Towards a mechanistic understanding of the response of large mammals to heat and aridity associated with climate change

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Habitat fragmentation will preclude many large terrestrial mammals from shifting their range in the face of climate change. Predicting how trapped large mammals will respond to environmental change requires measurement of their sensitivity and exposure to changes in the environment, as well as the extent to which phenotypic plasticity can buffer them against the changes. Behavioural modifications, such as a shift to nocturnal foraging or selection of a cool microclimate, may buffer mammals against thermal and water stress, but may carry a cost, for example by reducing foraging time. Physiological responses also will be used to buffer mammals against environmental change, but those buffers may be compromised by a changing environment. Restriction of food energy or water, likely to become more prevalent, especially in arid zones, with climate change, leads to a trade-off in which the precision of thermoregulation is relaxed, resulting in large daily fluctuations in body temperature. Understanding how large mammals prioritise competing homeostatic systems in changing environments, and the consequences of that prioritisation for their fitness, requires long-term monitoring of physiological and behavioural responses of individual animals in their natural habitat.

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