Climate change is a global phenomenon that affects us all, although not in the same way. In Australia there is a bird that is quite reminiscent of a parrot whose scientific name is Barnardius zonarius which has experienced an elongation of its wings between 4 and 5 centimeters in recent years. The cause?
Everything seems to indicate that the increase in temperatures, as well as the deforestation practices that took place in Western Australia in the 1970s, have contributed to the lengthening of the wings.
Scientists at the University of Notre Dame in Sydney examined several specimens from the Western Australian Museum, which has a collection of birds dating back to the early XNUMXth century and living specimens. Thus, they observed that the wings had lengthened between 4 and 5 centimeters in the last 45 years, during which time the temperature has risen between 0,1 and 0,2 degrees in the region where these wonderful birds live.
This variation is minimal, but the impact on the environment is significant as evidenced by research on Barnardius zonarius, better known as Barnard's parakeets. And is that warm climate birds generally have longer limbs than those living in temperate regions.
Dylan Korczynskyj, one of the scientists involved in the study, stated that "as the weather temperature increases, the increased length of the wings can help these birds to free themselves from excess heat and adapt better to their environment».
In Australia, the driest inhabited continent in the world, the temperature has risen by around 1 degree since 1910, as shown in the report of the State of the Climate of the year 2016 carried out by the Office of Meteorology of the country. So what does the future hold for Australian birds?