They are small, have a high reproductive output, and live in Madagascar's forests. Offspring are born during the 5-month rainy season, and a fat pad forms to aid them to sustain the relatively cool season when there is little food.
But what if the rainy season gets drier and the dry season gets hotter? Because of their high reproductive output, mouse lemurs may be able to adapt to climate change.
Researchers from the German Primate Center - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research examined long-term data from Madagascar and discovered that climate change is destabilizing mouse lemur populations and increasing their risk of extinction.
Identifying trends with long-term data
SEM VAN DER WAL/ANP/AFP via Getty Images
Climate change effects have primarily been studied in large, long-lived species with low reproductive output, as per ScienceDaily.
Small mammals with high reproductive rates adapt well to changing environmental conditions, so they have received little attention in the context of climate change.
Claudia Fichtel and Peter Kappeler of the German Primate Center - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research (DPZ) have been studying lemurs on Madagascar for many years, amassing a unique data set that will help fill this knowledge gap.
Peter Kappeler and Claudia Fichtel researched the demographic composition of a mouse lemur population at Madagascar's DPZ research station from 1994 to 2020.
Climate data from the same time period show that the rainy season in this region became drier and the dry season became warmer.
They analyzed the data with colleagues from the University of Zurich and discovered rising mortality as well as rising reproductive rates. According to Claudia Fichtel, these opposing trends have kept the mouse lemur population from collapsing, but have resulted in population destabilization as the animals' already quick life cycle has been accelerated.
Climate change-induced population fluctuations constitute an existential danger to the animals and may lead to extinction.
Kappeler's findings show that even an animal species that is thought to be easily adaptable to changing environmental conditions due to a high reproductive rate is threatened by climate change
This is bad news because lemurs, which only exist in Madagascar, are the world's most endangered mammals.
Claudia Fichtel believes that in the future, data on a population's demographic stabilisation should be included when categorizing the danger of the disappearance of an animal species.
Climate change threatens vital biodiversity
Rising temperatures have an impact on vegetation, food sources, and access to water, among other things, as per IFAW.
Certain animals may be forced to migrate outside of their usual patterns in search of food and livable conditions, while others may perish.
People are already seeing a five-fold increase in climate and weather-related natural disasters such as droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes, compared to 50 years ago. People, pets, and wildlife suffer catastrophic losses as a result of these disasters.
Climate change exacerbates human-wildlife conflict by causing habitat loss and extreme weather events, forcing people and wildlife to share increasingly crowded spaces.
People and wildlife are traveling further in search of food, water, and resources as ecosystems change.
