The Science of Snow Meet Cutler, the Avalanche Rescue Dog ...

10
Go away
(migrate)
Word Watch
survive: To stay alive.
Winter is a challenging time for wild animals.
They have three main strategies for surviving cold winter weather:
Stay (adapt)
One-half of the birds in North
America are “neotropical” birds,
which means they fly south in the fall
to warmer places in Central and South
America and the Caribbean. There, they have
plenty of food for the winter. They
fly back north for the spring.
Animals have special ways to adapt to the winter. They store lots of food, gain extra
fat to provide energy and warmth when the air is cold, or grow thicker fur or fluffy
feathers that act like a winter coat.
Mice anD voleS spend winter deep under the snow where the temperature is
warmer than the air temperature—they use the snow like a thick coat. They have to
be careful, though, because coyotes can use their excellent hearing to find animals
running beneath the snow.
When these SonGBiRD species migrate south
for the winter, they fly during the night.
When MonaRch ButteRFlieS migrate,
they travel during the day. Now that’s a good
traffic control system!
Monarchs are the only known butterflies to make a two-way migration.
The map shows how they follow specific routes, or “flyways,” each
fall, just like birds. Butterflies from east of the Rocky Mountains fly to
the Sierra Madre Mountains in Mexico, where forests of fir trees keep
them warm and moist. Butterflies from west of the Rocky Mountains
fly to the Pacific Coast in California, which has a climate like the
climate in Mexico.
Snooze (hibernate)
Some animals avoid the cold temperatures and lack of food during
winter by sleeping through it (by hibernating)—with slower breath -
ing, slower heart rate, and a lower body temperature (37 °F for a
ground squirrel—just above freezing!).
A WooDchuck’S winter burrow is typically below the frost level.
Before hibernating during freezing temperatures, a woodchuck
grows extremely fat. During the deep sleep of hibernation, a
woodchuck’s body temperature may drop to 38 °F.
Monarch Flyway Map
z
Central Texas is one of the best places
to see the migration of the Monarchs.
It is where the separate eastern
flyways converge into one.
Some of the Monarchs on the east
coast could take a shorter route over
the Gulf of Mexico, but Monarchs
avoid flying over water.