• Question: Will global warming effect animals?

    Asked by BRAINBOY34 to Cat?, Elaine, Helena, Iain, Gabriel on 8 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Helena Quilter

      Helena Quilter answered on 8 Mar 2016:

      Hi there. Global warming does effect animals. If Earth’s temperatures rise then animals might have to move home (migrate) to live somewhere else. This is especially important for animals that like cold climates – they might have to move somewhere colder if where they live is getting warmer.

      Animals might also find it more difficult to be able to find food, if the food they normally eat is effected by rising temperatures. This then effects a whole chain of wildlife – if one thing changes then lots of others must change too.

      There are other signs that global warming effects animals – birds lay eggs earlier in the year than they normally do, plants flower earlier and mammals are come out of hibernation sooner than they would normally do.

      Not all change is bad – we now see some birds in the UK that haven’t been here for many years because the temperature is a little bit warmer. Animals can also change and adapt to their new habitats – that’s happened in the past! There’s lots of people looking into what we can do to help too.

    • Photo: Cat Scott ?

      Cat Scott ? answered on 13 Mar 2016:

      Yes definitely. It’s already starting to affect animals that hibernate over the winter (like bears ? and hedgehogs), sometimes they get confused and come out of hibernation a bit too early becuase it’s warmer than it usually is. ☀ Or it can confuse animals so they have their babies at the wrong time of the year and then they don’t grow large enough by the time they need to be able to hibernate.

      The best thing we can do to help animals is to try and stop climate change from getting too bad, this means trying to save energy (like by turning lights off when you leave a room ?) and always trying to recycle things rather than throwing them away.

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