Climate Change: Bears, Bison More Resilient than Mice, Lemmings, Study Says

A recent study looks at how various mammals respond to climate change.

Bison and bears are examples of long-lived, low-reproduction animals that are more resilient than small, short-lived animals like lemmings and mice.

As the average global temperature rise, extreme weather events like prolonged droughts and torrential downpours are becoming more frequent, which will only get worse in the near future.

How will the ecosystems of the planet react?

John Jackson, a biologist, said that that is the important query and the context of their investigation.

Together with Owen Jones from the University of Southern Denmark and Christie Le Coeur from the University of Oslo, Jackson co-authored the new study.

Jackson was at the University of Southern Denmark during the time that the study was conducted, but is currently a student at Oxford University.

Jones teaches in the biology department at the University of Southern Denmark.

Climate vs Mammals

In the study, the authors compared weather and climatic data from the time the mammal data were collected with information on population variability from 157 mammal species from all over the world.

There is at least ten years' worth of data for each species.

They now have a better understanding of how animal populations have fared during periods of extreme weather thanks to their analysis.

They sought answers to issues like the following:

• Did the number of animal species increase or decrease?
• Did they produce more or fewer young?

Jones said that a definite pattern can be seen here: animals with long lifespans and few offspring are less susceptible to extreme weather than those with short lifespans and many offspring.

Consider how mice, possums, and rare marsupials like the woylie differ from long-lived bats, llamas, and elephants.

Their research, published in eLife Sciences, revealed that some animals, such as the African elephant, chimpanzee, Siberian tiger, greater horseshoe bat, llama, vicuna, white rhinoceros, American bison, grizzly bear, klipspringer, and Schreiber's bat, are less affected by weather extremes.

However, some animals are more impacted by extreme weather than others.

These include the arctic ground squirrel, woylie, olive grass mouse, Azara's grass mouse, elegant fat-tailed mouse opossum, tundra vole, stoat, Arctic fox, common shrew, and woylie.

Read also: Rising Temperatures Increases the Warning Sound of a Snapping Shrimp 

Short-Lived Animals vs. Drought

The ability of large, long-lived animals to survive, reproduce, and raise their young is not as significantly impacted by environmental factors like prolonged drought as it is for small, short-lived animals.

When circumstances become difficult, they can, for instance, focus their efforts on just one child or just wait for better times.

On the other hand, small rodents with short lifespans experience more drastic short-term population changes.

Large portions of their food source, such as insects, flowers, and fruits, may disappear more quickly in the event of a protracted drought, for instance, and because they have a finite amount of fat reserves, they may be left to starve.

Because these small mammals can produce more young than large mammals, their populations may increase to capitalize on favorable conditions.

However, Jackson emphasized that several animal species are at risk, often even more so than climate change, due to factors such as habitat destruction, poaching, pollution, and invasive species, Science Daily reported.

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