Animals are shape-shifting, so don’t be surprised if you see a real Dumbo soon

As the planet gets hotter, some animal species are growing larger beaks, legs and ears to better regulate their body temperatures.

This is according to a review published in the Trends in Ecology and Evolution journal.

Bird researcher Sara Ryding, of Deakin University in Australia, says climate change is not only a human problem; animals have to adapt to it as well.

“A lot of the time when climate change is discussed in mainstream media, people are asking ‘Can humans overcome this?’ or ‘What technology can solve this?’.

“It’s high time we recognised that animals also have to adapt to these changes, but this is occurring over a far shorter timescale than would have occurred through most of evolutionary time,” said Ryding.

“The climate change that we have created is heaping a whole lot of pressure on them and while some species will adapt, others will not.”

But she notes that climate change is a complex and multifaceted phenomenon that’s been occurring progressively, “so it is difficult to pinpoint just one cause of the shape-shifting”.

“But these changes have been occurring across wide geographical regions and among a diverse array of species, so there is little in common apart from climate change.”

Strong shape-shifting has particularly been reported in birds.

Several species of Australian parrot have shown, on average, a 4% to 10% increase in bill size since 1871 and this is positively correlated with the summer temperature each year.

North American dark-eyed juncos, a type of small songbird, have a link between increased bill size and short-term temperature extremes in cold environments.

Changes have also been reported in mammalian species.

Researchers have reported tail length increases in wood mice and tail and leg size increases in masked shrews.

“The increases in appendage size we see so far are quite small - less than 10% - so the changes are unlikely to be immediately noticeable.

“However, prominent appendages such as ears are predicted to increase, so we might end up with a live-action Dumbo in the not-so-distant future.”

Ryding intends to investigate shape-shifting in Australian birds first-hand by 3D scanning museum bird specimens from the past 100 years.

It will give her team a better understanding of which birds are changing appendage size due to climate change and why.

“Shape-shifting does not mean animals are coping with climate change and that all is fine. It just means they are evolving to survive it, but we’re not sure what the other ecological consequences of these changes are, or indeed that all species are capable of changing and surviving.”