Baby hawks are plunging from nests to escape extreme heat

• If the hawks had been able to fly they could have found a shadier spot, and if they had been older, their feathers would have helped regulate their body temperatures, per National Geographic.
• About 50 baby Cooper’s and Swainson’s hawks have been rescued in the forests of Washington and Oregon and taken to rehabilitation centers. Many have made a full recovery.

Why it matters: Baby hawks aren't the only animals affected by the extreme heat this summer, which also killed an estimated 1 billion sea creatures.

• National Geographic adds that salmon encountered a "double whammy" during the heatwave due to higher water temperatures and decreased oxygen because warmer water is less oxygen-rich.

State of play: Human-caused climate change is a major factor behind the severity, longevity and frequency of this summer's extreme heat events.

• The compounding of these events — "drought, rising temperatures, bigger and more intense wildfires, and increasingly fragmented habitats" — creates multiple stress factors for wildlife, per National Geographic.