Status of global warming and potential impact on wildlife

Effects on Wildlife and HabitatOur world is home to a diverse array of wildlife ranging from the highest peaks, to the driest deserts, to freshwater and marine environments and to all the places in between. The abundant and diverse wildlife resources, which are so important to the culture and well-being, face a bleak future if we do not address global warming.

Observation of climate change at home and abroad.

Polar Bears

Polar bears rely heavily on Arctic sea ice, which is rapidly disappearing due to global warming. In Hudson Bay, polar bears are starving during the long summer months as the ice they rely on to hunt for food melts earlier each spring and later in the fall. 

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1Status of global warming and potential impact on wildlife

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A polar bear climbs onto the sea ice, which is critical to its survival and rapidlyDisappearing.

PikaThe American pika, a small mammal that lives on Western mountaintops, is being forced to move to higher and higher altitudes to find the tolerable alpine temperatures it calls home. As global warming increases average temperatures, the pika may soon run out of places to go. 

WaterfowlDucks, geese and other waterfowl across the country are changing behaviors and migration patterns and suffering the consequences of more extreme weather, including drought and floods. This not only threatens the birds themselves, but has greatly impacted the hunting businesses that depend on ducks showing up for duck season.

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3Deer & Checkerspot butterfly

Global warming threatens the key deer (left) with rising sea levels that could submerge its habitat in the Florida Keys, and the baycheckerspot butterfly (right) with population fragmentation caused by the disappearance of plants it needs to complete its lifecycle.

Golden toad

Once abundant in Costa Rica’s Montverde cloud forest, the golden toad is nowextinct, and global warming’s impact on the formation of clouds and mist crucial tothe ecology of the area is believed to be the major factor.

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A Bengal tiger drinks from a river. Scientists predict rising sea level will drive these animals from the low-lying islands of India and Bangladesh to the more populous mainland, and are working with communities there to set aside land.

A hawksbill turtle, a species losing vital nesting beaches to global warming, glides over a coral reef.

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Defenders and other groups joined forces to garner support for the GlobalWarming Wildlife Survival Act by running ads like this one in publications read by

members of Congress and their staff.5

5Status of global warming and potential impact on wildlife

Global climate change effect on wildlife in the future.

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6Global climate change effect on wildlife in the future.