Climate Change Create Dangerous Condition For Ape’s Habitat, Study Says

Some of Africa's big apes, humanity's closest cousins, are at risk of extinction as the Earth warms.

A recent study indicates that climate change will generate unsafe circumstances in hundreds of primate habitats across the continent.

Negative Impact Of Climate Change

Climate experts examined 333 places where African apes reside and discovered that all had suffered temperature increases.

Using forecasts of a world warmed to 2C and 3C over pre-industrial levels, the scientists discovered that these ecosystems will likewise experience more severe impacts.

In addition to evaluating the temperature and rainfall at those places from 1981 to 2010, the scientists created models to forecast weather conditions in those areas in the short and long run (from 2021 to 2050 and 2071 to 2099).

While their findings varied greatly by region, they consistently discovered that climate change had a major negative impact on African apes' living situations.

"For the first time, we showed that African ape sites have already experienced changes in climatic conditions and are likely to be exposed to extreme events in the future," the authors conclude.

Stefanie Heinicke, a postdoctoral researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, said that these habitats will see more days of high rainfall.

She added that there will also be an increase in the frequency of "consecutive dry days," or days when there is no rain.

"They're facing a lot of threats that are much more imminent than climate change. But this will add an additional stressor - and in some habitats, it already has," Heinicke said.

Read Also: Africa Wooded Grasslands with Forests Existed Across Continent 21 Million Years Ago [Study]

Vulnerable To Climate Events

The study also discovered that certain of these ape populations will be more vulnerable to catastrophic climate events such as wildfires, drought, cyclones, and heat waves, which have the ability to not only diminish food security but also physically disintegrate groups, as witnessed during flooding from heavy rainfall.

Scientists claimed that this isolation destroys the primates' social networks and that the longer these extreme climate events occur, the more damage the animals sustain.

"It suggests generational trauma that's going to happen to these ape populations," said Ammie Kalan, a primatologist at the University of Victoria.

The most serious threat to African ape populations is habitat loss, and one catastrophic climatic impact-crop failure-might exacerbate this.

According to the most recent study from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, global warming would exacerbate heat waves and droughts in Africa while also lowering crop yields and productivity.

According to Rachel Ashegbofe Ikemeh, founder and director of the South-West/Niger Delta Forest Project, climate change might exacerbate an already severe situation caused by humans.

Heinicke also claims that because deforestation and hunting are the biggest threats to apes, conservation efforts have not included a strong climate change argument. Experts, however, believe that demonstrating how both 2C and 3C differences affect primate populations is valuable.

A 2020 research suggests that if global temperatures rise by 2°C owing to climate change, it will have a catastrophic impact on these primate species.

Related Article: Earth's Largest Ape Went Extinct Because It Couldn't Adapt To Climate Change