Animal Primer: Which Species Are in Climate Danger?

When it comes to climate effects on animals, polar bears have snagged most of the world's attention.

But behind the front-page headlines and policy debates lurks a mountain of evidence that warming could bode ill for countless other animals and insects -- and not just in low-temperature habitats.

This month, the Daily Mail reported on the premature birth of a litter of hedgehogs in the UK. The babies were born on April 26, one month earlier than normal, making it one of the earliest litters ever seen there.

The culprit? Climate changes, which brought the mother out of hibernation early.

In Kerala, India, the elephants are being affected in unexpected ways, reports The Hindu:

Incidents of elephants running amok have been on the rise in Kerala over the last few years. Violent pachyderms have killed several people and damaged property.

A new study blames warming for the unruly behavior.

Other recent reports have found that tropical insects face extinction because they're unable to live beyond the small temperature range of their habitats.

According to a University of Washington study, discussed here, beetles, butterflies and aphids are all in danger in the tropics. Unlike warm-blooded animals, they have no way of regulating their body temperatures.

Further north, Scottish butterflies are under threat of being wiped out from increased rainfall, which prevents them from flying to feed or mate.

This report out of Australia by the WWF has found that invasive weeds and pests may benefit from rising temps because they can quickly adapt to -- and colonize in -- new habitats. That kind of adverse growth could put the rock wallaby, the rabbit-eared bilby and the quoll cat in grave danger in that country.

The UN Environment Program believes that medicine will suffer with the disappearance of frogs, newts and salamanders.

Meanwhile, some species are already adapting to the changes. The Telegraph reports that the great tit (parus major) has begun laying its eggs two weeks earlier than a century ago to capitalize on the piles of caterpillars that have also begun arriving two weeks earlier due to warmer spring temps.

But adaptation may be an anomaly.

A recent study claims that warming could literally wipe out half of all of the Earth's species.

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