Unexpected consequence of climate change: animals getting horny

Things are really getting hot and heavy for these little guys.Photo: yathin via Flickr

One thing we know about climate change is that the world is going to be getting weirder. (Which is probably what’s prompted support for the term “global weirding.”)

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And one such bizarre and unexpected consequence of a changing climate is that certain critters may be getting their freak on more often. Take, for example, the furry mountain rodent, the marmot:

Global warming has been rough on polar bears, but for Colorado’s marmots it has meant more food and more sex, according to a unusual study …

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Yellow-bellied marmots are awake only four-to-five months of the year, which doesn’t leave a lot of time to take care of essential business, explained the study’s lead author Arpat Ozgul, a scientist at Imperial College London.

“They have to eat and gain weight, get pregnant, produce offspring and get ready to hibernate again,” he said in a statement.

That’s right. A hotter planet means hotter marmot sex. But these rodents won’t be the only ones having all the fun. Other delightful creatures who may see their sex lives improving include jellyfish (swarms of them!) and ticks (swarms of them and all the diseases they carry).

A future of sexy jellies and succsexfully tick-transferred diseases — we can hardly wait!