REPLT TO THIS STUDENT DISCUSSION AND WORD MINMUM IS 100 AND NO REFERENCES
For this week’s discussion, I chose the Tawny Owls as the species that humans have caused to evolve. The Tawny Owls are changing their feathers color due to climate change. We all know that the main reason why this is happening is global climate warming and humans contribute the most to it. Global climate warming is a phenomenon that changes the environment of most organisms and leads to a change in the adaptation of the same. According to Kantor (2017), the dominant plumage color of these owls is gray and this heritable trait is easily passed down to future generations. However, due to “the increasing temperatures of a warmer climate” (Kantor, 2017, para. 28), their feathers’ color is turning brown. But, these changes and evolution have helped these species to survive and grow in population. How? Well, according to Brennand (2011), birds with a light color used to have a high mortality rate because of cold winters, “this could be because brown owls were more visible to predators when there was thick snow cover” (para. 11). Also, their genetics indicated a weaker immune system, meaning they had to hunt more to survive in contrast with their counterparts, the grey feathered. Now that the winter seasons are shorter and warmer temperatures lead the population of these owls is booming. In my opinion, sometimes humans can contribute to actions with consequences that could be dangerous or good. But, in this case, even though climate change has had a big impact on humans as in animals, the fact that these species have a high probability of not going extinct is just amazing
