Swarms of cranes, storks in flooded meadows and the first flowers: many people currently have the impression that nature is getting started unusually early this year. But according to experts, this is deceptive, at least in part. “2024 has not yet been an extreme year when it comes to wild animals,” said Klaus Hackländer, board member of the German Wildlife Foundation and wildlife biologist at the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences in Vienna, to the German Press Agency.
The fact that it still seems that way to people is due to increased sensitivity due to the climate crisis: “Almost every year, when January is particularly harsh or the temperatures in February or March are higher than usual, people are more attentive,” said Hackländer. “But that The impression that migratory birds, for example, are arriving earlier this year is misleading.”
Everything is normal with the white storks
Julian Heiermann, team leader for nature conservation and environmental information at the Nature Conservation Association (Nabu), sees it similarly: “We are currently observing a strong migration of cranes, but this is not unusual at the time of year,” he explained. There are also no known anomalies with the white storks, which are reported to be returning from their winter quarters in many places.
The situation is different with cold-blooded amphibians, which base their activity on the ambient temperature, says Heiermann. “Due to the persistently mild temperatures, in many places the amphibians are on the way to their spawning waters or have already arrived.” A spokesman for the German Weather Service (DWD) has just reported that due to the mild February weather, forsythias have already begun to bloom in some places.
The bushes now bloom on average in mid- to late March, whereas 75 years ago we had to wait until mid-April on average, said Hackländer from the Wildlife Foundation. Nature’s adaptation to global warming is gradual, with the awakening of spring moving forward about two days per decade, says Hackländer. Deer, for example, now have their offspring much earlier in the spring.
Internal clock adapts
Like other wild animals, migratory birds have a kind of internal clock that tells them when to return from warmer climes. In times of global warming with an earlier start to spring, those conspecifics whose internal clock – to put it bluntly – are ahead are likely to prevail: They are in their summer quarters earlier, occupy the best territories and therefore have an advantage in reproduction, as Hackländer explains. In the long term, this can change the internal clock of entire populations.
For some bird species, the proportion of animals that forego migration and stay with us all year round is also increasing, says Hackländer. In the past, these individuals died when the winter was too cold or there was no food available.
