Did you ever wish you could have a sneak peek into the dark and mysterious places where hibernating animals retreat for the winter? You do see animals making preparations for winter—eating more, growing more luxurious fur, and gathering natural materials to line their dens—but there’s a lot more to know about animals’ many ways of surviving winter’s woes. It’s not simply a matter of getting fatter and furrier and hunkering down somewhere to … [Read more...]
Hibernate, Migrate, Adapt—Wildlife Winter Survival
Winter is rarely easy for anyone, but you may wonder sometimes just how wild animals make it through, lacking heat, cozy blankets, and hot chocolate or coffee to keep warm. As it turns out, they’ve evolved a fascinating array of physical or behavioral adaptations to either avoid or cope with winter’s woes. Naturalists sometimes simplify the approaches into three main categories: migrate, hibernate, and adapt, and there are all kinds of variations … [Read more...]