For decades, ecologists lumped everything bad for animals under one word: stress. But what if animals don’t experience harsh environments as stressful at all? What if it is the opposite?
Animals have adapted over millions of years to cope with harsh environments – places where food and water is scarce for long periods, and that are very hot or extremely cold. For example, striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio) in the semi-arid Succulent Karoo of South Africa have adapted to their long, dry and food-restricted summers by suppressing their stress hormone levels, metabolism and activity.
This allows the tiny, 60 gram rodents to save energy and survive the harshness of the place they’re living in. This is now known as a harshness response.
