Climate Change: Loons Might Vanish From Ottawa In Up To 30 Years, A New Study Suggests

Due to climate change, loons might vanish from Ottawa in about 20-30 years, according to new research by the National Audubon Society. According to the researchers, the global warming effects force the bird to move farther north to avoid the temperature increase. However, the study concluded that loons are not alone in this move as “314 species, nearly half of all North American birds, are severely threatened by global warming.”

The scientists said that, for the birds to evade the harmful effects of climate change, they have to adapt to the changing ecosystems to survive. However, migration is the best way for them to keep themselves safe from global warming. And loons are also expected to move from Ottawa farther north, by 2050, to find ecosystems similar to those they inhabit currently.

By the end of 2020, the loon populations in the region of Ottawa, but also in the northern side of the USA, would already number fewer specimens.

Loons would disappear from Ottawa in 20-30 years, along with other bird species, due to climate change

The National Audubon Society predicts that loons, along with other birds, would be forced to move farther north to avoid the harmful effects of global warming. They think that by 2050 loons would vanish from the Ottawa region, as well as from Ontario, Quebec, and Atlantic Canada.

However, some specialists do not agree with the timeframe and the accuracy of the Society’s study.

“Their projection is likely to provide a crude estimate of the impact of climate change on loons, not a precise one,” Walter Piper of Chapman University, in the United States, thinks. “Loons are likely to cope with climate change better than most other birds, as they have other environmental threats. Then again, loons might be especially sensitive to climate change and retreat northward more rapidly than the study predicts,” he added.