Amazon bird body shapes changing because of Climate Change.

 

A study of birds body shapes, body size and wing length have shown that in parts of the Amazon that haven’t been touched by humans there is still a vast change occurring in the shapes of these birds. This is almost certainly due to the increasing hot and dry conditions that are happening in the Amazon from June to November. A study carried out by the Louisiana State University over the last four decades have shown that not only has the number of sensitive resident birds throughout the Amazon declines but the body size and wind length have changed for most of the species. The birds in the Amazon rainforest have become smaller and their wings have become longer over several generations showing a response to the shifting environmental conditions that include new physiological and nutritional challenges. The scientists studied 77 different species of rainforest birds and found that all of them had adapted to a hotter and drier climates by reducing their wing load and becoming therefore more energy efficient in flight. As the Amazon continues to change these Amazonian birds who have to deal with increasingly hotter and dryer surroundings may have to adapt more or may even die out.



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