Preparing For Winter   

Much is still unknown about many of our animals, and a great deal is learned from amateurs willing to have the patience to observe and record the many different aspects of the natural world around us.  Strange and mysterious things begin to happen to animals in the fall.  “Why do the chipmunks only do a part-time hibernation and the little rodent-like creatures known as shrews, do none at all?

 There are four reactions to climate change in the animal world.  Some animals will leave for good and emigrate to another area.  Others leave and come back in better weather, which is known as migration.  Some stay, no matter what, and will even sometimes die if the weather gets too cold or harsh for them.  Others adapt – or make changes – to survive the weather, and it is this adaptation that is so fascinating.

Take the pika, for instance.  The pika is a cute, pudgy rodent-looking animal with thick fur, that spreads his winter hay out on the rocks to dry for winter storage. If a storm comes up during this process, all the pikas will work together to get the hay inside and out of the weather.  The snowshoe rabbit will change colors entirely, to make himself less visible to the meat-eating animals who will have much less to choose from during the lean winter months. He will go from reddish brown to white; a change that is not brought on by temperature, but by the time of year. On the other hand, a chipmunk will have up to a half bushel of nuts, dried fruit, and seeds stored up for his winter supply.  This tells us that he is not a true hibernator, but wakes up once in awhile to restore his fat supply.

Several winters ago, my wife and I decided to take some books and things from our Alaska cabin in the woods, down to where we would be spending some extended time in the “lower forty-eight.”  It was late into the fall, and we wanted to get things done before the first snow.  It had been some months since we had been in the cabin.  Many of the things we planned to take were already packed in boxes, and it was only a matter of picking which ones we needed.  When we began to open them to see what was inside, we were surprised to find little stores of dried mushrooms, nuts and berries stashed away in book and office boxes.

Not thinking much of it, since the place had been vacant for a few months, we dumped the extra contents outside the door and went on with our packing.  Not long after that, a very irate squirrel began to scold us from the rooftop.  We saw he had found a way inside under the eaves, and – in his opinion—our cabin was a perfect place for the winter. He had obviously spent a lot of time storing up his winter supplies, and we were intruding! He shouted at us for the rest of the time we were there.  But I’m sure he survived, since we made it a point to leave his little “cache” (as they call such winter storage places in Alaska) in a corner, so that all he would have to do is reorganize.

All the animal world seems to be in a hurry at this time of year, preparing for winter.  But some of the most amazing things that happen during this time occur among the hibernators.  They are the animals that retreat into a deep, almost death-like sleep, in order to skip over the bad weather entirely.  As eagerly as the other animals store up food, they store up fat.  Many of them return to the same dens they were born in.  Some of them actually construct their own winter homes, and come out in the spring as an entirely different creature altogether!  We'll talk more about them next week, here at Nature Knowledge.

 Kids: This is a great time of year to look under leaves for insect eggs or cocoons that will hatch in the spring.  Gather enough of the plant you found them on, and you can see the entire process as this interesting event unfolds. You can sometimes even find a caterpillar that hasn't spun his cocoon yet and watch the whole process!

Parents:  There are many books and resources that can help you find and identify the “signs of winter” in the animal world.  This can be a fun family project, especially if you make an occasion of setting your captives free when they emerge in the spring.  Kids will not only be amazed by the beauty of nature, they will develop a respect for the wonder of life in all its many forms: a pleasure that can last a lifetime.

 

Resources:

Many of the facts this week were taken from “The Seasons” By Anthony Smith (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. 1970)

 Here’s an interesting website that talks about the secrets of Black Bear hibernation:

www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/satoyama/hibernation.html