Pity the Poor Beasts
Global warming and climate change has us more than a little distracted and worried over the future. We can recognize changes in our immediate environment, causing us to truly believe that nature as we know it is changing her face and her habits and with it our lives.Intense heat waves that have struck Europe in the past half-decade. Powerful storms that have wrought intense damage where they strike. Cataclysmic tsunamis along vulnerable coastal regions causing populations to move further inland after the inevitable death and destruction occurs.
We are seeing birds travelling further and taking up residence in areas not normally recognized as their habitat. Birds that normally would have flown on their annual migrations to avoid inclement weather now often stay where they are and wait out the winter months. Harmful insect infestations in boreal forests no longer suffer die-back during icy winters, surviving milder winters to wreak dreadful damage to forests.
And then there are some real, present and specific fall-outs of environmental change. Take, for example, moose living in northwestern Alberta, where the animals are suffering because of a succession of milder winters no longer threatening the ticks' longevity. Events such as last year's mild spring which suited wood ticks so well, allowing them to prosper.
Came the fall ticks sought their prey in moose wandering through the underbrush. The ticks burrow into the long hairs of the moose to reach their skin and suck their blood. To rid themselves of tick infestations, moose constantly rub against trees and rocks until their hair falls out. By the time winter arrives they have little hair left to maintain body warmth.
Unable to keep warm, weakened by tick infestation, they are less successful in foraging for food and will try to take refuge in barns, garages or feedlots, bringing them in their irritable state into conflict with humans. Many moose die of exposure or malnutrition. Those that don't, have to be put down either because they've become too weak to survive or because they present a danger to people.
A single moose can host as many as 40,000 ticks burrowed deep within its coat. Calves and weak animals are the most at risk. But as the cold weather becomes more intense during the winter an increasing number of adult moose fall prey to tick-related problems. When winters are colder, more like what is normally anticipated, the tick problem relents as they cannot survive the intense cold.
With global warming, this is yet another of many problems which will result. A pitiable condition for wild animals like the moose.
Labels: Environment
posted by Pieface @ Thursday, April 05, 2007
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