Fauna, Flora and Climate

As I post this blog (Monday, Nov. 11) the daily high was 25 degrees below normal..  Added on to  abnormal extreme low temperatures last week one gets the idea something is cooking in the atmosphere--like a polar vortex.  The area in which I am located had over 8 inches of snow the last week of October, crushing the old record for the month and by November 10 we have had almost 13" and today we had a few inches more.  The oddities of weather, over the long term, can influence climate.  Weather and climate are interrelated, but different.  Weather is often described as the day-to-day state of the atmosphere, whereas climate is a long term effect of weather.  Having studied weather and climate while a college student, I can more easily discern the varied nature of each and how they interact.  For some reasons I liked the climate part of my courses more than the weather part. I think I disliked the weather part because of the math.  Often it is hard to figure out what is going on with climate.  If weather over the long term change is causing issues in our environment there will be effects on flora and fauna.

Zebras in Tarangerie

Flora and Fauna are usually manifested by their local environment, and the local climate.  This was evident in Africa.  For example, the day we toured the Ngorongoro Crater, which was our best chance to see a black rhinoceros, it was very windy.  Rhinos are hard to see to begin with, but the wind made them hunker down, so to speak, in the vegetation to protect their horn from the wind. Hence we did not see a rhino.  Not all animals and insects in one climate zone will live in another. That is a good thing.  A good World Atlas will provide general climate zone regions.  The climate zones can give a general expectation of weather in a region.  At a world wide level they are often generalized.  The US Department of Agriculture has their planting zones for the United States, which provide information on type of plants can be grown in what location.

Lion in Tarangerie

While on safari a few weeks ago our safari guide made note of a few things, which he said are thought to be affected by a warming climate.  First, that the manes of male Lions in some areas are not as large as they had been in the past.  He made this comment while we were in Tarangerie National Park.  He went on to explain that the gland that produces the mane of the male lion requires some cooler temperatures.  In a sense, it is almost like hair, head hair loss aside, on persons of European descent being, in part, an adaption to cooler climate conditions.  As a previous post noted a Maasi Warrior comment, while looking at my arm hair, that I am like a lion.  Tarangerie National Park in Tanzania is about 3.9 degrees south latitude, so quite close to the equator, and has an elevation that varies from  3,232 to 5,013 feet.  Temperatures in this park are said to change by 3.5 degrees (F) for every thousand feet change in elevation, so this temperate near equator climate can have varied temperatures due solely to topography.

Detail of Giraffe 

The change in temperature over the long term is also affecting the color of some animals, like Wildebeest and the colors of spots on some animals. In other words, the melanin, which produces skin color in some East African animals, is thought to be affected by the warmer temperatures.  They are getting darker in color.

Male and female Lions in Serengeti

In the Ngorongoro Crater National Park, which has a crater top edge of about 7,500 feet sees the crater floor about 2,000 feet below, so the base, the caldera, is higher in elevation than the highest point in Tarangerie National Park.  The crater is so high that when we saw it from a distance it seemed to be stuck in the clouds.  To relate it to the United States, the top of the crater is above the elevation of Mount Washington in New Hampshire, and a few hundred feet higher than Harney Peak in South Dakota.  Harney Peak is the highest elevation in the US east of the Rocky Mountains.  Due to its elevation, and cooler temperatures the lions in the crater have larger manes than those in Tarangerie. The Wildebeest in the crater are more grey than black in color.  These Wildebeest do not participate in the major Wildebeest migration which we saw occurring in the Serengeti.  Temperature is only one aspect of climate, another aspect is precipitation.

Male Lion in Ngorongoro Crater

The crater, so it seemed, was somewhat drier than usual at the time of our visit.  The salt lake/marsh part of the crater, which is home to flamingos was fully dry so the flamingos had fled.  Our visit to the crater was at the end of the dry season and the guide said such dryness as we saw is not necessarily unusual.  Because of the variation in elevation, the crater can see variation in weather patterns.

Wildebeest with Zebra in Ngorongoro Crater

The penchant for rain following my wife and I was clearly on display while we were in Tanzania.  We had rain on all but one day of our two week excursion, and the day it did not rain was the day we had  to catch a 4 pm flight (after a four hour drive) only to find the flight was cancelled and they placed us on a flight that would leave at 8 pm.  Thus, we wasted a good part of the day at the small Mwanza airport.  While on Safari, our guide noted that the parks we visited were just entering what is called the short rain season, which follows the dry season, but before the heavy rain season.  The short rain season means a rain shower of about 10 to 20 minutes perhaps occurring a couple times a week. Locals tend to use the term shower and not rain to describe these rain events.  We had a heavy downpour for several hours while in the Serengeti;  the guide noted that the heavy rainfall was "not usual."  What I found amazing in this experience was something I had learned about in a hydrology class in college, but had never experienced first hand: Horton Overland Flow.  This theory shows how precipitation runs off soil that has been subject to dry conditions, due to ground hardness and compactness.  In this case the lack of infiltration is also due to a hard pan a few inches below the surface--hard rain and hard pan work to counter infiltration of rain water.  The underlying geology explains why some areas of the Serengeti Plain are, well, plain grassland as far as the eye can see.  If an area is need of precipitation, all one has to do is ask my wife and I to travel and (more often than not) the precipitation will follow.  I wonder how much more rainy the rainy season in the northern part of Tanzania would be if my wife and I were to visit at that time?

Wildebeest Migration in the Serengeti

What is interesting about Tanzania is that different climates are evident in not just the crater, but also on Zanzibar.  While on the island of Zanzibar, we visited the Jozani-Chwaka Reserve and saw Red Colobus monkeys, unique to that archipelago, and Mangrove swamps.  What is interesting is that this reserve is in the central part of the island of Zanzibar, but it is a temperate rain forest.  It was hot, and humid, and of course since we  were there it rained during our visit.  What is most interesting is that Chwaka Bay is over a mile away from the reserve, and salt water will come in at high tide inundating the mangrove forest.  This also shows how little topographic change exists in this area of the island. Mangroves are unique in the flora landscape as they handle both fresh and salt water.  What is also interesting is that a small crab sets up home at the base of the Mangrove roots and digs into the nutrient rich soil, allowing salt water to feed the root systems of the trees.  Each needs the other.

Wildebeest and Zebra in Ngorongoro Crater

The rain from Jozani also followed us several miles north and east to the historic Stonetown district of Zanzibar.  The rainfall was to the point our driver had to admit the rain was not usual.  That was two not usual rainfall.  We are the rainmakers.

Kudu in Tarangerie 

Whether it be precipitation, or temperatures, we humans, and our earthly companions of other fauna and flora can be affected by changes in weather which over time can change our climate.  Is something afoot in our climate?  Clearly, weather seems more variable than the more recent past, as can be seen by the increased frequency of  large storms and greater temperature variations.  The question is whether or not these form a long range pattern, to affect climate.  I don't think the color of a Wildebeest is subject to minor variations in temperature, I tend to think it is a long range reaction to changing climate. Wildebeest and lion manes and animal spots are just one indicator of how fauna are affected by changing patterns of weather and climate.

Images by author, October 2019