Aardvark feces have revealed the true peril the species faces from climate change.
Scientists from Oregon State University have found the study of aardvark poop to be very useful in discovering how the species is being impacted by incredibly dry landscapes.
The scientists discovered that as the environment becomes increasingly dry and arid, aardvarks are becoming more and more isolated from each other. The findings were published in a Diversity and Distribution paper.
Aardvarks are found widely across sub-Saharan Africa. They are nocturnal and burrow in the ground, using their long snouts to locate termite hills. While the species is listed as "least concern" by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, they are ecologically very important to the ecosystem. They are also understudied, due to their nocturnal nature making them harder to study.
Sub-Saharan Africa has suffered at the hands of prolonged drought for many years. Climate change is making seasonal rainfall unpredictable, and the landscape is becoming more parched with each year.
"Everyone had heard of aardvarks and they are considered very ecologically important but there has been little study of them. We wanted to see if we could collect enough data to begin to understand them," lead author Clint Epps, a wildlife biologist at Oregon State, said in a press release on the findings. "I wanted to work on a system that was understudied, where anything I learned would likely be truly new information to the scientific community," Epps said. "I also wanted to work over large landscapes, on foot, alone or with a friend or with guards when needed, in protected areas, with minimal logistical support and little cost."
The researchers tested 104 samples of aardvark poop to reach their findings. Epps discovered a genetic way to determine whether tracks and poop were made by the same individuals.
They discovered overall, that there were three different divisions of the species across South Africa. This suggested that the animals living in western, central and eastern regions were completely isolated from each other.
This distance was far greater when the landscapes were drier and affected by drought. Scientists found aardvarks in multiple locations separated by about 4 miles. Those that were related to each other were found to be as far as 27 miles apart.
This isolation could mean a number of negative things for the species.
"Our initial findings suggest that climate change will increase habitat fragmentation and limit gene flow for aardvarks, particularly where precipitation is expected to decrease and temperature increase," Epps said. "With aridity expected to increase in southern-most Africa under most climate change scenarios, the need for further research is clear."
Aardvarks are not alone in their struggle. Wildlife across the world is suffering due to extreme drought conditions.
Recently, it was reported that at least 100 elephants have died in Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park due to late rains. The species simply does not have enough water, and watering holes have become muddy puddles, a release from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) reported earlier this month.
"It is one of the most serious immediate and ongoing threats to African elephants. Elephants are entirely dependent on surface water for survival," Rachael Gross, a postdoctoral fellow at the Fenner School of Environment & Society at the Australian National University, told Newsweek at the time.
Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about aardvarks? Let us know via science@newsweek.com.
About the writer
Robyn White is a Newsweek Nature Reporter based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on wildlife, science and the ... Read more
To read how Newsweek uses AI as a newsroom tool, Click here.
