Why some animals are shrinking

Birds, mammals, and fish are miniaturizing as temperatures rise. Why? Subscribe to our channel! Animals all across the world are undergoing a strange transformation. In Appalachia, salamander body sizes have decreased by 8 percent since 1960; menhaden fish caught in the Atlantic are 15 percent lighter than they were in 1987; and bird specimens at Chicago’s Field Museum have lost up to 4 percent of their body mass since collection began in the late 1970s. A growing body of evidence suggests that these changes are the product of global warming: as average temperatures rise, smaller bodies make it easier for warm-blooded animals to stay cool. For cold-blooded animals, warming temperatures speed up metabolism and stunt their full growth. These changes might appear relatively small, but they can have a huge impact on animal’s lives, making them more susceptible to predation, reduced offspring count, and drying out in droughts. Wild animals already face a wide range of threats; shrinking