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Short Wave

Two Squirrely Responses To Climate Change

Short Wave

NPR

Science, Life Sciences, News, Nature, Daily News, Astronomy

4.76.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 May 2023

⏱️ 12 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kwasi Wrensford studies two related species: the Alpine chipmunk and the Lodgepole chipmunk. The two have very different ways of coping with climate change. In this episode, Kwasi explains to host Emily Kwong how these squirrelly critters typify two important evolutionary strategies, and why they could shed light on what's in store for other creatures all over the globe.

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Transcript

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0:00.0

You're listening to shortwave.

0:03.6

From NPR.

0:05.2

Quasi runs for studies, chipmunks, and they keep him on his toes.

0:11.3

I would describe them as Elfin, like, Elf looking.

0:14.2

They have like, really angular faces.

0:16.9

And the pointy ears, they're very zippy.

0:19.0

They're small and they're fast.

0:20.4

So it's like the two things you don't want for something you have to spend a lot of time

0:24.4

looking for and observing.

0:26.8

And they're full of personality.

0:29.5

Quasi's seen first hand over summers of field research, observing their every move.

0:34.9

I do my work up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California.

0:38.0

You'll see a chipmunk.

0:39.0

It'll kind of be posted up in a rock and it'll just be really still.

0:41.6

And then it'll just take off like a rocket.

0:44.9

To be more specific, Quasi studies two chipmunks in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, the Lodgepole

0:50.5

chipmunk and the Alpine chipmunk.

0:52.7

They eat similar food, act in similar ways.

0:55.6

Between these two species, he's observed one clear difference.

0:59.3

And so we have these two chipmunks, very similar habitats, very closely related

1:04.2

similar ecologies, but very different responses to climate change.

1:08.6

What makes an animal more likely to be resilient to climate change versus sensitive to climate

...

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