Natural History Wanderings

Although there are many problems with the planet warming there are a few species that may actually benefit. Here are three examples.

The Environmental News Network reported in the article Global Warming May favor Goats how climate change may be beneficial to goats. There are two major factors are important for goats survival are daylight hours and temperature Although no populations of goats were able to  survive above 60 degrees latitude, unless given protection from the cold at night.  However, warming global temperatures could make conditions bearable at these higher latitudes.

In the ScienceDaily article Global Warming Beneficial to Ratsnakes researchers found that ratsnakes adapt to higher temperatures by becoming more active at night. The article reported that

Snakes are ectotherms, that is, they use the environment to regulate their body temperature. We were able to compare ratsnakes’ ability to regulate their temperature in Texas as compared to Illinois and Canada.”

The research showed that ratsnakes in Canada, Illinois, and Texas would all benefit from global warming. “It would actually make the environment thermally better for them,” Weatherhead said. “Texas is already too hot for much of the day so it may cause them to shift to even more nocturnal foraging there and stay active at night for more of the season.”

As the higher temperatures associated with global warming begin to be more challenging for snakes in Illinois, will they be able to switch to nocturnal foraging? “We think that won’t be a problem for them,”

PLOS One has a report on how Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) colony on Beaufort Island (Beaufort), part of a cluster of colonies in the southern Ross Sea,have experienced a recent population increase in response to increased nesting habitat becoming available as glaciers have receded. Read more at:  PLOS ONE: Climate Change Winners: Receding Ice Fields Facilitate Colony Expansion and Altered Dynamics in an Adélie Penguin Metapopulation.