This helps to provide quick energy when they come out of hibernation. They spend the fall eating foods that put on a special kind of fat called brown fat. This means they sleep deeply and are nearly impossible to wake up. We only have a few true hibernators: groundhogs and bats. This term gets used a lot when we talk about what animals do in winter, but in our area hibernation is not as easy as it seems. This native bird species spends most of the year at higher elevations in the mountains, but during the winter they can be seen at feeders in mixed flocks with cardinals, goldfinches and chickadees. These can be great distances, like whales crossing oceans small journeys, like earthworms traveling just below the frost line or something in between, like moving from the top of the mountain to a lower elevation, as is the case for the dark-eyed juncos that live in our area. Animals migrate to reach breeding grounds or better food supplies. Major events for regional naturalists include the monarch butterfly migration and the hawk migration. This seasonal movement of animals from one location to another hardly goes unnoticed in our area. They remain dormant until warmer temperatures and longer days return. With less energy going into maintaining the leaves, the tree is able to slow down its growth and metabolism, too. As temperatures cool and there is less sunlight, trees drop their leaves because it requires too much energy to maintain them. This process takes place in the leaves, and in fact, it is their main function. During the summer months, trees spend their time producing food in the form of glucose through the process of photosynthesis. As the leaves of the trees change color and fall to the ground, they are preparing for winter in their own way. This is an easy one to see, and something we notice as a first sign of the changing seasons. You might even say we’re helping you come to terms with the changing season! Questions like “Where do the animals go when it’s cold?” and “Why do the trees lose their leaves?” are just the tip of the iceberg! If you’re feeling in need of a “brush up” on your winter wildlife terminology in advance of answering these questions and more, we’ve put together a cheat sheet of terms to help you navigate your next walk through nature this winter, with some helpful examples taken from the Arboretum. Young minds are wonderfully inquisitive, and if you are a parent to a little one - or know anyone who is - it doesn’t take much imagination to think of the questions a child might have about the changes they’re seeing in the natural world this time of year.
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