Can animals evolve to deal with climate change?
As climate change brings rising temperatures, droughts and shifting patterns of rainfall, animals are adapting to keep pace. Bird\u2019s bodies are growing smaller, their wingspan longer, lizards are growing larger thumb pads to help them grip more tightly in hurricane strength winds, beak size is changing.\n \nWe visit the Galapagos, where evolution was first discovered by Charles Darwin, and investigate the many ways animals are adapting their behaviour and physiology to survive the impact of climate change. Changes to climate are also influencing animals\u2019 genetics, meaning that we are seeing species evolve within our own lifetime. \n \nHowever, most animals won\u2019t be able to adapt quickly enough to cope with the speed they need to in order to survive in a warming world.\n \nPresenters Jordan Dunbar and Kate Lamble look at what role evolution plays in helping animals adapt to climate change. \n \nContributors: \nKiyoko Gotanda, Assistant Professor at Brock University\nRamiro Tomala, Expedition leader, Metropolitan Touring in the Galapagos \nThor Hanson, conservationist and author of Hurricane Lizards and Plastic Squid \nAnne Charmantier, Director of Research at Centre d\u2019Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive (CEFE), Montpellier\n \nWith thanks to research carried out by Colin Donihue of Institute at Brown for Environment and Society. \n \nProducer: Dearbhail Starr\nReporter: Mark Stratton \nSeries Producer: Alex Lewis \nEditor: Nicola Addyman \nProduction Coordinators: Sophie Hill and Siobhan Reed \nSound Engineer: Tom Brignell