Science Source

Drought-induced starvation of aardvarks in the Kalahari: an indirect effect of climate change

States that aardvarks' survival may be threatened by climate change via direct and indirect effects of increasing heat and aridity
Implants biologgers into six adult aardvarks resident in the semi-arid Kalahari to measure their current physiological plasticity
Observes that, following a particularly dry and hot summer, five of the study aardvarks and 11 other aardvarks at the study site died
Finds that body temperature records revealed homeothermy (35.4–37.2°C) initially, but heterothermy increased progressively through the summer, with declining troughs in the nychthemeral rhythm of body temperature reaching as low as 25°C before death, likely due to starvation
Finds that activity patterns shifted from the normal nocturnal to a diurnal mode
Concludes that extirpation of aardvarks, which play a key role as ecosystem engineers, may disrupt stability of African ecosystems