Flapping Ears and Air Conditioning in Their Trunks: Animals Brave the Heat

Heat can also be a danger to animals

For other animals, the only option in the heat is to flee—even if, as in the case of the Seychelles giant tortoises, this doesn’t happen at sprinting speed. The reptiles, named Hugo 2 through 4 in Dresden, move more like they’re in slow motion. Nevertheless, in the wild, they have to keep an eye on the sun’s position. Even though they really like the heat, they have to be careful, says Brockmann. “Their shells can get extremely hot. If they don’t make it into the shade fast enough, they’ll suffer heat exhaustion and die.” 

Since animals like cats and dogs don’t sweat and thus can’t regulate their body temperature, they have to cool themselves in other ways—such as by panting. The spoon-nosed dog—a resident of Africa—also has oversized ears. It uses them to dissipate body heat. In the Arctic, a spoon-nosed dog couldn’t survive simply because of its ears—they would freeze off. That’s why Arctic animals like the arctic fox have very small ears. 

“The closer you get to the equator, the larger and longer these body appendages generally become,” says Brockmann, articulating a biological rule. Among animals of the same species, those from colder regions are larger than their counterparts from warmer climates. Here, the ratio of body surface area to volume is important. Smaller animals are more likely to freeze to death in the cold. Small penguins living near the equator wouldn’t stand a chance in Antarctica—which is why the largest penguin species, the king penguin, is native to that region. 

Animals are adapting to climate change

Brockmann does not want to venture a prediction about how climate change will affect animals or whether they will all succeed in adapting. There are also species that benefit, says the biologist. As an example, he points to the stork, originally a classic migratory bird. Nowadays, more and more storks are no longer flying to Africa or the Iberian Peninsula but are instead spending the winter here. “They find food, don’t have to expend energy flying, and also have the quickest access to the best nesting sites.” 

Other animals have long since arrived in our latitudes as “animal immigrants.” Golden jackals, which originate from the Middle East, have already been spotted in German forests. Even the Egyptian goose no longer really needs the Nile to survive.

A completely different species has to cope with the heat at the zoo in its own way—the zookeepers. The Dresden Zoo is responding with adjusted work schedules; the keepers start earlier and can thus clean most of the enclosures before the midday heat sets in. Unfortunately, humans do not have their own built-in air conditioning—aside from sweating. In this regard, dik-diks are far ahead of them.

Copyright 2026, dpa (www.dpa.de). All rights reserved