![]() Their ability to cache food is really quite impressive.” “Local birders documented 30 individual birds on the Preserve at one time. They were caching the tiny acorns from pin oak trees that grow in the wet, lowland woods adjacent to French Creek,” said Preserve Manager Dan Barringer. “A few years ago, we saw an irruption of Red-headed Woodpeckers at Crow’s Nest Preserve. They also cache food in gate posts, railroad ties, and under house shingles, hammering their finds into crevices so tightly that other animals are unable to remove them. Red-headed Woodpeckers wedge seeds, nuts, and even captured insects into a tree’s bark, creating “granaries” that can store thousands of items. Thanks to their extraordinary sense of smell and memory, these remarkable rodents recover about 80 percent of the food they’ve “squirreled away” the remainder is left to grow into oak and beech trees. One squirrel can create 1,000 caches in a year’s time. Eastern gray squirrels first check acorns for weevils or other boring beetles, eating those affected nuts on the spot as they would rot and spoil their winter stashes. Other animals stockpile food stores during autumn. Songbirds rely on essential winter nutrition from seeds, insects, spiders, and spider eggs, which they find under bark, in the ground, or even frozen on tree branches. Of course, animals that aren’t dormant must continue to find food to replenish the additional energy required to keep warm. Birds also have the unique ability to use a countercurrent heat exchange, isolating the blood that flows in their legs rather than circulating it throughout their entire bodies. During the day, they puff up their feathers to trap more heated air. Songbirds that overwinter in our region rather than migrating to warmer climes will spend especially cold, snowy nights piled together in a hollow tree cavity or empty nest box. Flying squirrels seek refuge together in leafy nests high in trees, beavers curl up in lodges insulated by mud, and snakes coil together in dens located below the frostline to wait for spring. Other animals employ teamwork, huddling or denning to share body heat. ![]() Meanwhile, its body accumulates urea and glucose, which act as an antifreeze, keeping individual cells in vital organs from freezing.įlying squirrels denning in a nest box – photo: Steve Eisenhauer As temperatures plummet, water flows out of the frog’s internal organs, eventually forming a protective layer of ice. Several species of frogs, including the common wood frog, go beyond torpor or hibernation and spend winters frozen alive. Black bears, chipmunks, skunks, and racoons all employ this strategy. Many animals instead enter a state of torpor, where their activity, heart rate, and breathing slow to conserve energy. In fact, only a few of Pennsylvania’s native species are true hibernators: the groundhog, the woodland mouse, the meadow jumping mouse, and all 11 bats common to the state. Many of us were taught that bears hibernate in winter. As we approach the solstice, a look beneath the stillness of winter reveals fascinating processes at work. Hibernation-where respiration and heartbeat slow dramatically and body temperature falls to near freezing-is just one of many adaptations among plants and animals to enable cold-weather survival. (And one study suggests early humans may have, too.)
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