Climate Change: Despite the broken glass, exposed wires and a concrete landscape, a juvenile opossum makes her home in the downtown core. This little marsupial is a result of human interference, namely climate change. They’re originally found in Mexico and the United States, but as the average climate becomes warmer, the temperatures further north meet the threshold of the opossum. This allows them to survive and colonize new areas further north. Now, opossums can be found around the Great Lakes region of southern Ontario. Here, especially cold winter days can still harm these animals, causing hypothermia and frostbite in their ears, fingers and tail, extremities better adapted for losing heat than retaining it. Because of this, many end up in wildlife rehabs come winter. While climate change may initially benefit some animals, in the long term it creates an environment many temperate species cannot survive in.
Sources:
Rossit, Tina-Louise. "Opossum." The Canadian Encyclopedia, 28 Oct. 2019, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/opossum. Accessed 7 Feb. 2022. Walpole, Aaron A., and Jeff Bowman. "Wildlife Vulnerability to Climate Change: An Assessment For the Lake Simcoe Watershed." Climate Ontario, Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, 2011, www.climateontario.ca/MNR_Publications/stdprod_093357.pdf. Accessed 7 Feb. 2022. |