How Do Animals Deal with Climate Warming?動(dòng)物如何應(yīng)對(duì)氣候變暖？

A new study shows that some animalsare slowly growing larger beaks， legs andears. In this way they can cool themselvesdown more easily as the Earth gets warmer.“When we talk about the climate change，we often ask ‘What can humans do withthis？ ‘How can we live in the future？ But weshould know that animals also have to facethese changes，” said Sara Ryding， fromDeakin University， Australia. If animals donothing t o keep t h e i r normal bodytemperature， they will die.

In one example， the beaks of somekinds of Australian parrots have grown 4 to10 percent larger. The study says it has a lotto do with the hotter summer over the years.There are other similar examples. Woodmice in hot places have longer tails and batsin warm climates have bigger wings.

Although the changes are still small，they could be common as the weatherbecomes hotter. “Body parts like ears maybecome bigger， so we might be able to seea real Dumbo （big-eared elephant from aDisney cartoon） in the near future，” Rydingtold the reporters.

一項(xiàng)新的研究表明，一些動(dòng)物正在慢慢長(zhǎng)出更大的喙、腿和耳朵。隨著地球變暖，它們可以通過(guò)這種方式更好地為自己降溫。“我們?cè)谡劦綒夂蜃兓瘯r(shí)，時(shí)常會(huì)問(wèn)：‘人類如何應(yīng)對(duì)氣候變化？‘我們以后怎么生活？但我們應(yīng)該知道，動(dòng)物也必須面對(duì)這些變化。”澳大利亞迪肯大學(xué)的薩拉·瑞丁說(shuō)道。如果動(dòng)物不采取任何措施來(lái)維持正常體溫，它們就會(huì)死亡。

比如，某些種類的澳大利亞鸚鵡的喙長(zhǎng)大了4% 到10%。該研究表明，這與多年來(lái)炎熱的夏季有很大關(guān)系。還有其他類似的例子：在炎熱地方的木鼠有更長(zhǎng)的尾巴，在溫暖氣候下的蝙蝠有更大的翅膀。

盡管這些變化還很小，但隨著天氣更熱，這樣的變化可能會(huì)很常見(jiàn)。“像耳朵這樣的身體部位可能會(huì)變得更大，所以在不久的將來(lái)我們可能會(huì)看到真正的小飛象（迪士尼卡通片中的大耳朵象）。”瑞丁告訴記者。

Word Bank

beak n. 鳥(niǎo)喙

climate n. 氣候

parrot n. 鸚鵡