You can use this map to find populations of wild animals in situation of climatic threat or thermal vulnerability (sensu Camacho et al., 2026). If you belong to an NGO, public administration or a scientific institute, you can register and obtain maps which much better detail, so as to base future conservation actions or projects. to use the map follow the instructions in the lower right corner.
Here you can find populations of different taxa whose thermal tolerance is being exceeded by local temperatures in the shade. This means that these populations may be on the verge of climatic extirpation due to high temperatures and therefore deserve attention. Whenever possible, we update the dataset with newly published data on thermal tolerance and species occurrences.
For ectothermic animals (e.g., arthropods, amphibians, reptiles, and fish), our measures of thermal tolerance are:
CTmax (critical thermal maximum): The temperature at which an animal immediately loses locomotor function and can die within minutes (Lutterschmidt & Hutchison, 1997).
Topt (optimal temperature for sprinting): The temperature at which an animal achieves its maximum sprint performance, but which can be lethal after exposures lasting several hours (Huey & Stevenson, 1979).
VTmax: The temperature that an animal generally avoids and that can lead to death after a few hours of exposure (Camacho et al., 2018).
For endothermic animals (birds and mammals), we use the limits of the thermoneutral zone:
UTZ (upper limit of the thermoneutral zone): Exposure to this temperature and above greatly increases energy expenditure and water loss in endotherms. It has been shown that air temperatures reaching these values can constrain the geographic distribution of both birds and mammals, making it difficult for many species to maintain populations in areas where temperatures exceed their UTZ (Camacho et al., 2024).