A warming climate is causing animals to ‘shapeshift’.  Climate change is a human problem and an animal one.  Animals have to adapt to it too.  Some warm-blooded animals are changing in shape and getting larger ears, beaks, and legs to better regulate their body temperatures as the planet gets hotter.  Bird researcher Sara Ryding of Deakin University in Australia describes these changes in a review published on September 7th in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.  Strong shapeshifting has particularly been reported in birds such as the North American dark-eyed junco and Australian parrot.  “Shapeshifting does not mean that animals are coping with climate change and that all is ‘fine,’ says Ryding. “It just means they are evolving to survive it — but we’re not sure what the other ecological consequences of these changes are, or indeed that all species are capable of changing and surviving.”  I wonder what will happen to this great blue heron.