Every time we think of Africa, of the continent that is considered the Cradle of Humanity, images of the great Sahara desert, which occupies a large part of the territory, immediately come to mind, or of cats, such as lions, they take over every corner of shade they find.
Yes, thinking of Africa is thinking of high temperatures. Values that exceed 50 degrees centigrade practically every day. However, if we believed that the situation could not get worse ... we were very wrong. Climate change is also wreaking havoc on African wildlife, such as African Orichteropes.
Very little is known about these animals, but if we don't hurry we could end up losing them sooner than anyone could imagine. And is that, the population of these furry, with a nice face, is getting more and more scarce due to reduced rainfall and lack of food.
The drought that hits the Kalahari Desert, the habitat of the so-called anteaters, is also the place of the insects that form their diet: ants and termites, which are having trouble adapting to an increasingly hot environment. Because of that, the orichteropes are disappearing.
Kalahari desert
Physiology professor Andrea Fuller said nocturnal animals try to conserve energy by searching for insects during the day, but adaptation efforts are not helping them much. Of the six who were monitored for a year, five were found dead. His body temperature had dropped to 25 degrees Celsius, when it is normal for them to be just under 37ºC.
The researchers They were able to find out that some reptiles, birds, and other animals have begun to use anteater burrows, so that the furry anteaters are sadly running out of available shelters.