What Happens to Animals in Oil Spills?

When oil spills find their way into a water source, animals suffer from ecological and biological consequences. Once oil touches water, the water becomes coated with it. Some types of oil, such as residual or crude oils, can make the water tarry, forming a mousse. Oil can also spread quickly when it comes in contact with water. As a result, an oil spill can create an immediate impact on an animal's health, or result in long-term health effects that can last for generations.

Contact Consequences

• Many animals will die from an oil spill.

  Birds have insulation within their feathers, and oil can cause the feathers to separate and expose the bird's skin to cold water, which results in hypothermia. Birds can also lose their buoyancy as a result of the oil, notes the National Wildlife Federation. Mammals such as seals have difficulty escaping predators when their flippers become coated, and seal pups drown when their fur becomes coated.

Internal Damage

• Oil causes harm through absorption.

  The gastrointestinal tract of animals can become damaged when oil is ingested, notes the Oiled Wildlife Care Network. When the cells within an animal's intestines are damaged, the animal can no longer absorb or digest food. Also, inhaled oil vapors will cause damage to an animal's liver, lungs and central nervous system. Animals can also develop pneumonia and ulcers.

Starvation

• A predator relies on its sense of smell when hunting for prey, but oil damages that sense, causing the animal to starve to death. Oil spills can also create a foul odor on prey, making it taste unpleasant to predators, which often starve as a result of refusing to eat contaminated prey. In severe oil spills, an entire population of organisms may be decimated, leaving no food source for predators to feed upon.

Reproduction Loss

• Oil spills are toxic to reproduction efforts.

  Many animals suffer from reproduction threats after an oil spill. Sea turtles, for example, produce eggs incapable of hatching or form hatchlings that are deformed, notes the National Wildlife Federation. Birds abandon hatchlings as well as develop malformed eggs. Oil spills can impair the spawning of fish, killing fish eggs and larvae, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. Some marine mammals have suffered decreased birth rates for generations after oil exposure.

Disruption in Behavior

• Oil spills can cause a disruption in behavior, such as an animal abandoning its habitat and relocating in an effort to find new sources of food, which results in increased competition for food. Animals also require longer foraging times to search for food when they go into unfamiliar areas after the food in their habitat becomes scarce.