Climate change forces Arctic animals to shift feeding habits: study

March 6, 2019

Researchers say the apparent doubling down by ringed seals on their traditional hunting grounds despite the shifting Arctic climate "reflects limited adaptability and resilience"

Seals and whales in the Arctic are shifting their feeding patterns as climate change alters their habitats, and the way they do so may determine whether they survive, a new study has found.

Researchers harnessed datasets spanning two decades to examine how two species of Arctic wildlife—beluga whales, also known as white whales, and ringed seals—are adapting to their changing homes.

Both species traditionally hunt for food in areas with sea ice and particularly at so-called tidal glacier fronts, where glaciers meet the ocean.

But with climate change melting sea ice and prompting glaciers to retreat, researchers in Norway decided to look at whether and how animals in the affected areas were adapting.

"The Arctic is the bellwether of climate change," the researchers wrote.

"With the rapid pace of change rendering genetic adaptation unfeasible," they reasoned that behavioural and dietary changes "will likely be the first observable responses within ecosystems".

They compared datasets produced by trackers attached to seals and whales over two sets of time periods.

For the seals, they compared tracker data from 28 individuals between 1996-2003 and then 2010-2016, and for the whales they looked at data from 18 animals between 1995-2001 and 16 animals from 2013-2016.

Read more at: 

Tooth wear sheds light on the feeding habits of ancient elephant relatives

Date: July 28, 2016

Source: University of Bristol

How can we ever know what ancient animals ate? For the first time, the changing diets of elephants in the last two million years in China have been reconstructed, using a technique based on analysis of the surface textures of their teeth.

The work was carried out by a University of Bristol student, working with an international team of researchers. The research was published online in Quaternary International.

Today, elephants live only in remote, tropical parts of Africa and southern Asia, but before the Ice Ages they were widespread.

As his undergraduate research project, Zhang Hanwen, MSci Palaeontology and Evolution graduate and now PhD student at the University of Bristol, undertook cutting-edge analysis of fossilised elephant teeth from China.

In a collaboration with the University of Leicester, and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, where the fossilised teeth are curated, Hanwen sampled 27 teeth for tiny wear patterns called microwear.

"We are talking huge, brick-sized molars here -- the largest of any animal," said Hanwen, "but the signs of tooth wear are tiny, down to thousandths of a millimetre. However, these microscopic surface textures can tell us whether they were eating grass or leaves."

Hanwen took peels of the fossilised teeth in China, using high-grade dental moulding materials, and captured the 3D surface textures under a digital microscope at the University of Leicester. The textures were quantified and analysed to identify what the elephants were eating in the days and weeks before they died.

By comparing the results with information from modern ruminants (deer, antelopes and oxen) of known diet, the study concluded two extinct elephants from Southern China -- Sinomastodon and Stegodon -- were primarily browsing on leaves. The third, Elephas, which includes the modern Asian elephants, shows much more catholic feeding habit, incorporating both grazing and browsing.

"It's wonderful that we can identify diets of any fossil mammal with confidence now," said Professor Christine Janis, from the University of Bristol, one of Hanwen's PhD supervisors and a leading expert on the evolution of herbivorous mammals.

Read on … 

Deadly drought creates worrying feeding pattern in South African hippos

HIPPOS in South Africa’s most famous wildlife park are changing the way they feed as a deadly drought stalks the landscape.

By STUART WINTER

PUBLISHED: 16:18, Tue, Feb 2, 2016 | UPDATED: 16:33, Tue, Feb 2, 2016

The exotic animals have adapted their feeding habits recently

The sight of the huge herbivores grazing on land in sunlight rather than wallowing in rivers and muddy pools is a worrying sign that the crippling dry weather is beginning to hit the Kruger.

Night-feeding hippos do not like to travel far to graze but such is their desperation to maintain an average intake of 80lbs of grass a day, it means almost round-the-clock feeding.

Crippling dry weather is beginning to hit the Kruger

Buffalos are another animal expected to suffer as dams vital for managing water begin to run dry after rainfall dropped by 50 per cent in recent weeks.

You've got winners and you've got losers

Izak Smit, national parks service ecologist

Kruger's buffalos suffered tremendous losses in the early 1990s when drought cut the population by more than half to about 14,000.

Latest figures shows their numbers have rebounded to 40,000-plus.

Hippos usually spend the day in rivers and muddy pools

Although water is being provided in some parts of the park, the authorities say they do not plan any major intervention, describing the drought as a way of regulating wildlife numbers.

While vegetation grazing animals suffer, meat-eating predators will find weakened prey easier to catch.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/nature/640455/deadly-drought-worrying-feeding-hippos-South-Africa

Purple Emperor: The butterfly that feeds on rotting flesh

By Emma AilesBBC News

23 July 2015 

For a few weeks in July, groups of people can be found wandering English woods carrying strange produce - including rotting fish, Stinking Bishop cheese and dirty nappies. They're out to bait the Purple Emperor, one of Britain's most elusive butterflies, whose beauty disguises some filthy feeding habits.

You never forget your first time, says butterfly enthusiast Neil Hulme.

"My dad and I were walking through the woods, and we came across a woman in her 30s wearing stars-and-stripes trousers, bent over. Some men in tweed with cameras and long lenses were photographing her from behind."

He moved closer and realised they were taking pictures of a Purple Emperor butterfly that had landed on her bottom.

Hulme was transfixed by the creature - especially when it fluttered up and landed on his collar.

Continued ...

Wolves’ diet study reveals farmers can sleep easy

Study of feeding habits of German wolves reveals they eat wilds animals - Not livestock

March 2012. Scientists at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Görlitz, Germany, have been investigating the feeding habits of wolves in the last eight years since their re-appearance in Germany. The results are reassuring: The proportion of livestock on the menu lies at less than one per cent. 

Wolves had been extinct in Germany for a long time, but now they are slowly returning to some of their former range. However not everyone is happy at the return of this wild animal. The feeding habits of Canis lupus are the subject of many legends and fables: Wolves that tear sheep apart, eat household pets and even attack people - the return of the predators to Germany has sparked conflict amongst its inhabitants, conservationists, hunters and farmers. 

Detailed sudy of wolf scat
"The dietary habits of wolves has been the greatest point of contention with their return to Germany and it induced us to examine in closer detail the feeding habits of the wolves that migrated to Lusatia over ten years ago", explains Hermann Ansorge, head of the Zoology Department at the Senckenberg Museum of Natural History in Görlitz. "We took a look at what was on the menu for the wolves and how this has changed since the appearance of wolves in East Germany."

For this purpose the scientists collected over 3000 samples of wolf scat and tested them for undigested evidence of the animals' prey, such as hair, bones, hooves or teeth.

Read on:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/wolf-diet.html

Cheetah struggling to reproduce due to climate change, scientists warn

The world's fastest animal has developed abnormal coils in its sperm as a result of warmer temperatures

The world's fastest animal, the African cheetah, is losing its ability to reproduce because of climate change, according to Kenyan researchers.

Scientists with the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) and the Kenya Wildlife Service have discovered that the animal, Acinonyx jubatus, has developed abnormal coils in its sperm as a result of warmer temperatures, affecting the big cat's ability to reproduce. The warmer temperatures are also affecting its feeding habits, they say.

Risky Agwanda, head of mammology section at NMK, said: "Climate change has contributed to defects of the cheetah sperm. Many have abnormal coils, low sperm counts, as well as extremely low testosterone levels. Change in climate has made the survival of the gazelle difficult to survive and as a result, the cheetah has had to switch to other diets, also affecting its ability to reproduce effectively.".

He added that the animal, that can accelerate from 0-100kph in three seconds, has a sperm count 10 times lower than the domestic cat.

"Cheetahs love to prey on Thomson's gazelles, they have a very high protein content compared to other herbivores and the population of the gazelle has been on a rapid decline due to poor climate conditions and human activities.

"We have studied a large number of the cheetahs. As a result, it preys on other herbivores such as the zebra which do not have a high nutritional content. We discovered that the gazelle diet can actually help maintain the good health of the cheetah sperm if the animal has not yet been negatively affected by poor climate," explained Agwanda.

There are currently only 1,000 cheetahs in Kenya according to figures from the Kenya Wildlife Service. In the early 1980s, there were more than 5,000 cheetahs in Kenya.

As gazelle numbers continue to decrease due to drought, conservation efforts of the cheetah could be badly affected. The gazelles are also crossbreeding with other herbivores, reducing their protein content further, Agwanda said.

Scientists have never discovered any reproductive health deficiencies in other big cats, which they say can adapt more to climate change compared to the cheetah.

"The genetic make-up of the animal is more sensitive as compared to the other big cats. The cheetahs have weak genes," said Agwanda.

Mordecai Ogada, a fellow cheetah researcher at the National Museums, says that also another problem threatening the survival of the animal is conflict between humans and wildlife, resulting in damage to to the cheetha's habitat. Ogada added that cheetah numbers have also declined because of poaching for their skin, which fetches a high price on the black market.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/mar/07/wildlife-animals

Penguins hop on scales in Antarctic climate study

Specially designed measuring scales have been built to allow experts to gain vital information about the feeding habits of the Adelie penguin.


Three sets of scales have been disguised and strategically placed on the routes popular with the birds at a colony in the Antarctic.

The scales are triggered when the penguins waddle over them after returning from fishing trips out at sea.

The Adelie penguin, named after the wife of French explorer Admiral Durmont d'Urville, is relatively small with the typical black and white markings of the penguin family.

The bird, which can dive to a depth of 500ft, sports a striking white eye ring which makes it appear as though it is wearing goggles.

Scientists working at the Dumont d'Urville base on Pointe Geologie archipelago in the Antarctic can then monitor the data to gain detailed information about the colony.

Weighing the birds gives scientists an indication of the amount of food they have eaten, which is crucial for finding out how the species are adapting to changes in their habitat.

Penguins have suffered as a result of climate change with 11 of the world's 18 species decreasing in numbers, according to the 2009 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/antarctica/8228565/Penguins-hop-on-scales-in-Antarctic-climate-study.html