Beating the Heat: Part 2 | Season 3, Episode 5

Mammals dominate our hearts and homes. Pets such as dogs, cats, hamsters, hedgehogs and others offer companionship and cuteness, of course. But mammals are also recognizable as close kin, not too far away on the tree of life.

About 70 mammal species are native to Illinois. Eastern chipmunks, red and gray foxes, eastern cottontail rabbits, American beavers, raccoons, white-tailed deer, Virginia opossums, groundhogs, mice, voles, coyotes, striped skunks and American bison all call the state home.

In today’s episode, the second of two parts on what climate change could mean for wildlife, and how animals may already be adapting. Our focus today: mammals, frogs and pollinators.

Guests:

• Gary Glowacki, manager of conservation ecology, Lake County Forest Preserves
• Eric Ness, former wildlife ecologist, Lake County Forest Preserves
• Kathryn McCabe, wildlife ecologist, Lake County Forest Preserves

Selected Links and Sources:

• “13 Awesome Facts About Bats,” U.S. Department of the Interior
• “Chipmunk Sounds,” Trutech Wildlife Service
• “Climate change shifts the timing of nutritional flux from aquatic insects,” Current Biology
• “Drought Continues in Northern Illinois,” Dr. Trent Ford, Illinois State Climatologist Blog
• “The Eastern Chipmunk – Endearing, Enterprising,” Michael J. Caduto, Northern Woodlands
• “Extinction: past and present,” David Jablonski, Nature
• “Extreme Cold Hardiness in Ectotherms,” Nature Education
• Horizons (Spring 2012)
• Horizons (Winter 2022)
• Horizons (Winter 2023)
• “The Importance of Pollinators,” U.S. Department of Agriculture
• Joel Sartore
• “Lagomorpha,” Animal Diversity Web
• “Metamorphosis,” Page Baluch, Arizona State University
• National Geographic Photo Ark
• “National Geographic's Joel Sartore Headlines Gala for Lake County Forest Preserves,” Kim Mikus
• “NOT Alvin and the Chipmunks: 10 Facts You May Not Know about the Real Rodents,” Roger Di Silvestro, National Wildlife Federation
• “A Peek Inside a Chipmunk Burrow,” Meg Soldano
• Preservation Foundation of the Lake County Forest Preserves
• “Responses of large mammals to climate change,” Temperature
• “Role of Keystone Species in an Ecosystem,” National Geographic
• “Rusty Patched Bumble Bees Spotted,” Kim Mikus
• “Saving the Bats, One Cave at a Time,” Jim Robbins, The New York Times
• “Something Wild: If It Sounds Like A Duck It Might Be A Frog,” Chris Martin, New Hampshire Public Radio
• “Torpor: what it is, why it's important and how torpor differs to hibernation and sleep,” JV Chamary, Discover Wildlife
• “‘We're doing something right’: Sightings of endangered rusty patched bumblebees create a buzz”, Mick Zawislak, Daily Herald
• “What Helps Animals Adapt (or Not) to Climate Change?”, Renée Cho
• “What is a pollinator?”, National Park Service
• WhiteNoseSyndrome.org
• “White-Nose Syndrome Confirmed in Illinois Bats,” Illinois Department of Natural Resources
• “Wood Frogs Found!”, Jen Berlinghof, Lake County Nature Blog

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If you like what the forest preserves do for you, please consider donating to the Preservation Foundation of the Lake County Forest Preserves’ endowment campaign. Your gift will help provide a perpetual, dependable funding source and ensure every acre of habitat we restore remains ecologically healthy. Learn more and give at LCFPD.org/donate.

Have questions or comments? Send them to WordsOfTheWoods@LCFPD.org.

This episode of Words of the Woods was written, hosted and produced by Brett Peto, Environmental Communications Specialist at the Lake County Forest Preserves. Featuring research and expertise from Gary Glowacki, Kathryn McCabe and Eric Ness. Script editing by Jen Berlinghof, Gary Glowacki, Kevin Kleinjan, Ty Kovach, Jeanna Martinucci, Kathryn McCabe, Kim Mikus, Rebekah Snyder, Matt Ueltzen and Dr. Pati Vitt. Music and sound effects from Storyblocks. Audio editing and mixing by Brett Peto. Episode cover art © John D. Kavc.

Words of the Woods is a production of the Lake County Forest Preserves in Libertyville, Illinois.