There appears to be an endless list of the implications of global warming. Several studies that examine the effects of climate change report that the changing weather patterns can be blamed for the unprecedented rise in sea level, the looming extinction of animal species and destructive weather events.
Now, a new study has yet found another possible effect of the warming climate. Tom Mason, from the School of Biological and Biomedical Sciences of the Durham University in the U.K and colleagues reported that the size of Alpine Chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), a species of mountain goat, is shrinking and this appears to be caused by the animal's reaction to the changes in the climate.
For their study published in Frontiers in Zoology on Sept. 27, Mason and colleagues investigated what could have caused the steady decrease in the goat's size. Reduction in the availability of food was a possible cause but the researchers found that the vegetation in the Italian Alps did not decline over the past few decades.
It turned out that the goat's behavior has something to do with their declining size. Study co-author and Durham University biology professor Stephen Willis said that the Alpine Chamois spend more time resting when it is hot, so climate change affects them in a way that they avoid overheating in a warmer climate by spending less time hunting and more time resting.
"It's been known that these animals spend more time resting when it's hot, so that led to the idea that maybe it's the climate directly that is changing their behavior, rather than the indirect means of affecting their food," Willis said.
Although reduction in body size due to global warming has already been identified in other animal species in recent years, Mason and colleagues said that the decline in the size of the Chamois is striking in magnitude and speed. They discovered that juvenile Chamois now weigh about 25 percent less than their counterparts in the 1980's.
Another possible reason for the declining size of the goat, albeit unrelated to global warming, is that the animal's population density has increased thanks to improved restrictions on hunting and this probably increased the competition among the animals for the best grazing spots.
"Environmental change has limited the ability of individuals to acquire resources," the researchers wrote. "This could be due to increases in the intensity of competition and decreases in time spent foraging, owing to high temperatures."
