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11: Animals on the Move
Episode 11 Show Notes
🎧 The Warming World: Animals in Changing Habitats
🐾 Belle’s Question
What happens when an animal’s habitat starts changing?
📌 If you remember one thing:
Every living creature has a natural home — its habitat. When climate changes that habitat, some creatures move, some struggle to survive, and some may disappear. But people can help protect, restore, and reconnect the habitats they depend on.
🔍 What we cover
What a habitat is — and why it is more than just a place.
How climate change affects food, water, shelter, and breeding conditions.
Why changing seasons can disrupt the timing of life.
Why some creatures move — and why many cannot move easily.
What happens when there is nowhere left to go.
The idea of connectivity — and why fragmented landscapes make adaptation harder.
🌟 One Bright Thing
If habitats are broken up, people can help stitch them back together.
Small changes can help — hedgerows, wildflower strips, and wildlife crossings.
And at a larger scale:
Gondwana Link (Western Australia) — reconnecting fragmented bushland across 1,000 km, helping wildlife move and adapt as the climate warms.
Weald to Waves (Sussex, UK) — linking woods, rivers, farmland, floodplains, downland and coast into a 100-mile nature recovery corridor, creating a more connected, living landscape.
🔢 Key numbers mentioned
Around 1 million animal and plant species threatened with extinction. (IPBES)
73% avg. decline in monitored vertebrate wildlife populations post 1970 (WWF)
1,000 kilometres — Gondwana Link wildlife corridor
100 miles — Weald to Waves nature recovery corridor
🧑🏫 Teacher Notes
A habitat is the set of conditions that make life possible — food, water, shelter, space, and climate.
Climate change can alter those conditions directly, and also indirectly through food supply, seasonal timing, breeding success, and movement routes.
Key teaching idea:
A place may still exist — but no longer function as a healthy habitat.
Connectivity matters:
When landscapes are fragmented, movement becomes harder, and adaptation becomes more difficult.
📚 Sources & further reading
IPCC, climate change impacts on ecosystems — https://www.ipcc.ch
NASA Climate, ecosystem changes — https://climate.nasa.gov
Met Office, climate change explained — https://www.metoffice.gov.uk
IPBES (The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) Global Assessment around 1 million species threatened with extinction.
World Wildlife Fund 2024 Living Planet Report.– https://livingplanet.panda.org
Gondwana Link project — https://gondwanalink.org
Weald to Waves — https://www.wealdtowaves.co.uk
View all episodes
By theclimateclassroom.orgEpisode 11 Show Notes
🎧 The Warming World: Animals in Changing Habitats
🐾 Belle’s Question
What happens when an animal’s habitat starts changing?
📌 If you remember one thing:
Every living creature has a natural home — its habitat. When climate changes that habitat, some creatures move, some struggle to survive, and some may disappear. But people can help protect, restore, and reconnect the habitats they depend on.
🔍 What we cover
What a habitat is — and why it is more than just a place.
How climate change affects food, water, shelter, and breeding conditions.
Why changing seasons can disrupt the timing of life.
Why some creatures move — and why many cannot move easily.
What happens when there is nowhere left to go.
The idea of connectivity — and why fragmented landscapes make adaptation harder.
🌟 One Bright Thing
If habitats are broken up, people can help stitch them back together.
Small changes can help — hedgerows, wildflower strips, and wildlife crossings.
And at a larger scale:
Gondwana Link (Western Australia) — reconnecting fragmented bushland across 1,000 km, helping wildlife move and adapt as the climate warms.
Weald to Waves (Sussex, UK) — linking woods, rivers, farmland, floodplains, downland and coast into a 100-mile nature recovery corridor, creating a more connected, living landscape.
🔢 Key numbers mentioned
Around 1 million animal and plant species threatened with extinction. (IPBES)
73% avg. decline in monitored vertebrate wildlife populations post 1970 (WWF)
1,000 kilometres — Gondwana Link wildlife corridor
100 miles — Weald to Waves nature recovery corridor
🧑🏫 Teacher Notes
A habitat is the set of conditions that make life possible — food, water, shelter, space, and climate.
Climate change can alter those conditions directly, and also indirectly through food supply, seasonal timing, breeding success, and movement routes.
Key teaching idea:
A place may still exist — but no longer function as a healthy habitat.
Connectivity matters:
When landscapes are fragmented, movement becomes harder, and adaptation becomes more difficult.
📚 Sources & further reading
IPCC, climate change impacts on ecosystems — https://www.ipcc.ch
NASA Climate, ecosystem changes — https://climate.nasa.gov
Met Office, climate change explained — https://www.metoffice.gov.uk
IPBES (The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services) Global Assessment around 1 million species threatened with extinction.
World Wildlife Fund 2024 Living Planet Report.– https://livingplanet.panda.org
Gondwana Link project — https://gondwanalink.org
Weald to Waves — https://www.wealdtowaves.co.uk