Wildlife Feels The Heat: Steeply rising temperatures and prolonged droughts are making life wore difficult for North American wildlife—underscoring the need for policymakers to shift climate strategies

摘要

IN 2011, NEW MEXICO'S Las Conchas fire destroyed habitat crucial to the threatened Mexican spotted owl. Drought brought on by climate change can reduce the extent of grasslands needed by the black-tailed prairie dog (opposite), which itself is a vitalfood for endangered black-footed ferrets. Prairie dog decline thus can undermine ferret recovery.carrying equipment trekked through the burnt landscape to Whiskey Creek, a remote stream with a distinct genetic line of Gila trout. "If we lost those populations, all that genetic material would be gone forever," says Jill Wick, Gila trout biologist for the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish. "It was a race."