What kind of winter critter are YOU?

We all have our ways to adapt to the cold

Nature doesn’t shut down in winter. Animals and plants just have different ways of dealing with the cold and darkness, from adaptation to hibernation to migration. But whether they cozy up underground or fly south, life goes on.

“It’s a bit like how different people deal with winter,” says Monica Nissen, Wildsight’s Education in the Wild program manager. “Some people love to play outside, some go inside and curl up, and some people take a holiday down south.”

Nissen says it’s interesting to learn about the ecology of winter in our climate because plants and animals have adapted in so many different ways.

“Some animals grow extra insulation: The ptarmigan gets extra feathers on its feet and the mountain caribou gets thicker fur on its nose.”

All frogs nest and hibernate, but the Wood frog can survive freezing over the winter and thawing out in spring. And some snakes (garters and rubber boas in this region) hibernate together in a big ball called a hibernaculum. 

Some animals, like mountain caribou, migrate up and down mountain sides, looking for food at different elevations. “In winter, you’ll see lots of deer and elk in the valleys,” Nissen says. “But the mountain caribou move higher up as the winter goes on—their large feet carry them to old growth forests where they eat lichen from tree branches.”

Lots of birds head south for the winter, and so do monarch butterflies. But their annual north-south migration involves two generations, no single butterfly makes a complete round trip.

So which type of critter are you in the winter?

Are you an adaptor? Do you put on extra layers and stay active, like a snowshoe hare that grows thick, white fur and makes tracks through the snow?

Are you migratory? Do you fly to warmer climates along with the geese and the monarch butterflies?

Or are you a hibernator? Do you wish you could spend most of the winter in bed with an occasional break for food? Then you’re more like a bear, skunk or chipmunk!

Whatever your style, you’re part of the natural world, just like the critters who live all around us.

DID YOU KNOW?

The Flathead Valley has one of Canada’s most diverse ecosystems—and the highest density of grizzly bears found in inland North America?