Photos by Tony Attansio

When winter hits, humans are offered all sorts of luxuries. It’s easy to enjoy a cold, snowy day while bathing in the warm glow of a wood stove, safe and dry from the harsh elements outside. With pantries stocked full of food, layers and layers of clothes if we need to brave the elements and big vehicles capable of plowing through drifts of snow and getting you down the road, it seems people often forget just how easy we have it in the winter months. Sure, snow shoveling driveways isn’t the most fun way to start the day. Scraping ice off windshields can get old. However, winter's grasp is much more of an inconvenience than a struggle for us modern humans. While we are able to glide easily through winter after winter safe inside our homes, we are one of the few creatures to possess such a luxury. What about all the animals that live in the elements day in and day out? How do they strategize to make it through the harsh winter months without the huge safety nets that we know so well? 

For animals, winter presents a whole new set of challenges for survival. Harsh and cold elements demand lots of energy from animals in order for them to stay alive -- energy provided by food sources that can often be hard to come by during this time of year. To persist, animals have developed all sorts of strategies to successfully survive through harsh winter months. During this time of year, daily life can be a struggle for survival that can truly test an animal’s fitness for its environment. 

Migration

One of the more well-known mechanisms by which animals deal with winter is through seasonal migrations. This is a term everyone is familiar with and the best example exists in the millions of birds that travel along northern and southern migration routes twice every year. Both birds and mammals exhibit a wide variety of migration strategies. However, in a general sense, the migrations of animals tend to fall into the categories of long-distance or short distance migrations. 

An example of long-distance migration would be waterfowl that fly thousands of miles from their summer breeding grounds in the northern latitudes to their wintering grounds in the southern United States and Mexico. In our area, the best examples of long-distance migrating species are the abundant species of ducks, geese and waterfowl that move seasonally through the White Mountains. Other species of birds such as hummingbirds -- who spend the bountiful days of summer here in the mountains and then retreat to Mexico for a warmer winter -- exhibit a similar strategy. 

Short-distance migration is another commonly used winter survival strategy. Instead of covering lengths of entire states or countries, many mammals and birds participate in short- distance regional migration. A simple drop in elevation in the western mountains is often enough to significantly lessen the severity of winter. In our area, deer and elk can be a prime example of short distance migrators; spending their summers in the high mountains and then retreating to slightly lower elevations when the real snow begins to fall. Some bird species too exhibit similar short distance migrations by simply moving from higher mountain elevations to the lower foothills or valleys. 

Caching

For animals that don’t migrate to find better winter food sources, food can be tough to come by in the harsh winter months. Animals know this and there are a variety of species that cache -- or store -- food from the plentiful supplies of summer for use later in the winter when food can be hard to come by.

Species of both mammals and birds cache food for use in the wintertime. Squirrels spend much of their summer burying green pine cones in the duff and soil to store viable food for their use during winter. Birds such as Pinyon Jays are known for their remarkable ability to remember the locations of nearly all the seeds they stored in unique individual locations. Acorn Woodpeckers, unlike Pinyon Jays, choose to store nearly all their reserves in one spot. Known as a “granary tree,” a family of woodpeckers will select an old dead tree and poke hundreds to thousands of storage holes in it for acorns and other seed food sources. 

Sleeping it Out

Perhaps the most iconic winter strategy of all is the long slumber cumulatively referred to as “hibernation.” Humans at times may also feel like they are in some sort of a state of hibernation as they coop up in their houses during the cold days of winter. However, hibernation refers to a seasonal period of inactivity experienced by endotherms (warm-blooded animals). During hibernation, animals may come in and out of states of torpor, where heart rate, body temperature and bodily functions are depressed; being restored to somewhat normal levels along a cyclical schedule during the hibernation period. By hibernating, animals can, not only stay tucked away from the harsh elements, but also conserve valuable energy during the lean months by reducing activity. Hibernating mammals in our area would include bears and some ground squirrels.

Believe it or not, our White Mountains abound with dozens of species of reptiles and amphibians. How do these cold-blooded critters survive through the harsh winters? Similar to hibernation, many ectotherms (cold-blooded animals) experience a different form called brumation. Like hibernating mammals, reptiles and amphibians will find a sheltered place among a rock pile or crevice to stay safe for the winter. During this period of brumation, bodily functions are significantly reduced as the animal enters a state of dormancy throughout the duration of the cold months. Many species of reptile and amphibian are even known to brumate in mixed-species den sites. 

Toughing it Out

Not all critters have devised an ingenious strategy to make it through the harsh winter months. Some hardy animals stay put through it all and battle the winter, season after season, through sheer grit. The winter hits these critters the hardest. 

Despite many birds being seasonal migrators, a surprising number are year-round local residents in our area. Throughout the year and into the winter, there are a few common characters at backyard bird feeders. Dark-eyed Juncos and Mountain Chickadees are some of the local species that must work their way through winter. When bird feeders are empty, they must rely on finding remnants of last fall's crop of seeds or dormant insects hiding in trees. 

The Blue Grouse -- or now referred to as the Dusky Grouse -- hails from some of the highest elevation forests in our state -- those forests most severely affected by winter's grasp. Despite having a sufficient set of wings and muscular legs, the grouse decides it is best to stay put. Deep into winter’s cover, when the high spruce-fir forest floors are hidden under feet of snow pack, the grouse perches still high amongst the treetops. How does a grouse support its energy demands in this harsh winter environment? Without storing any food caches and its normal food sources on the ground being covered up, these grouse resort to an obligate diet of pine needles. It is impressive to think anything could survive on such a rough diet but the Blue Grouse has managed to eke out an existence doing just that. 

Whenever a big storm rolls around and I am sitting warm and dry on the couch in my home, I have a hard time fathoming what the animals outside must be going through. While some may be tucked away hidden from the elements in their hibernation den, I can’t help but think about those animals toughing it out in the elements, scratching through the blanket of snow to depleted food sources below. Before complaining about the inconveniences and discomforts the winter season may bring to some, think about all the luxuries that actually make it easy. The animals have it roughest in the winter and continue to show incredible resilience.