It seems that we can add yet another side effect of climate change to the growing list. Scientists have taken a closer look at alpine goats and found that they're shrinking in size as they react to shifts in climate, new research shows.

In recent years, researchers have noticed all sorts of animals get cut down in size in response to changes in temperature. But surprisingly, the decline in size of Alpine Chamois, a species of mountain goat, has seemingly surpassed all the others in terms of speed and magnitude. It turns out that Chamois now weigh about 25 percent less than their brethren from the 1980s.

"Body size declines attributed to climate change are widespread in the animal kingdom, with many fish, bird and mammal species getting smaller," Tom Mason, the study's lead author, said in a press release. "However the decreases we observe here are astonishing. The impacts on Chamois weight could pose real problems for the survival of these populations."

In order to better understand this body shrinkage, the research team delved into long-term records of Chamois body weights provided by hunters in the Italian Alps. Comparing this information against climate data, they discovered that declines in body weight were strongly linked to the region's warming climate, which became three to four degrees Celsius warmer over the 30-year study period.

This is bad news for alpine goats, and possibly domestic livestock, who can't stand the sweltering heat.

"We know that Chamois cope with hot periods by resting more and spending less time searching for food, and this may be restricting their size more than the quality of the vegetation they eat," explained co-author Stephen Willis. "If climate change results in similar behavioral and body mass changes in domestic livestock, this could have impacts on agricultural productivity in coming decades."

The findings show the domino effect of how climate change can impact animal body size and more. This, in turn, highlights the importance of continued research on how climate change affects various species and overall populations. In fact, changes in body size could act as early-warning systems for worse impacts to come, such as population collapse.

The findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Zoology.