Frogs can't sleep, birds staying put due to balmy German autumn

0 Comments | AFP, November, 2006

BERLIN (AFP) — An unusually warm autumn in Germany is wreaking havoc in the normal behavior patterns of the country's wildlife, keeping birds from flying south for the winter and frogs from sleeping. With November temperatures in some areas hovering around the 20-degrees-Celsius (68-degrees-Fahrenheit) mark in some regions, biologists have observed major disruptions to nature's normal rhythms.

Wildlife expert Peter Schuetz with the environment department of the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia said that migratory birds such as cranes appeared to have "no desire" to head south due to the balmy temperatures. Because they continue to find food on the ground in harvested cornfields, there is little impulse to leave. "That is why they will only fly south in January, or...