When you start making a list of the effects of global warming you might automatically talk about increasing temperatures, rising seas, climate change, etc. Did you also know that it is something that is driving animals to abandon their original habitats and heading into alternative (and often higher) locations? For example, the effects of global warming are likely to lead to the end of the Arctic Fox because they are driving Red Foxes into higher elevations and northern directions, which puts them into direct conflict with their gentler and smaller Arctic cousins. The same can be said about many other species as well.
Since the start of the Industrial Revolution animals have been shifting their territories to accommodate the changes in their environment and everything from common animals, like squirrels and mice, to less common creatures, such as Brown Bears, are behaving differently.
This article appears in Aug 26 – Sep 1, 2010.