The planet’s rising temperatures are not only melting ice caps and drying rivers – global heating is transforming the behaviour of wildlife. In 2025, scientists and communities around the world recorded extraordinary shifts: mosquitoes thriving in Iceland for the first time in known history, bears raiding towns in Japan, elephants drowning in flash floods and crocodiles struggling to cool off. From polar regions to tropical forests, the natural order is being upended – with consequences that increasingly affect people.
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These changes are more than curiosities of nature. Each one ripples through ecosystems, economies and human lives, influencing disease risks, food security, and how communities coexist with the wild. The signs are clear: animals are adapting to a warming planet. The question is whether humans can keep up.
Here, Eco-Business highlights 10 moments when climate change reconfigured the wild in 2025.
Climate change is driving disease-carrying mosquitoes further across Europe, increasing the risk that tropical viruses such as dengue and chikungunya could become common across the continent, research warns. Image: Adam Hilliker, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Flickr.
1. Mosquitoes in Iceland
For the first time in recorded history, mosquitoes were found in Iceland in late October. The nordic European nation has historically been one of only two mosquito-free zones on Earth, the other being Antarctica.
The discovery came after the country experienced an unprecedented spring heatwave. Temperatures climbed above 20°C for ten consecutive days and hit a record 26.6°C in May, far beyond the fleeting warm spells Iceland’s climate typically allows.
Entomologists identified the insects as the banded mosquito, a hardy Palearctic species that normally thrives across Europe and Asia. While not known to carry disease, their arrival is a signal of ecological transformation in the Arctic, which is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet.
Elsewhere in Europe, mosquitoes that could spread tropical diseases are advancing too. This year, eggs of the Egyptian mosquito – vector of dengue, chikungunya, and Zika – were detected in the United Kingdom for the first time. Researchers warn these viruses could soon become endemic in parts of Europe as global warming redraws the map of vector-borne diseases.
2. Rise in bear attacks in Japan
In northern Japan, bears ventured from their shrinking forests into towns and cities, attacking residents and alarming authorities.
Akita Prefecture, where rugged mountains blend into wide stretches of farmland, saw the highest number of casualties, prompting the government to deploy armed troops to mitigate the rise in human-animal conflict. Since April, more than 100 people have been injured and at least 13 killed in bear attacks across Japan.
Experts say climate change is disrupting natural food cycles. Poor yields of wild acorns and beech nuts – staples in endemic bear diets – have left the animals desperate and foraging near homes, schools and even hot spring resorts. Warmer winters are also delaying hibernation, keeping bears active for longer periods.
Black vultures once lived primarily in the southeastern US and parts of Latin and South America, but over the past century they have rapidly expanded northward and westward into the desert Southwest of the US. Image: Miki Jourdan, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Flickr.
3. Vultures ambush cattle in America
Once rare in the American Midwest, black vultures are now a growing menace for livestock farmers in Kentucky and Missouri.
Warmer winters, combined with habitat loss further south, have allowed these scavengers to expand their range northward. The birds, known to attack weak or newborn calves, are federally protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, making it illegal to kill them without a permit.
Farmers report increasing losses as Missouri’s black vulture population jumped from 14,000 in 2015 to more than 21,000 in 2021.
4. Heatwaves and snakebites in India
India already records the world’s highest number of snakebite fatalities – up to 60,000 deaths annually. But new research suggests climate change is exacerbating this trend.
A study published by Public Library of Science Neglected Tropical Diseases predicts that the habitats of the country’s “big four” venomous snakes – the common krait, Russell’s viper, saw-scaled viper, and Indian cobra – are shifting closer to human settlements as temperatures rise and rainfall patterns grow erratic.
Floods push snakes into homes and barns; droughts and heatwaves drive them into shaded areas where people live and work. The World Health Organization has warned that climate change could bring deadly snakes into closer contact with humans across Africa and Asia.
Snakes also reportedly become more active during heatwaves. Researchers found that the chances of being sent to the emergency room for a snakebite increase by about 6 per cent for every 1°C rise in temperature.
Humpback whales, a species of baleen whale found in oceans worldwide, migrate seasonally between tropical breeding grounds and high-latitude feeding areas. Image: Cyrille Humbert, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Flickr.
5. Shifting whale migration
In Australia, whale watchers had to reschedule their calendars. The annual southward migration of humpback whales along the east coast now peaks three weeks earlier than it did two decades ago, scientists at the University of Queensland reported.
The likely culprit: a warming Southern Ocean. Sea ice in Antarctica – which influences the abundance of krill, the whales’ primary food – is shrinking fast. With feeding seasons starting earlier, whales are adjusting their migratory timing to match.
In Sri Lanka, meanwhile, a resident population of blue whales – the largest animals on Earth – has been observed venturing farther offshore during years of heavy rainfall, which alters ocean salinity and food availability.
6. Elephants inundated by flash floods in South and Southeast Asia
From India to Thailand to Indonesia, torrential rains and flash floods claimed elephant lives in 2025.
In India’s Kerala state, nine elephants died in August after being swept away by flash floods. In Thailand’s Chiang Mai, late last year, floods inundated a famed elephant sanctuary, forcing the evacuation of more than 100 elephants. And in Bali, a 45-year-old Sumatran elephant named Molly drowned during a river walk after sudden downpours turned the waterway into a torrent.
Sumatran elephants are critically endangered, with fewer than 1,400 left in the wild. Conservationists warn that heavier rainfall, landslides, and deforestation are fragmenting their remaining habitats.
The Bengal tiger, a key species of South Asia’s forest ecosystems, has seen dramatic declines in both population and range over the past century due to habitat fragmentation and poaching caused by humans. Image: Rohit Varma, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Flickr.
7. Tigers and shrinking forests in South Asia
Across India and Nepal, tiger attacks on humans surged this year as habitat loss and climate stress pushed the big cats into farmlands and villages.
In India’s Mysuru district, three people were killed in tiger attacks within a month, prompting authorities to suspend safaris in two major reserves. In the Sundarbans, rising seas are swallowing mangrove forests – forcing endangered Bengal tigers into closer contact with human communities.
A new habitat modelling study from Nepal predicts tiger habitats could expand by more than 80 per cent by 2050 under moderate climate scenarios, but much of that growth will occur outside protected areas, increasing the risk of human-tiger conflict.
8. Looming locust crisis in Africa and Europe
In 2025, locusts plagued large parts of North Africa and Eastern Europe. Swarms darkened skies in Algeria, Tunisia and Ukraine’s breadbasket region, devouring crops and threatening food supplies.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization warned that warming temperatures and unusually heavy rains – conditions linked to climate change – have created ideal breeding grounds for desert locusts. In wartorn Ukraine, farmers reported losing up to 30 per cent of their sunflower harvest.
9. Crocodiles overheating in Australia
In northern Australia, crocodiles – apex predators evolved to dominate tropical waterways – are now struggling to keep cool.
A 15-year study found that estuarine crocodiles’ average body temperatures have risen alongside ambient air temperatures, with individuals spending more time near their critical thermal limit of 32°C. Overheated crocs dive less, swim slower, and hunt less effectively, researchers found.
Wildlife guides in Queensland’s Daintree River say sightings have dropped during peak heat.
The future could be grim for pollinators as the planet warms. Studies suggest that suitable habitats for all pollinators are likely to shrink. Image: René Cortin, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Flickr.
10. Pollinator mismatch and vanishing wild vanilla
Even the world’s sweetest crop isn’t spared from global heating. A study published in Frontiers in Plant Science warns that wild vanilla species may soon lose their natural pollinators due to shifting rainfall and temperature patterns.
Researchers found that the overlap between one wild vanilla species and its bee pollinators could shrink by up to 90 per cent under projected climate scenarios. Without pollinators, the plants could vanish – taking the beloved flavour with them.
More broadly, scientists warn that such “phenological mismatches” – when plants and pollinators fall out of sync – threaten the survival of up to 87 per cent of flowering plants worldwide.
This story is part of Eco-Business’ Year in Review series, which looks back at the stories that shaped the world of sustainability in 2025.
