Climate Change Affects Austin Animals

How we are helping our temperatureimpacted wildlife

By Charlotte Revesz

s temperatures plummet, so do the tree limbs on which baby squirrels live. Freezing temperatures led to brittle branches. As brittle branches began to break, many helpless squirrels fell from trees. They suffered from frostbite as well as the impact of falling from a great height. Because of these difficult conditions, many of the helpless, little squirrels died.

Similar to the squirrels that were affected by our recent freeze, many other Austin wildlife have experienced and continue to experience the negative impacts of temperature changes. As the temperatures continue to range from sudden freezes to blazing hot temperatures in the summer, the local animals are involved in a constant battle with the temperature of their environment.

Hayley Hudnall is the Executive Director at Austin Wildlife Rescue Center. She began her work at the center by providing care for the more than thirty new animal intakes daily. Although her current position as Executive Director is more computerbased work, she still loves to be a part of releasing animals to give them a second chance in the wild.

“Seeing the animals come in orphaned [or] injured, and then we spend the time fixing them or raising them. The day that they get to go back out in the wild is my favorite part- knowing that we did our job. They get to have a second chance.”

Hudnall explains that her job is very focused around providing the best care possible for animals in order to prepare them for release. This field is “learning what’s happening and trying to protect as many animals as you can from it.” The goal is to “make sure it’s very natural so they get what they would in the wild. We’re checking or making sure they’re healthy, but otherwise, like, we’re very hands-off. By the time we get around for [their] release, they don’t want anything to do with us.”

Hudnall and her coworkers work with the end goal of always being able to release animals back to the wild after their time at the center. They provide help to the animals by doing whatever they need from raising young to their final release.

“We treat them and then as they get older, they move from incubators to cages, to outdoor cages.” She says that they “make sure they’re getting prepared for the wild a little at a time.”

Work at the Austin Wildlife

Rescue is an around the clock job with many different moving parts. They work to meet feeding schedules and health checks while still taking in many new animals each day.

“We’re feeding them, getting them medication, and we’re getting them cleaned for the day. Then, we moved on to the next group of animals. They [also] need help. The babies [feed] every three to four hours around the clock and the birds [feed] every 20 minutes. It’s a very fast-paced, multitasking environment, but it’s fun! You never know what animal’s coming in and what you’ll have to do next.”

As we live in “Bat City”, it’s also important to consider the bat populations in our environment.

Erin Cord is an Engagement Manager from Bat Conservation International Community who is passionate about spreading awareness about bats and helping to protect them.

Cord expresses her passion for her work by saying, “I love talking to people about any wildlife and getting people excited about wildlife, specifically bats because they have a bad rap sometimes. There’s a lot of misinformation out there and getting people to think about the bats [being] part of their local wildlife hopefully creates a sense of stewardship and having people understand why that’s so important.”

With regard to working at Bat Con, Cord explains that it “gives me a good chance to really do what I love, which is conservation, education, communication, community engagement. I feel like we have a really holistic approach to bat conservation where we’ve got a science team and they do lots of really important research, and we’re really committed to what we do.”

Hudnall explains that temperature is a factor that affects wildlife in their environment . The extreme temperatures often negatively affect wildlife.

“Weather really impacts [them] and a lot of the wildlife is very confused,” Hudnall said. In hot weather conditions “there are fewer resources” and “wild animals are quicker to abandon their babies.”

While the animals are being rehabilitated at the Wildlife center, the staff works hard to manage the needs of the animals and the temperatures of their enclosures.

“We’re making adjustments all the time depending on the weather,” Hudnall continues, “In freezing temperatures, a lot of the animals were brought back inside.” In the warmer temperatures “we have misting systems that we set up and we’re …changing water multiple times every day.”

Freezing temperatures often pose many negative consequences for wildlife.

“It does seem like [the freezes are] a lot more common.” It’s the “third year in a row that we’ve had like a serious freeze like that, that shut everything down. And [during] this one, we had 63 squirrels come in. The freeze broke all the trees and then all the nests came down with them. We had so many nests that came down and the squirrels came with [them].” In general, this year was “a warmer winter, so then the animals [started] having babies earlier. The baby squirrels started and then it froze, so it was a double hit. They didn’t know what to do.”

Cord also agrees that the animals are being hit very hard by climate change and the resulting extreme temperatures.

“There are so many things that climate change does” and the wildlife get “hit on so many different fronts…We’re just trying to understand it and bat refuges [are] out there trying to rescue as many bats as they can.”

Similarly to the squirrels and other wildlife, our bat populations suffered greatly from the freeze in 2021.

“When we had the winter apocalypse two years ago, so many bats died from that. A large colony of Mexican free-tailed bats live under Congress Avenue Bridge, and there are also a lot of other bridges in Austin that house [other] colonies.”

Cord explains that one of the reasons that bats were so severely impacted by the freeze was because of where they were living.

“Man-made habitats are just not good enough to survive these extreme temperatures. The temperature is just not as consistent in the bridges. It works for them and they’ve made it work. But, the temperature fluctuation is definitely a huge issue.”

Aside from the bat populations and rescued wildlife, Austin has a Nature and Science Center that is home to many varying species of local animals.

Christina Burkovich is a Wildlife Exhibit Coordinator for the Austin Nature and Science Center. She enjoys teaching people about animals and participating in other forms of wildlife conservation.

Burkovich explains that the Nature and Science Center is an excellent place for people to immerse themselves in nature and interact with many different animals.

“The center is a great place to get your hands dirty, get involved, and see what is local to this area. It’s a pretty small facility, but we offer a lot. It’s really neat that anyone can come here and just get to know a bobcat or get to know the road runner.” Similarly to the rescue center, the Nature and Science Center also takes measures yearly to adjust to the extreme weather.

“During the freezes, we’ll bring all of the animals that we can inside depending on how cold and the severity is. Or we make sure that they’re prepared either with bedding or shelter, whether that’s shelter from wind or precipitation. For the reptiles, we make sure that they have proper heat, light, and proper lighting so that they can absorb the UVB rays and the specific rays that help them process different vitamins and nutrients.When it’s hot out...we can turn the misters on and we’ll offer ice treats. ”

Burkovich believes that the extremes in temperature are becoming increasingly more common.

“From what I’ve seen, it does sound like these more extreme weather events are happening more often…If we can help slow the process, [] I think that’s part of our job. ”

Hudnall also expresses her opinion about these varying temperatures in Austin.

Hudnall says, “I do think that climate change plays a big part in [the extreme temperatures]. I think overall it is getting hotter. And that’s affecting animals too.”

Burkovich believes that people are having a major influence on the warming temperatures of Austin.

“There’s a lot of evidence that would suggest that humans are having a very big impact on the planet. We are causing [climate change] or we’re really, really contributing to it and making things happen faster.”

In order to reduce our carbon footprint and thus climate change, Burkovich turns to solutions such as reducing plastic water bottles.

“I’d say one of the biggest things is decreasing single-use plastics. I’ve got a reusable water bottle now, and the trouble is, everyone’s got a reusable water bottle and sometimes everyone ends up with 10 reusable water bottles.” She recommends that people continue “decreasing and being more mindful about what you actually purchase, and about what you actually want.”

In addition to reducing plastic water bottles, Burkovich explains that it is also important to reduce the use of plastic bags at the grocery store.

“I know it sounds probably cliche at this point, but reusing your bags at the grocery store” is another way for people to limit climate change. “That all makes a difference if each one of us isn’t using six plastic bags at the grocery store, that adds up.”

Cord details a few measures that people can take in order to help the bat populations.

Cord works to “get people to think about their own personal actions and how they can make their personal space with the wild.” Cord continues to explain that if people “garden with native plants, put more green space in urban and suburban areas, and make water more available if possible, that’s great.”

Additionally, she says that it is great if you “can have a pond or a trough for bats. Bats need about seven to 10 feet of water to drink because they actually swoop down and drink on the wing.”

Burkovich hopes that preserving it.

“If you’re exposed to something, you learn to care about it. That helps people take things a little more like it’s their responsibility to help make sure that these animals are here for future generations.” through her work and other conservationists’ work, people can learn to take more responsibility in helping wildlife and

From our diverse wildlife of bats and squirrels to coyotes and deer, it’s important for us to recognize the impact of our decisions on the environment that we share with nature. Austin wildlife very much depends on our decisions to help sustain their environmental conditions. Currently, it’s clear that we aren’t doing enough because we continue to see an increase in animals affected by climate change, so it is important that we all consider implementing carbon reducing practices into our everyday lives for the sake of these animals.