Animals Through Winter (1956)

[Music] as winter arrives in full force the days grow shorter and there is little warmth from the Sun in many parts of our country the fields lie buried under a blanket of snow for days at a time sometimes ice glistens on every blade of grass and every tree branch at such times the outside world looks pretty but it feels cold even with heavy clothing we must keep moving to keep warm and we probably wouldn't like the idea of staying Outdoors for very long so it is natural for us to wonder about and perhaps feel sorry sorry for animals that do live outdoors in Winter some animals may die during prolonged ice storms but most animals do not die their tracks in the snow tell us that many animals are still active and there are other animals which are still very much alive even though they are not active winter brings problems but not every animal meets those problems in the same way long before the snow snow flies changes begin in the animal or in its activities changes which will help it meet the winter as fall approaches you can notice that birds begin to gather into flocks you may see them resting on telephone wires or feeding in the fields in great numbers these birds are preparing for migration they will travel sometimes for great distances to some other place where they will live through the winter birds such as Ducks give us some remarkable examples of migration and a few other animals change the place where they live when the seasons change the birds you see in Winter may be Birds which have migrated from some other area or they may be Birds which stay in one locality all year often such birds feed on seeds which they find in the woods wild fruits which hang on to plants throughout the winter may also Supply food for Birds such fruits are often a source of food for other animals too birds will sometimes change their feeding habits for a short time when the kind of food they prefer is hard to get this chick for example is normally an insect eater but when insects become scarce the chick eats whatever it can find some animals make use of food storage this pack rat for example stores the food he does not need than it is available to him during the winter the packed Rat's Nest is usually in some sheltered place under a log or Rock during the winter the rat may spend much of the time here in its nest which is lined with soft material and near it hand is the store of food with a snug nest and plenty of grain the packed rat has little to fear from Winter the squirrel like the Pack Rat is in little danger of going hungry during the winter bounding up trees and along branches he uses a lot of energy and he eats often feeding on the supply of nuts and greens he has stored away during the summer and fall when such Foods were plentiful in the warm months while other animals are gathering nuts or grain the bee will be gathering nectar and pollen these materials will be stored in cells in the hive so that all the bees in the colony will have food for the cold months a turtle stores its winter food supply inside its body in the form of fat by eating heartily in the warm months the turtle will not need to eat at all when winter comes in fact you would have to dig down under the soil to find a turtle after cold weather arrives for Turtles are one of a group of animals which hibernate hibernating animals become so inactive that they need little oxygen no water and only the food stored inside their bodies this hibernating turtle is on a kind of sleep much deeper than AR sleep unless accidentally uncovered such an animal will not be seen all winter many other coldblooded animals hibernate in Winter animals such as frogs and salamanders the body temperature of such animals is about the same temperature as their surroundings so they along with the snake must go below the frost line to keep from freezing this spadefoot toad is digging himself in to hibernate until warm weather returns these ladyb bird beetles have hibernated in Grassroots other insects May hibernate in crevices of buildings though bears do sleep during much of the cold weather they may come out occasionally bears do not truly hibernate as winter approaches animals with fur such as the cotton rat May develop thicker coats and birds may have a thick layer of dowy feathers to protect them from the cold in spring when the thicker body covering is no longer needed it comes off in patches and we can eat easily see how much heavier it is than the summer coat the tarmigan is one animal that changes color with the seasons in these rare pictures made above the Arctic Circle a hen tarmigan in the foreground has summer coloring which makes her almost invisible on the nest the male bird still has the white coat which made him hard to see against winter snow and so we see that animals have many different ways to meet the problems of winter some of them leave before the weather becomes too cold migrating to a different place to live migrating animals return when the weather is warm again many animals which stay in the same locality all year depend upon food which they have stored to help them through the winter other animals may spend all or part of the cold months in hibernation their bodily processes so slowed that they do not need food the ones which hunt for food throughout the winter develop a thicker covering to help protect them from the cold and some animals are colored in a way which makes it difficult for other animals to see them as animals go about their hunting they ually find the food they need for seeds and berries still hang on bushes and Vines for the seed eating birds and bark Buds and Mosses are available for other plant eaters such as the deer and the rabbit the animals which live by eating other animals must work harder now than during the rest of the year winter May mean hardships for animals but in one way or another the animals usually meet those hardships successfully winter is a part of their lives and they live not only through one winter but sometimes for many Winters meeting the problems as they come [Music]