![]() ![]() This allows them to hunker down for days during spells of extremely harsh weather. In fall, they also start retaining more fat. Deer prepare for winter by “trading in” their summer coat for a winter one whose thicker, longer and darker hairs absorb more sunlight and trap more body heat.Calcium in their shells helps neutralize a buildup of lactic acid from any oxygen deficiency. While wintering at the bottom of frozen ponds, snapping turtles switch to a metabolism requiring no oxygen, but their eyes remain super-vigilant to changes in light indicating open water (and fresh air) above. ![]() Cubs, usually born in winter, don’t hibernate (they nurse and sleep), and their mothers awake occasionally to care for them. Males can spend more than seven months in their dens without waking to eat, drink, urinate or defecate. Black bears are considered one of the most efficient hibernators.steak.) Their body temperature drops from 99☏-40☏ and heartbeat slows from 100-4 beats a minute. During their all-out hibernation, which can last up to six months, woodchucks live off fat stored from eating 1 lb.But during long cold snaps or severe storms, they usually stay high in the trees inside well-insulated nests fashioned of twigs, leaves, bark, moss and even paper. Gray squirrels are active year-round, and early winter is one of their mating seasons.To allay hunger pangs, they stockpile up to 8 lbs. Chipmunks hibernate in underground nests, but every few days they wake to restore their body temperature to near normal, eat stored food and eliminate body wastes.Here are some wild facts about how various valley critters, from birds to bees to fish to mammals, manage to stay alive. steak every day of autumn? Who manages to hibernate high in a tree, and who chooses the bottom of a pond? Who can legendarily sleep for up to seven months straight? And our favorite: Who freezes solid, with no heartbeat, but comes back to life within hours in spring? Which animal preps by eating the equivalent of a 15-lb. The biological processes they depend on for surviving frigid temperatures are unique to each species - and in some cases, mind-boggling to us humans. The animals of the Hudson Valley actually have more complex, and varied, approaches to surviving the winter than you might ever imagine. ![]() Hibernating sounds simple (and appealing): Just stuff yourself with rich foods like nuts all fall, then crawl into a cozy underground den and ride out the winter unconscious. ![]()
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