杏吧原创

Giant anteaters rely on forests to help them stay cool 鈥� so where trees grow sparsely, the animals are forced to roam further. Deforestation and climate change are likely to exacerbate the problem.

The anteaters (Myrmecophaga tridactyla) are unable to regulate their body temperature as effectively as many other mammals thanks to their exceptionally slow metabolisms, making the cooling shade of forests essential.

鈥淔orests work as thermal shelters, offering warmer temperatures than open areas on cold days and cooler temperatures than open areas on hot days,鈥� says Aline Giroux at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul in Brazil.

Giroux and her team wanted to know how anteaters鈥� home territories might change if forests are in short supply. The researchers caught and weighed 19 anteaters in two southern Brazilian savannas, fastening GPS harnesses on them before their release. This allowed them to record the anteaters鈥� movements for months. The researchers then used satellite images to determine forest cover in these areas.

The team found that the fewer forest patches there were in an anteater鈥檚 haunt, the larger the animal鈥檚 home range. For every fewer unit of forest area within the territories, the territories were 0.68 area units bigger overall.

Increasing their home range size in forest-deficient regions may increase the odds the anteaters鈥� ranges will overlap with forest, but it comes with downsides, says Giroux. Wider territories may increase an anteater鈥檚 risk of being hit by road vehicles, she says. Traffic collisions are a major threat to the species in many parts of its range.

Giroux predicts that as deforestation and climate change cause forest patches to dwindle and the world to warm, anteaters will increasingly use forests for refuge from the heat. 鈥淥f course,鈥� she says, 鈥渢his is only possible if there are forest patches available for them.鈥�

at Ohio State University in Columbus thinks deforestation is the more imminent threat to anteaters.聽鈥淐limate change is a longer-term problem for populations of giant anteaters, and that鈥檚 if deforestation doesn鈥檛 get them first,鈥� she says.

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