Researchers examined three populations of African wild dogs in Botswana, Kenya and Zimbabwe to understand if high heat correlates with increased mortality.
In two out of the three sites, there was a strong relationship between extreme temperatures and increased mortality, with intentional human killings, snare traps, road fatalities, and disease transmission from domesticated dogs responsible for 44% of the deaths.
The researchers say high heat is pushing both wild dogs and pastoralists out of their typical grounds, creating a higher likelihood of human-wildlife conflict and mortalities for the dogs.
With extreme heat, African wild dogs are dying at a higher rate, according to scientists. New research, published in Ecology and Evolution in June, found that humans are responsible for nearly half of all African wild dog deaths and that human-caused climate change is adding to the burden.
Climate change is causing endangered African wild dogs to give birth later – threatening the survival of the pack
Wildlife are responding and adapting to climate change in various ways. Some adaptations are more obvious. Flowering plants, for example, are blooming sooner each year in parts of the northern hemisphere as climate change draws the onset of spring progressively earlier in the calendar.
Other adaptations are more covert, as we’ve discovered in the case of the African wild dog.
The African wild dog is an endangered large carnivore with a global population of fewer than 700 packs (fewer than 7000 individuals) dotted across the African continent in isolated subpopulations. They typically raise their pups in the cooler months each year. However, our new study shows that they are adapting to warming temperatures by giving birth later each year as they track a shrinking cool period.
