• Question: What animals are most at risk of extinction due to climate change?

    Asked by euan tortolano on 18 Jan 2021.
    • Photo: Liam Taylor

      Liam Taylor answered on 18 Jan 2021:

      I work in icy regions, so I can only answer for those animals. Polar bears are very at risk – they hunt on the sea-ice, but the amount of time that sea-ice is around for is less and less each year. In the mountains, Snow leopards are having to climb higher and higher to live in their cold climate zone. Eventually, they’ll run out of mountain and will not be able to survive in the warmth.

      The oceans are full of animals that are very vulnerable. Corals are animals and they are very at risk to small changes of temperature. We think that just a two degree rise in temperature (which is like you having a bad cold) could kill 90% of all coral reefs.

    • Photo: Graham Shields

      Graham Shields answered on 18 Jan 2021:

      Some sea creatures that live in colder areas and have shells will find it more difficult to build those shells when carbon dioxide levels are higher. This is called ocean acidification and affects mostly deep sea corals and pteropods, which are tiny marine snails.

    • Photo: Michael Sulu

      Michael Sulu answered on 19 Jan 2021:

      I’d think those in the extreme regions are the ones that are being effected the most, so the poles and maybe the areas highlighted in the shows around the equator like chad?

    • Photo: Alec Christie

      Alec Christie answered on 19 Jan 2021: last edited 19 Jan 2021 9:27 am

      Another more general point to add is that species that are least mobile, or able to extend where they normally live (their ‘home range’), are most at risk.

      Climate change is also affecting different parts of the world at different rates – the speed at which the climate is changing (usually measured in terms of temperature) is called climate change velocity.

      So there is also a double whammy effect.

      If you are an animal with a small home range in an area with high climate change velocity, then you will find it really difficult to move to a suitable location with the right climate. Some animals will be able to migrate gradually over time (e.g. some highly mobile whales and dolphins) and others will struggle (e.g. mobile mountain species like snow leopards and marmots).

      And those are just the effects in terms of where animals like to live based on temperature. There are of course major effects of climate change on food webs (e.g. Antarctic krill for Adelie penguins), water availability (e.g., for Asian elephants), and the availability of plant species that animals feed on (e.g. giant pandas and bamboo). And for marine animals as Graham and Liam have said there are other major effects such as ocean acidification, warming, and deoxygenation because of changes to the chemistry and temperature of the oceans.

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