Wildlife: according to a study, chamois in the Alps are at risk of survival due to climate change, the specimens are much thinner in the last thirty years.
The populations of chamois living in the Italian Alps are at risk of survival. Over the last thirty years, the specimens have registered an average decrease in their weight of 25%. A phenomenon caused by climate change - explain the researchers of the British University of Durham - which is observed in many other species, but which seems particularly accentuated in the Alpine chamois. Responsible, according to experts, is the rise in temperatures, which makes the animals more lazy and less likely to feed.
The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology, used recordings of hunters in the Italian Alps to monitor the average weight of chamois since the 80s, discovering that in this short period of time the specimens have 'shrunk' considerably while the thermometer has risen by 3-4 degrees.
“The decline in body size attributed to climate change is widespread in the animal kingdom, with several species of fish, birds and mammals shrinking. However - explains study author Tom Mason - the decreases we observe here are surprising. The impacts on the weight of the chamois could pose a real problem on the survival of these populations ”.
Several studies have shown that smaller animals are linked to climate change due to reduced food availability or a drop in its nutritional content. For the researchers, however, in this case it was not the alpine pastures that changed, but the behavior of the chamois, which cope with the hot periods by resting more and spending less time in search of food.
24 October 2014
Source: Quotidiano.net