Like humans, wildlife is increasingly vulnerable as climate change fuels longer and more intense heatwaves, disrupting feeding and breeding and in extreme cases proving fatal.
The human toll of heatwaves is well documented but their ecological impacts have received less attention.
A study published in March in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution found that three-quarters of land and ocean species assessed were "negatively impacted" during a major 2021 heatwave across western North America.
Heatwaves can be "brutal" on wildlife, said Gregoire Lois, an ornithologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris, which is withering under its second heatwave of the year.
Animals have fewer opportunities to adapt during sudden heatwaves than under gradual warming, he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
