How do animals adapt to the alpine environment?
Animals in the alpine zone show a great variety of adaptations and strategies to cope with their environment. We can differentiate between several basic causes that need special adaptations. Animals in the alpine zone have to face very low temperatures and often are confronted with snow. Other adaptations concern food shortage due to short vegetation periods or adaptations to the habitat they live in. Finally physical constraints such as a low oxygene pressure or high radiation have forced animals to evolve appropriate adaptations.
However, most of the following explanations refer to mountains of the temperate regions and not to the tropical and subtropical mountains. In the Ethiopian Highlands, for example, a daily climate instead of the annual climate predominates. In fact there is no real winter season and no snow at all. Food shortage can occur, but not because of a short vegetation period but because of drought.
It is important to note, that these adaptations alone do not designate an alpine animal! Adaptations to cold and snow are similar in the northern tundra regions, and steppe habitats as well as rocky landscapes do also occur in lowlands. |
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