Evolution Fast Forward: Study Shows Red Deer are Evolving Within Decades to Adapt to Global Warming – The Weather Channel

Red deer

Red deer on the Isle of Rum in Scotland are displaying one of the first evidences of wild animals evolving by altering their birthing patterns in order to adapt to global warming. And this evolution is happening in decades, not centuries!

Charles Darwin believed that evolution is a slow and gradual process. And until 1972, when Stephen Jay Gould proposed the theory of Punctuated Equilibrium, this was true for the scientific community. As per Jays theory, species stayed structurally similar for millions of years, followed by rapid bursts of change that result in a new species. However, both the models of evolution showed that it takes hundreds and thousands of years for organisms to develop different characteristics.

However, the shift in the red deers birthing pattern is one of the very rare instances of evolution occurring in nature over such a short period of timethat too because of anthropocentric warming acting as the environmental trigger.

The shift in birth timings is down to the effects of warmer temperatures on the deers behaviour and physiology. Now, researchers hope that this new adaptation may very well help the red deer population thrive as the climate continues to warm.

A red deer bellows

Previous studies have shown that since the 1980s, red deer repeatedly began giving birth to their young ones earlier than normal. Data shows this date has been shifting backwards at a rate of about three days per decade.

In the new research published this week, a team of scientists, led by Dr Timothe Bonnet of the Australian National University, has documented evolution in action using field records and collecting genetic data on rum deer over a 45-year period, dating back to 1972.

In this study, the researchers observed that the deer that give birth earlier in the year experience more reproductive success. Female red deer, called hinds, are known to give birth to a single calf each year. However, those that give birth earlier in the year produce more calves over their lifetime compared to the hinds that give birth during the latter stages of the year.

Subsequently, as the deer that give birth early have multiplied faster, the gene that causes birth earlier has become much more common among the rum deer population over the past few decadesin line with the natural selection process from Charles Darwins Theory of Evolution.

The study is published in the journal PLOS Biology.

The Weather Companys primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.

Read more:

Evolution Fast Forward: Study Shows Red Deer are Evolving Within Decades to Adapt to Global Warming - The Weather Channel