more Tawny owls turn brown as temperatures increase and snow melts in Finland.
Natural selection prefers feathers that blend in with the brown woodland rather than the snow as winters become milder.
4. Puffins
Puffins in the Gulf of Maine that generally feed on white hake and salmon are now attempting to feed on their newborn butterfish. Furthermore, these creatures are migrating north due to rising temperatures in oceans.
Conservationists estimate that nestling survival rates have decreased by 75 percent in the year 2021, unlike 35 percent in the last 17 years.
Hence, they are also seen feeding on other sea creatures such as algae, snails, and other random fish that they can find in the surrounding waters.
5. Lungfish
Drought follows behind when the weather heats up, forcing many creatures to alter their biology to cope with dangerous water crises.
The lungfish have gone to great lengths to achieve this. When necessary, it no longer becomes what it is: a fish.
This particular species of fish can be found in marshes and reservoirs. If the environment dries up, the lungfish can use its bladder to act as a lung, enabling it to breathe air throughout the dry season while languishing in the mud, far from its typical habitat.
The lungfish can also effectively protect themselves, standing in a line up to five years for the water to revert back due to its ability to synthesize mucus.
6. Sockeye salmon
Sockeye salmon in the Columbia River are moving earlier each year in the spring and early summer to breed.
Research published in American Naturalist in 2011 looked at the migration trend over a 60-year period to see if increasing river temperatures were responsible.
The scientists included daily migration statistics to predict previous environmental constraints since sockeye salmon migration numbers went down significantly a few decades back.
About two-thirds of the shift might be explained by evolution in reaction to rising water temperatures, while individual progressive changes in waters could explain the rest.
7. Red squirrels
Warmer summers and a drier atmosphere in the southwest Yukon have encouraged white spruce trees to yield more cones, providing more food for North American red squirrels. Mother red squirrels bear children early if they ingest more cones in the autumn.
Researchers observed a fluctuation in childbirth periods of nearly two days each year in a single population of red squirrels at Kluane Lake, Canada, over the last ten years.
Although birth times can vary, the researchers suggest that one can only justify the findings if at least some of the shift is due to genetic modifications passed down through generations.
8. Pitcher Plant Mosquitoes
The larvae of pitcher plant mosquitoes sleep throughout the wintertime in the swamps of eastern North America until blossoming into fully-fledged adults in the springtime, when they flourish on the syrup inside the pitcher plant.
Mosquitoes are physiologically built to slumber as the days get shorter. Because of the extended growing season, mosquitos near the southern end of the subspecies’ territory have already adjusted to delay dormancy. However, as global temperatures increase, northern populations are resting later as well.
Other research suggests that the Asian tiger mosquito, which transmits the West Nile virus, and the water strider are undergoing comparable hibernation fluctuations due to climate changes.
9. Storks
To acclimatize to the ambient temperature of their surroundings, many migratory birds are changing their migration schedules or perhaps abandoning migration altogether.
One such illustration is storks. When the wintertime is milder, they become more inactive and even move their reproduction ahead to accommodate the earlier springs.
One of the strange aspects of this adaptation is that the storks’ offspring maintain the migratory gene, migrating to Africa when they are mature enough but returning three or four years later to dwell where they hatched.
10. Polar and Grizzly Bear
In fact, for the very first time in human history, thawing in the Arctic is drawing various species together in the same area.
This tendency is unfolding unusual behaviors in polar bear species, as they are spending more time onshore in the summertime due to a shortage of frozen regions.
Furthermore, brown bears are seen migrating northward due to the improved climate at elevation. Hybridization or the genetic crossing of two species to produce a new one has resulted as a consequence of this behavioral change.
A shooter killed a white bear with chestnut spots in 2006. Its DNA revealed that it was created by a polar bear breeding with a grizzly bear.
Four years later, another hunter discovered another crossbreed, this time a second generation, a crossover from a hybrid with a polar bear, demonstrating that the animals had previously interacted.
As a result, crossing them is an evolutionary success, resulting from climate change and producing healthy and viable offspring.
To Conclude
Many theories verify that animals will be able to adapt to climate change. Short-lived species, such as fruit flies, have more opportunities to evolve than long-lived species, which don’t start breeding for decades.
And some species, such as conifer trees, merely have more genetic variations in their population numbers to contribute.
Long-lived species with limited beneficial mutations, such as many uncommon mammals, will, on the other hand, be less adaptable.
Animals are demonstrating variations in their sex ratios, endurance to heat, and physique, in addition to shifting their range and changing the timing of crucial life phases. Some of these changes may aid a species’ adaptation, while others may hasten its extinction.
Temperatures are rising, precipitation patterns are shifting, and the weather is becoming less predictable and more intense. Climate change is already altering species and ecosystems on land and in the ocean.
(Last Updated on April 9, 2022 by Sadrish Dabadi)
