This week, KAXE Staff Phenologist John Latimer is full of winter wildlife facts, including the distinction between torpor and hibernation, the function of black-tipped tails for winter weasels, the structure of squirrel nests (called drays), and the impressive tree-climbing ability of gray foxes.
Snoozing strategies
It turns out that torpor is the proper term for the wintering habits of animals like chipmunks: lots of deep sleep, interrupted by short awakenings to eat from their large caches of stored food. (Doesn’t that sound like a cozy way to spend the winter?) Rinse and repeat until spring arrives!
In addition to lots of sleep, animals that enter torpor save energy by lowering their body temperature. However, they do this to a much lesser extent than true hibernators like woodchucks. This middle ground keeps them slightly more alert and able to respond to intruders like weasels.
Woodchucks and other hibernators fatten themselves up all spring, summer, and fall, then delve deep under frostline to enter hibernation. Their body temperature lowers to about 4 degrees above freezing, their heart and respiration rates drop precipitously, and they’re out cold for the winter. Even extensive handling isn’t enough to wake a true hibernator.
Topics
- Introduction (0:00-0:25)
- Waiting for frost, snow and ice (0:25-1:22)
- Torpor vs. hibernation in chipmunks and woodchucks (1:22-6:53)
- Why short- and long-tailed weasels have black-tipped tails (2:36-4:07)
- Last robins (4:07-7:54)
- Winterberry/black alder/northern holly (7:54-9:11)
- Black chokeberry (9:11-10:24)
- Autumn willow (10:24-13:10)
- Seeding goldenrods and asters (13:10-14:04)
- Trumpeter Swans (14:04-14:30)
- Bald Eagles stopping by their nest (14:30-14:57)
- Squirrel drays (nests) (14:57-16:42)
- Plants that still have leaves (16:42-17:22)
- Gray foxes’ tree-climbing skills (17:36-18:10)
- Winter resident owls (18:10-18:45)
- Conclusion (18:45-19:43)
What have you seen out there? Let us know: email us at comments@kaxe.org or text us at 218-326-1234.
That does it for this week! For more phenology, <b>subscribe</b> to our Season Watch Newsletter or visit the Season Watch Facebook page.
Funding for this project was provided by the Minnesota Environment and Natural Resources Trust Fund as recommended by the Legislative-Citizen Commission on Minnesota Resources (LCCMR).
