8600 Bird Species Are Fighting Climate Change To Hunt And Survive In Extraordinary Ways

We already know how bad climate change is for the environment, as well as the creatures that live in them, endangering their lives in the process.

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However, now, a recent research published in Nature Ecology & Evolution has revealed that climate change is actually forcing birds to evolve in rather strange ways to survive.

Researchers from Mc Gill University in Montreal looked at data from more than 8,600 bird species that have altered their hunting and feeding styles over time.

According to Dr Simon Ducatez, an evolutionary biologist, species that adapt to challenging conditions are less likely to go extinct. He explains, ¡°We long suspected this relationship between innovation and survival must exist, but now we have been able to verify it quantitatively. We have also been able to verify the greater the number of innovations described for a species, the greater the probability its populations are stable or increasing.¡±

Looking at 8,600 species, researchers were able to find over 3,800 new feeding techniques by birds in the past 60 years.

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One of the observations revealed unusual habit of the great egrets, where they were seen using a piece of bread or insects as a fishing bait -- looking at fishermen.

Ducatez further stated, ¡°A peregrine falcon even used a train to attack birds as they were flushed by its passage through the forest. Another was observed using fishing vessels as a platform for hunting petrels at sea, a food source otherwise unavailable.¡±

He also mentioned the novel techniques used by great cormorants who time their attacks with the movement of commercial ferries, he said, ¡°They use the strong currents generated by the propellers to catch confused fish.¡±

Another fascinating discovery of Australia¡¯s blue-faced honeyeaters opening sugar packets on cafe terraces, or using cars to crack nuts or seashells.

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Daniel Sol, an ecologist at the Autonomous University of Barcelona and co-author of the study states, ¡°It must be taken into account the species with the greatest capacity for innovation have longer generation times, making them more vulnerable to hunting. This implies that, unlike what is usually assumed, innovativeness protects animals from some but not all the rapid changes in the environment.¡±

But this doesn¡¯t mean that it¡¯s all positive. Such changes in behaviour could have threats like habitat destruction, overhunting as well as invasive species. As of now, 13.5 percent bird species are expected to go extinct.