Hot, young, dead too soon – why these wrens’ climate future should worry us all | Miki Perkins
Monash University biologists undertook a 17-year study of endangered purple-crowned fairy wrens.Professor Anne Peters said the primary message was that climate change held unforeseen risks.Hot and dry weather damages the DNA of fairy wren nestlings and causes them to age earlier and die younger, according to research that has implications for the effect of climate warming on other species, including humans.
It appears that the hotter things become, the worse the damage to the telomeres of the week-old nestlings. But this only applies if it’s dry – if it’s wet, the birds’ DNA is unaffected. The Monash University researchers took blood samples from 417 birds between 2007 and 2011, and 2016 and 2018. Temperatures during that time ranged between 9 degrees and 48 degrees.