How Do Animals Deal with Climate Warming?动物如何应对气候变暖？

A new study shows that some animalsare slowly growing larger beaks， legs andears. In this way they can cool themselvesdown more easily as the Earth gets warmer.“When we talk about the climate change，we often ask ‘What can humans do withthis？ ‘How can we live in the future？ But weshould know that animals also have to facethese changes，” said Sara Ryding， fromDeakin University， Australia. If animals donothing t o keep t h e i r normal bodytemperature， they will die.

In one example， the beaks of somekinds of Australian parrots have grown 4 to10 percent larger. The study says it has a lotto do with the hotter summer over the years.There are other similar examples. Woodmice in hot places have longer tails and batsin warm climates have bigger wings.

Although the changes are still small，they could be common as the weatherbecomes hotter. “Body parts like ears maybecome bigger， so we might be able to seea real Dumbo （big-eared elephant from aDisney cartoon） in the near future，” Rydingtold the reporters.

一項新的研究表明，一些动物正在慢慢长出更大的喙、腿和耳朵。随着地球变暖，它们可以通过这种方式更好地为自己降温。“我们在谈到气候变化时，时常会问：‘人类如何应对气候变化？‘我们以后怎么生活？但我们应该知道，动物也必须面对这些变化。”澳大利亚迪肯大学的萨拉·瑞丁说道。如果动物不采取任何措施来维持正常体温，它们就会死亡。

比如，某些种类的澳大利亚鹦鹉的喙长大了4% 到10%。该研究表明，这与多年来炎热的夏季有很大关系。还有其他类似的例子：在炎热地方的木鼠有更长的尾巴，在温暖气候下的蝙蝠有更大的翅膀。

尽管这些变化还很小，但随着天气更热，这样的变化可能会很常见。“像耳朵这样的身体部位可能会变得更大，所以在不久的将来我们可能会看到真正的小飞象（迪士尼卡通片中的大耳朵象）。”瑞丁告诉记者。

Word Bank

beak n. 鸟喙

climate n. 气候

parrot n. 鹦鹉