In California’s Sacramento River, it’s a “crisis situation” for young, endangered Chinook salmon in particular, says Jordan Traverso, spokesperson at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “It’s like if you had to run a marathon while wearing a plastic bag over your head, while it’s 10 degrees warmer outside,” Stillman says.

Salmon face both increased water temperature and decreased oxygen, he says, because warmer water contains less of it. They’re already stressed by the network of dams they need to get over or around, Sullivan says.īut during a heat wave, they’re hit with “a double whammy,” says Jonathon Stillman, adjunct biology professor at University of California, Berkeley, who researches how environmental changes affect marine life. Salmon, for example, are migratory fish, moving from the ocean up rivers to spawn. Other animals are likely to take new risks by venturing places they normally wouldn’t, in search of shade or water.Īs extreme heat events become more frequent and median temperatures rise, experts are concerned about animals’ ability to survive and adapt.īy Jonathon Stillman Adjunct biology professor at University of California, Berkeley

In some cases, human development prevents animals from being able to flee to cooler areas. One estimate puts the death toll at more than a billion. Marine life, including mussels and sea stars, have died en masse from exposure to unusually hot air. The hawk nosedives are one dramatic example of the many ways wild animals have been affected by extreme heat in the West. “But these guys were just downy babies,” she says, “and there was nothing to do but bail out.” If they’d had feathers, they’d have been able to regulate their body temperatures. If the young birds had been able to fly, they could have sought reprieve in a cooler spot. The historic heat wave coincided with nesting season, says Lynn Tompkins, director of Blue Mountain Wildlife. More still were brought to Portland Audubon and other rehabilitation facilities throughout the Pacific Northwest. Nearly 50 baby Cooper’s and Swainson’s hawks were rescued from the ground beneath towering pines in Washington and Oregon and brought to Blue Mountain Wildlife, a rehabilitation organization in Pendleton, Oregon, which specializes in treating birds of prey. Unable to fly, the young raptors dealt with the heat in the only way they could: One by one, they threw themselves out. As the Pacific Northwest baked in 115 degree heat last month, fuzzy baby hawks sat sweltering in their nests, 50 feet off the ground.

Heat wave killed wildlife masse