Wild sheep on the island of Hirta off the shore of Scotland are smaller than 25 years ago, and scientists have found climate change to be the cause.
On average these wild sheep are weighing in at 5 percent smaller than 25 years ago, an indication that climate change can have a rapid effect on natural populations and a sign of possible more widespread changes in future, researchers said on Thursday.
The scientists theorize that due to climate change, grass for food is available for more of the year. Thus slow-growing sheep have a chance of making it and producing smaller offspring in turn.
“It’s probably a bit too early to predict that we’ll have Chihuahuas running around herding pygmy sheep in say 100 years time,” Tim Coulson of Imperial College London, who led the study published in the journal Science, told reporters.
This is not the only finding of species shrinkage from climate change.
Image via Flikr user pmecologic
Via Ben Hirschlerat Reuters
About Susan Kraemer
[...] Sheep are getting smaller. And humans are getting smaller. And now, we hear that fish are getting smaller. All of these changes have happened in areas with the most increase in local temperatures over the last 30 years. [...]