Like most, I enjoy summer’s sunshine and warm weather, but, to steal a line from country singer Eddie Rabbitt, “I love a rainy night.” Unfortunately, that opportunity hasn’t presented itself much this summer. The dip in precipitation isn’t just local news, but has reached across much of Ohio and the Midwest. Without those evening rain showers, there may have been a little less bread in the jar for Mr. Rabbitt, and with this season’s dry spell, Br’er Rabbit and friends may be facing sparse cupboards.
Drought always has an impact on wildlife; it’s the length of the water shortage that dictates the long-term effect. From a human aspect, we understand that severe drought periods will influence farm production, therefore driving shortages in grain and fruit products while also pushing available produce costs upward.
Our grass turns brown in the yard; there is an increased risk of accidental grass fires, stream, river and pond levels shrink and we worry about the underground water table dropping below our pump’s depth. When rain patterns straighten up a bit, the next growing season recovers and worries are lessened for most of us, though farmers still feel the financial pinch of the previous year’s poor crops.
Drought’s effect on Wildlife. Wildlife is in the same proverbial bottom-scraping boat — it’s just a little bit more difficult to see. While their capacity to emotionally “worry” about the lack of rain is not on par with ours, they definitely experience suffering from the shortage of water. Like the farmer, many species will see their future modified because of the stress the situation has caused. Impacts on some populations can last for several years.
The short-term influences of a drought are relatively easy to understand and are comparable to what we suffer. Stress from the heat, diminishing water sources and the reduced amounts and quality of natural fruits and forage. These can lead to physiological stress that can negatively influence breeding success, young survival and adult mortality.
By themselves, these aren’t favorable conditions for thriving wildlife populations, but it’s the long-term effects that upset nature’s apple cart. It’s the impact on wildlife species’ home — their habitat quality — that will dictate how and if the critter populations recover.
Fewer food sources
Woodlands that suffer from long dry periods show an overall lower production of their nuts and fruits. This includes everything from elderberries to acorns.
This natural crop, called “mast,” comes in two forms: hard mast and soft mast. Hard mast are shell-covered seeds, usually recognized as nuts. These include walnut, hickory, acorn and beech nuts. Soft mass are the fleshy covered seeds. This is the category that comprises berries, crabapple and wild grape.
Drought reduces both the quantity and quality of palatable forage for a lot of wild creatures. Dry weather often reduces the number of insects flitting and crawling around, impacting a variety of birds including wild turkey poults.
The lack of water also leads to alternate food sources — herbaceous plants — to dip into dormancy, forcing animals to move around in search of other foods. This expends energy that is not being properly fed, exposing wildlife to additional predatory stress, and pushes them into less desirable areas including areas around buildings, homes, farm crops and even into areas of higher vehicular traffic.
The physical results of a less nutritious diet are weight loss and the lessening of fatty reserves that are stored to be burned during the harsher winter months when food is naturally less bountiful.
For resident wildlife, this can be the difference in surviving until spring. Migratory animals, from woodcock to widgeons to waxwings, can have trouble with their flights south. Energy levels will be lower, resulting in the need to stop more often to search for food. If a drought is widespread, the problem is exacerbated by the lack of food at temporary resting areas. With many needing the energy to continue their instinctual journey, with some even crossing large expanses of water, the survival risks become obvious.
Increasing disease risks
Wild animals, weakened by this dilemma, can become more susceptible to disease risks. Low water levels can congregate mosquitoes and other vectors into small areas while allowing decaying and dying aquatic vegetation to lessen any value to the water as a thirst quencher.
Waterfowl and shorebirds, naturally drawn to rest and feed in these areas, can become especially vulnerable to avian botulism. Shallow wetlands can become over-warmed and hold decaying material. This allows the bacterium Clostridium botulinum to blossom, producing toxins that can be fatal to birds. The same areas may also add to the risk of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease in wild deer.
Lasting effects
Unfortunately, that diminished quality of the habitat does not end when the drought does. Like the farmer’s deflated checkbook after a bad cropping year, the damage can linger into the next year or more. Drought plagued trees and shrubs produce fewer buds as well as their germinating mast products which would normally help to secure a more bountiful future. In areas that harbor grouse and their favored aspen trees, those buds are especially missed by that king of game birds, stressing the already strained species.
Many of the herbaceous and native perennial plants that had gone dormant during the drought often have their own numbers reduced. This can result in gaps in protective vegetative cover, gaps in ground cover and fewer foraging opportunities. These issues can take several “normal” seasons to rebound.
The question is apparent, “How can we alleviate this problem?” This is an issue that humans have been trying to solve for centuries. Unless you know a group of traditional Navajo or Hopi elders that are willing to perform their Rain Dance, there are no positive answers beyond the spiritual world. Large and diverse spans of quality wildlife habitat help, but Mother Nature still takes her toll — and her hands are seldom clean. Some animals will die to allow others to live, not by choice but by necessity. Ecosystems suffer, although, they will recover from short-term weather trends. But, if long-term change is occurring, we may be looking at another set of dynamics in an uncertain climatological future.
As the farmer looks to the sky and prays for rain without floods, in their own way, wildlife does the same.
“God has cared for these trees, saved them from drought, disease, avalanches and a thousand tempests and floods. But he cannot save them from fools.” — John Muir
