Opportunity costs and the response of birds and mammals to climate warming

Abstract

As global temperatures reach record highs, threats posed by climate change to biodiversity become ever more severe. For endotherms, maintaining body temperature within safe bounds is fundamental for performance and survival. Animals routinely modify their behavior to buffer physiological impacts of high temperatures (eg ceasing activity, seeking shade). However, this can impose substantial costs related to missed opportunities to engage in other important activities, with potentially large but often overlooked consequences for survival and reproduction. Here, we outline behavioral trade‐offs birds and mammals face in navigating thermal landscapes and associated challenges of balancing energy, water, and time budgets; review the rapidly expanding knowledge in this field; and summarize examples – across taxa – of fitness costs during hot weather. We argue that a shift is needed in evaluating the impacts of heat on birds and mammals, and that fitness costs of missed opportunities must be explicitly integrated into climate‐change vulnerability frameworks.