Winter is a tough season. But animals have unique ways of surviving the short days, cold weather and scarce food. Here are some winter adaptations we think are pretty neat:
10. Beavers stay warm and dry inside their lodge, feeding on the buds and twigs of their favourite trees and shrubs they spent the rest of the year gathering and storing.
9. Muskox have the longest hair of any mammal in North America. This long hair protects a woolly undercoat that’s many times stronger and warmer than sheep’s wool.
8. Chickadees conserve energy by lowering their body temperature at night by about 10 °C.
7. Snowshoe hares have smaller ears than most hares. Smaller ears lose less body heat than larger ones.
6. Wolverines have large snowshoe-like paws so they can walk on deep snow without sinking.
5. Garter snakes hibernate in an underground den called a hibernaculum (hi-burr-nack-you-lum). A single hibernaculum can contains hundreds or even thousands of garter snakes!
4. Arctic foxes turn white in the winter. Blending in with the snow allows them to sneak up on their prey better – and hide from their own predators better too.
3. Arctic woolly bear caterpillars have to warm up before they can move about and eat, so they bask in the sun on rocks first. They’re most active around noon when the sun is at its highest.
2. Shrews travel around in tunnels in the subnivean (sub-niv-ee-an) space – the space between the ground and the snow where they can stay warm and protected from predators.
1. Wood frogs actually freeze solid as they hibernate in the soil! To protect their cells from permanent damage, their body produces its own natural antifreeze, which is why the frogs never get frostbite.
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