Global warming is having a greater impact on wildlife than even many scientists realize.  A team of researchers says it's because of "a massive under-reporting of these impacts".

"Only seven percent of mammals and four percent of birds that showed a negative response to climate change are currently considered 'threatened by climate change and severe weather' by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species," said James Watson of University of Queensland's School of Earth and Environmental Sciences and the Wildlife Conservation Society - and a co-author of the study that appears in the journal Nature Climate Change. 

The researchers examined 130 previous studies on the impacts of climate change on threatened birds and mammals.  They developed evidence that nearly 700 species - that 47 percent of the 873 species of threatened terrestrial mammals and 23 percent of the 1,272 species of threatened birds - have already exhibited negative responses to recent changes in climate.

"Our results suggest that populations of large numbers of threatened species are likely to be already affected by climate change, and that conservation managers, planners and policy makers must take this into account in efforts to safeguard the future of biodiversity," the researchers write in the study.

The results imply that these species will suffer further negative impacts as climate change grows worse, especially if they live in eco-systems that have been compromised by man-made climate change.  And since human activity has already significantly impacted three quarters of the Earth, it means the lists of species grows.

"We need to greatly improve assessments of the impacts of climate change on all species right now," Watson said.  "We need to communicate the impacts of climate change to the wider public and we need to ensure key decision makers know significant change needs to happen now to stop species going extinct.  Climate change is not a future threat anymore."