http://www.int.iol.co.za/
index.php?set_id=1&click_id=143&art_id=qw1156107242496B251
Grey jays feel the heat of global warming
August 21 2006 at 02:52AM
By Alister Doyle
Oslo - Grey jay birds that store frozen food to help survive icy
winters are dying out in parts of North America because global warming
is rotting their hoards, a scientist said.
The jay's dependence on natural refrigeration - of food ranging from
berries to insects - make it an odd exception to a general rule that
animals and plants survive better during less harsh winters.
"The hoards are turning into a bad investment because the food is
rotting," said Thomas Waite, a researcher from Ohio State University of
a 25-year study of the birds.
"The birds are getting less food and they may also suffer from food
poisoning from eating rotten food," he told Reuters. Grey jays are
about 30cm long, roughly the size of a blackbird or American robin.
He said it was a rare case of climate change at one part of the year
affecting success in breeding months later. "Warm autumns are hostile
to the jays because they rely on a cold climate and cold storage," he
said.
"The freeze-up of local lakes used to be in November, now it's
happening more frequently in December," he said of research just
published with colleague Dan Strickland in the journal Proceedings of
the Royal Society B.
The birds were in danger of dying out on the southern edge of their
range, mostly southern Canada but also parts of the United States
including Maine, Vermont and Rocky Mountain states, because of the
warmer autumns, he said.
Many scientists say a build-up of greenhouse gases released by burning
fossil fuels in power plants, factories and cars is driving up world
temperatures. In turn, that could trigger more floods, heatwaves and
droughts and raise sea levels.
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