Adverse events and trauma that occur early in wild animals’ lives impact them for the rest of their lives, new research has proven. Two ecologists have even created an index to measure how much these negative events, when combined, can affect an animal’s fate.
Called the cumulative adversity index, it’s similar to what psychologists use when they examine a human child’s life. However, unlike poverty or neglect that impacts humans, the ecologists looked at wild animal measures such as litter size, weather events, loss of their mother, and high predator presence.
Xochitl Ortiz-Ross and Daniel T. Blumstein created the index using information gathered from studying nearly 30 generations of Colorado yellow-bellied marmots, a species of ground squirrel known for having a defined area where they live, and females who stay in one place. Some of the results proved jarring.
“Experiencing even just one adversity event before age 2 nearly halved an adult marmot’s odds of survival, regardless of the type of adversity they experienced,” Ortiz-Ross wrote about their findings in The Conversation.
While Ortiz-Ross and Blumstein used 62 years worth of data gained by studying marmots, the implication is that the index can be used for most animals — and previous research backs this up. An analysis of baboons looked at events such as incidents of drought in the baboon’s first 12 months of life, losing their mother at a young age, group size, as well as other factors. For the female baboons — with a median lifespan of 18.5 years — who encountered at least three adverse events early in life, “more than 50% were predicted to die by age 9,” the research found.
Trauma often affects our companion animals. It’s not uncommon to learn shyness or fear in a dog or cat is due to abuse they experienced earlier in life.
With its promising potential, this index could help conservationists understand what may accelerate a species’ mortality — and what changes can be made to help the species better thrive.
Lady Freethinker commends Ortiz-Ross and Blumstein for their work, which has far-reaching applications that could help scientists and conservationists better protect animals far into the future.
