Survival on The Crown
With global warming, survival on The Crown in Montana is dubious for the lynx and the snowshoe hare.
Image via Wikipedia
Survival of the lynx and the snowshoe hare on The Crown is a near impossibility. The lynx is about three times the size of a house cat and is extremely adapted to the Rocky Mountains, as is the snowshoe hare. A lynx eats almost nothing but snowshoe hares. An animal that eats only one kind of food has a small toe hold on life, but this stretch of Montana called The Crown of the continent is unlike any other place. It has yet to lose any vertebrate species that were here when the first Europeans arrived in this part of the world. No other continent can claim the same good fortune. Here you will find, wolves, bobcats, grizzly bears, cougars, coyotes, and even stranger there are, river otter, bobcats, fishers, martens, lynx and wolverines. The Crown is 10 million acres as it was in the beginning of exploration. The Crown changes at a glacial pace but the problem is, that pace is not what it once was.
Image via Wikipedia
For the first time in history, you can see the glacial ice move, and if nothing changes in 20 years there will be none left to see. Dan Fagre, a climate ecologist in Glacier National Park says, ” The Park is weathering it so far but there is a limit.” If it continues at some point the pressure will be too great, and beyond this nobody knows what the effect will be.” It will be an ecological change, the last of the glacier, different cycles, different trees, different animals, The Crown as we know it now will be gone forever.
The reason The Crown is different from any other ecosystem on earth is that it sits in the middle of the continental divide. Warmth from the south, fields to the west, windy prairie to the east, and the frigid north. It’s rivers flow in all directions to the Pacific, Atlantic, and Arctic oceans. The mountains toss snow and wind to different sides of the divide and send sunlight into different slopes. These micro climates allows The Crown the widest diversity of life on the continent.
Records show the warming trend started in the 19 century. So far no animals have succumbed. They can go from warmer to colder climes on The Crown. When their habitat goes off the top of the mountain, it’s all over. With global warming we lose the extremes and the strata of life. The lynx and the snowshoe hare will be the first to fade away. Now winter snow melts a month earlier on The Crown than it did a century ago. The snowshoe hare turns white in the winter and brown in the spring, and with the warming trend white snowshoe hares end up white sitting on the brown earth. Researcher Scott Mills says they are dying for it in increasingly large numbers. Over time they may sort themselves out but at this time it seems unlikely. The surviving animals will be those who are the least choosy eaters such as grizzly bears, coyotes, mountain lions,and wolves. They already show an increasing population.
Image via Wikipedia
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User Comments
chris73
On August 16, 2009 at 4:55 am
All that facts are so sad and the truth is that we do almost nothing as always…
giftarist
On August 16, 2009 at 4:56 am
nice Article
Christine Ramsay
On August 16, 2009 at 5:07 am
It would be such a shame if we were to lose such animals to this change in global climate. The Crown certainly sounds like an amazing place. An interesting article.
Christine
ken bultman
On August 16, 2009 at 5:30 am
A very powerful, educational article. I’m not certain anything can be done to stop the march of nature. I’m not sure man should.
Lucas Dié
On August 16, 2009 at 6:12 am
Well done! Just goes to show how long any animal takes to adapt to change (and I don’t think we had McDonalds for that long to adapt humans to it?)
Lostash
On August 16, 2009 at 6:46 am
Despite all our efforts to destroy our planet, nature can also be very resilient at times in defending itself. Lets hope so in this case!
deep blue
On August 16, 2009 at 6:52 am
The wildlife conservation fund must do her share to protect these threatened species if it still matters or else we maybe extinct ourselves in 2 centuries or earlier than that. Nature has her best way even our own couldn’t fully understand.
CHAN LEE PENG
On August 16, 2009 at 6:56 am
Educational piece. Global warming has become one of a threat to the extinction of certain animals on earth. Have my liked it.
Ramalingam
On August 16, 2009 at 7:05 am
I think we cannot do anything about global warming except that we can feel sorry for the hapless creatures that includes the human beings.
Mr Ghaz
On August 16, 2009 at 9:59 am
Well done!..a very informative and helpful article. Nice presented.piece. LIKED it.
ceegirl
On August 16, 2009 at 12:29 pm
Nice pictures.
cebuanaeyez
On August 16, 2009 at 4:29 pm
Who knows what will happen in the future. We can only pray. Beautifully done Ruby
George W Whitehead
On August 16, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Great article, Ruby.
PR Mace
On August 16, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Well done article. It is so sad when we lose our wildlife, they have an important role in our world.
CA Johnson
On August 16, 2009 at 8:13 pm
Great article! It really is a shame that global warming is destroying our planet like this.
Ruby Hawk
On August 16, 2009 at 9:27 pm
Thank you everyone for your input and your support. It is a shame and we have to wonder what kind of world will be here when the warming trend reaches it’s potential. Remember the ice age. Our earth may continue to change as long as it exists.
Johanny Lisbeth
On August 16, 2009 at 10:30 pm
This was great, Ruby. Very enjoyable read and fantastic photos.
Collette Edwards
On August 17, 2009 at 11:54 am
Rudy well done artical and somthing we should all be aware of, yet I have to agree with Ken on this one. The choise of pictures are breathtaking and I would love to see them in person
Daisy Peasblossom
On August 17, 2009 at 10:13 pm
Humans change so many things just by being.
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