Getting Ready for Winter

Transcription

1 Getting Ready for Winter Fa 2013 VOL. 14, issue 1 The days are getting shorter and the temperatures are faing. Winter is coming! Peope do many things to get ready for the cod and snow. We take out our winter coats, snow pants, boots, hats and mittens to hep us stay warm. Our parents have oi deivered for the furnace or cut and spit wood for the wood stove. Don t forget to get the shoves out to cear wakways after a storm! You might aso get out the snowshoes and skis that hep make it easier to get around when the snow is deep. Just as we get ready for winter, widife does, too. Let s expore some ways widife have adapted to hep them survive a northern winter. John Anderson / dreamstime.com Because of the need to stay ightweight to fy, birds can store ony enough energy-producing fat to keep them warm for one day. How do they stay warm? Fuffing out feathers reduces heat oss. Many birds shiver neary constanty to generate heat when it s very cod.

2 Winter ADAPTATIONS There are many different kinds of widife in New Hampshire and each species has to prepare for the ong winter season. Here are a few exampes of how some animas survive winter. Many mammas and birds remain active throughout winter. They grow more fur, or feathers. Deer have hoow hair shafts that add to their insuation. Furbearers, such as fisher, bobcat and beaver, a grow additiona fur and have kinky underfur that traps warm air cose to the body. Some animas have specia adaptations that hep them move about on the surface of the snow. Ruffed grouse grow fringes on their toes that make their feet arger, which heps them wak on snow. Snowshoe hare have especiay arge,furry hind feet that enabe them to move atop the deep snow. dreamstime.com photo credits: DEer - bruce macqueen / bat - Geoffrey Kuchera great bue heron - Mirceax / snowshoe hare - Aain hind foot - Amber Estabrooks other photo credits: wood frog - David Cappaert MSU Bugwood.org chipmunk composite - nhfg

3 Insects and some amphibians, ike this wood frog, buid up gucose (sugar) in their bood, which acts ike an antifreeze protecting their ces from damage when they freeze. Litte brown bats, jumping mice and woodchucks hibernate. In the fa, they buid up a ayer of fat. In the winter, their heartbeat sows, body temperature owers, and they breathe much more sowy. Great bue herons and other birds migrate hundreds of mies to paces where the temperature is warmer and food is pentifu. Other animas, ike this chipmunk, become inactive (dormant) and seep part of the winter. Their body temperatures go down, but not as much as those of true hibernators. They may come out during mid weather or wake up and munch on some of their stored food.

4 Life Beow Snow Whie some animas, ike deer and bobcat, strugge to move about and find food in deep snow, others depend on it for their surviva. Snow provides a banket that traps heat that radiates from the surface of the earth and insuates the ground from cod surface air temperatures. Under approximatey two feet of snow, the temperature remains neary constant at about 32 degrees F. That may fee downright bamy when compared to sub-zero surface temperatures! Many sma mammas, incuding shrews, moes, voes and mice, spend the winter in the ayer under the snow caed the subnivean. In addition to the warmth, they have access to weeds, grasses and nuts, and foods they have stored. Undisturbed snowpack is important to the surviva of the animas that ive in the subnivean. Wherever trais compact the snow above, it shrinks the area in which animas beneath can safey move and search for food. When forced to the surface to cross a trai, they become exposed and vunerabe to hungry predators. Snowmobiers and cross country skiers can hep keep the critters of the subnivean safe by staying on estabished trais. BUSY UNDERGROUND Moes do not hibernate during the winter months. They stay active, digging tunnes deep beow the surface, ooking for worms. Moes may dig tunnes into the snow and ater fi them in with soi as the ground begins to thaw in eary spring. Permanent tunnes are used to move between feeding areas and to access temporary surface tunnes during the warmer seasons. moe images - Isseee / dreamstime.com Severa kinds of mammas have speciay adapted imbs for digging in the soi. These burrowing mammas are referred to as fossoria. They spend most of their time underground and pay an important part in a soi ecosystem. Through their tunneing efforts, they hep add air to the soi, as we as moving the humus (organic matter) deeper into the soi and bringing subsoi materia coser to the surface where the nutrients are more avaiabe to pant roots. The nest can be more than 12 inches beow the surface and is usuay ined with grass and eaves.

5 A Winter Snooze Outdoorsman / dreamstime.com During the summer and fa, back bears roam throughout their range searching for food that wi enabe them to survive the ong winter ahead. Berries, fruit, roots and insects give them a start, but it is reay the beechnuts and acorns they find in the fa that have the necessary fat content to buid their energy stores for the winter. In the north, denning is an adaptation for escaping winter food scarcity and severe winter weather. A back bear den is often nothing more than a itte sheter under the roots of a faen tree, or a depression in the ground. The bears thick fur and ayer of fat keep them from freezing. Back bears are not considered true hibernators, as they are easiy roused or wakened from their seep. Whie in their winter dens, body temperature drops 7-8 degrees Centigrade and metaboism and heart rate are reduced neary 50% or more. In New Hampshire, bears typicay enter dens in mid-fa and emerge in eary spring. Conserving energy is critica for surviva. Imagine going five months without eating or drinking! In order to survive the ong New Hampshire winters, back bears chow down on berries and nuts in the ate summer and fa. nhfg staff photo Midway through the fa, back bears wi pick a pace to stay for the winter. The den site can be a hoe under the roots of a tree that gives them sheter from the snow and cod.

6 Hep the moe find its nest before the winter snow arrives! Start Here Jaka Vukotic / dreamstime.com WORD SCRAMBLE Read the materia in this issue to unscrambe the words beow. 1. nnbaseuiv 2. abinrhete 3. tgaimer 4. ocuges 5. vriehs 6. snsasiue 7. gndnine Use the red etters to figure out the bonus word. W ANSWERS 1) subnivean; 2) hibernate; 3) migrate; 4) gucose; 5) shiver; 6) insuates; 7) denning; BONUS: survive O R BONUS WORD D S The NH Fish and Game Department receives Federa Assistance from the US Fish & Widife Service, and thus prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, coor, nationa origin, disabiity, age, reigion and sex, pursuant to Tite VI of the Civi Rights Act of 1964, Section 504 of the Rehabiitation Act of 1973, Tite II of the Americans with Disabiities Act of 1990, Tite IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, and the Age Discrimination Act of If you beieve you have been discriminated against in any program, activity or service, pease contact or write to: The U.S. Fish and Widife Service Division of Widife and Sport Fish Restoration 4001 N. Fairfax Drive, Mai Stop: WSFR 4020, Arington, Virginia 22203, Attention: Civi Rights Coordinator for Pubic Programs Wid Times for Kids is pubished twice a year by the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. Mutipe copies are avaiabe for schoos and youth groups upon request. Send your request to: N.H. Fish and Game Department, Pubic Affairs Division 11 Hazen Drive, Concord, NH WidNH.com Support for this Wid Times provided by: N.H. Department of Education through Math Science Partnership N.H. Fish and Game Department New Hampshire Fish and Game...Connecting You to Life Outdoors 2013 N.H. Fish and Game Dept. PUB13007A