Climate change could spell the end of the aardvark: Researchers warn

[dufus]

• Aardvarks may face population declines due to rising global temperatures 
• They hide from heat inside burrows they dig and eat ants and termites at night
• But ants and termites need a certain amount of water in the soil to survive 
• During a drought in the Kalahari, five out of six aardvarks died of starvation 

 

Aardvarks may face massive population declines as the planet heats up due to global warming. 

Aardvarks survive by hiding from sub-Saharan heat inside burrows they dig and eating ants and termites at night. 

During a particularly severe drought in the Kalahari desert, five out of six aardvarks monitored died of starvation because the ants and termites they eat need a certain amount of water in the soil to survive. 

 

During a particularly severe drought in the Kalahari desert, five out of six aardvarks monitored died of starvation because the ants and termites they eat need a certain amount of water in the soil to survive

Aardvarks have floppy ears, a tubular snout and a body similar to that of an armadillo.

They hide from the heat in burrows and eat during the night. 

Researchers consider them to be a keystone species because other animals also use the burrows they build as nests, sleeping shelter or a place to hide from predators and desert heat. 

But researchers at the University of Whitwatersrand in South Africa have discovered that rising temperatures due to climate change may endanger the existence of aardvarks. 

To conduct their study, published in the journal Biology Letters, the researchers implanted temperature and motion-sensitive biologgers and tracking transmitters into six free-living adult aardvarks under anesthesia.

After the surgery, the animals were released at their capture site at Tswalu Kalahari Reserve in South Africa in 2012.

'Only one of the six aardvarks survived the summer of 2013,' the authors of the study wrote. 

They recovered the temperature and activity loggers from the carcasses, and removed the sensors from the one survivor.

Aardvarks (Orycteropus afer) are medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammals native to sub-Saharan Africa. They have floppy ears, a tubular snout and a body similar to that of an armadillo

According to the study, air temperatures in the summer of 2013 were the hottest since records began in 1980, and wind speeds were 32 per cent higher than that averaged of 35 years - a combination of conditions which led to a severe drought. 

When the researchers analyzed the data from the sensors, they found that the animals had swapped their usual routines, going out of their burrows during the day to eat, rather than at night. 

They also found that the body temperatures of the aardvarks had declines, which is a sign of malnourishment, and this was backed up by the fact that the aardvarks had low body weight. 

The researchers concluded that the aardvarks that died had starved to death, as had several other aardvarks they observed in areas around the test site. This indicates that aardvark populations are likely going to plummet as their habitats grow hotter and drier 

The researchers suggest that the aardvarks struggled to find food because ants and termites need a certain amount of water in the soil to survive. 

The researchers concluded that the aardvarks that died had starved to death, as had several other aardvarks they observed in areas around the test site. 

This indicates that aardvark populations are likely going to plummet as their habitats grow hotter and drier.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4711274/Climate-change-spell-end-aardvark.html

 

 

[jabrwky]

I love aardvarks.

[pc71520]

 

[rasbridge]

Within nature, it is survival of the fittest.

[jiski]

10 minutes ago, rasbridge said:

Within nature, it is survival of the fittest.

With nature, it is nature.  Not favorites:  weak, fittest, mighty, emperor.  All same.