New Brochure from Wildlife Conservation Society Features Selection of Wildlife Threatened by climate change

The Wildlife Conservation Society’s (WCS) new brochure, Species Feeling the Heat: Connecting Deforestation and Climate Change, highlights more than a dozen animals and species groups facing threats from a changing climate—shifting rain patterns, changing sea and land temperatures, exposure to new diseases and pathogens and amplified predation threats.

“The image of a forlorn looking polar bear on a tiny ice floe has become the public’s image of climate change in nature, but the impact reaches species in nearly every habitat in the world’s wild places,” said Dr. Steven E. Sanderson, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society.  “In fact, our own researchers are observing direct impacts on a wide range of species across the world.”

The brochure highlights the species below along with Magellanic Penguins, White-Lipped Peccary, primate species (i.e. gorilla), coral, Lemming, Buff-Breasted Sandpiper, Chiru, numerous amphibian species, lake trout, Bowhead Whale and Wolverine.

• Bicknell’s thrush: a bird species that breeds and nests in the higher elevations on mountains in northeastern North America. Slight increases in temperature threaten this bird’s breeding habitat.

• Flamingos: a group including several species that are threatened by climate change impacts that affect the availability and quality of wetland habitat in the Caribbean, South America, Asia, and Africa.

• Irrawaddy dolphin: a coastal species that relies on the flow of fresh water from estuaries in Bangladesh and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. Changes in freshwater flow and salinity may have an impact on the species' long-term survival.

• Musk ox: a species that exists in the harsh environment of the Arctic Tundra. This Pleistocene faces a higher predation risk by grizzly bears, as more bears may move northward into the musk oxen’s tundra home.

• Hawksbill turtle: an ocean-going reptile with temperature dependent biology. Specifically, higher temperatures result in more female hatchlings, a factor that could impact the species’ long-term survival by skewing sex ratios. 

See:

• The Heat is On page introducing the report.
• WCS Press release: New WCS Report Identifies ‘Unsung’ Species Under Stress from Climate Change (7 December 2009)