As waters rise and cities grow, this furry little Floridian may have nowhere to go » Yale Climate Connections

Transcript:

Islands are home to species that are found nowhere else on Earth. And as seas rise, many of these unique plants and animals could be lost forever.

Take the silver rice rat – a furry little creature from the Florida Keys. They live in coastal marshes and swamps and eat small creatures they find at low tide.

Taillie: “They can kind of roam around that exposed tidal area looking for crabs and snails and things.”

But Paul Taillie of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill says rising seas are flooding some of the rat’s habitat.

So far, the animals have managed to adapt. Over the past two decades, they shifted their habitat to higher ground, outpacing sea level rise.

But there are limits to how far they can go. There’s less land area at higher elevations – and some of it is developed.

Taillie: “This is this idea of coastal squeeze, where animals are kind of squeezed between urban development and rising sea levels.”

Taillie’s research finds that over the next few decades, rice rat habitat will shrink dramatically. And the animals could go extinct by the end of the century if they cannot find enough suitable habitat at higher elevations.

It’s a reminder that sea level rise will have a greater impact on low-lying islands and the unique species that live there.

Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy / ChavoBart Digital Media