28 August 2015, The Guardian, Extreme Arctic sea ice melt forces thousands of walruses ashore in Alaska. Survival of walruses threatened as they wash ashore on a remote barrier island just before Obama is due to visit region to draw attention to climate change. The extreme loss of Arctic sea ice due to climate change is forcing thousands of walruses to crowd ashore on a remote barrier island off Alaska, and threatening their survival. Barack Obama will be the first US president to visit the Alaskan Arctic on 31 August on a three-day tour to draw attention to the drastic consequences of climate change for the Arctic, such as warming winters and the rapid retreat of sea ice. The first reported sighting of animals forced to come ashore in the Chukchi Sea was by a photographer on 23 August, and confirmed by villagers in the remote hamlet of Point Lay late on Thursday, the US Fish and Wildlife Service said. Such landings, forced by the absence of sea ice on which to rest and feed, put the animals at risk of stampede in the limited space of the barrier island. The animals are easily spooked by aircraft or onlookers, government scientists warned. Trampling deaths are one of the biggest natural risks. Sea ice cover in the winter months fell to a new low this year because of climate change and abnormal weather patterns. Read More here
Tag Archives: animal response
12 August 2015, University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, Wild boars are gaining ground – climate change boosts population growth. The wild boar population in Europe is growing. However, the reasons for this growth were not yet clear. Scientists from the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology (FIWI) of the Vetmeduni Vienna now found that climate change plays a major role. The number of wild boars grows particularly after mild winters. Also food availability is a decisive factor. There are more wild boars after years with high beechnut yield. The research results have recently been published in the journal Plos One. The wild boar population in Europe has been constantly growing since the 1980s. This is more and more becoming a problem for agriculture when animals raid the fields, looking for feed. “It is not so easy to determine the number of wild boars in Europe,” says wildlife biologist and first author of the study, Sebastian Vetter. “Therefore we analysed data on hunting bags and road accidents involving wild boar. Doing this we were able to depict the growth of the wild boar population.” Read more here
1 May 2015, The Conversation: One in six species faces extinction as a result of climate change.The Earth is on course to lose up to one in six of all its species, if carbon emissions continue as they currently are. This global extinction risk masks very large regional variations. Up to a quarter of South American species may be doomed. These are some of the findings of a comprehensive piece of new research conducted by evolutionary ecologist Mark Urban and published in Science. Read More here