Many animals store food for the winter months. A gray squirrel buries nuts one at a time in a hole about three-inches deep, which it has dug; the gray squirrel then covers the nut with dirt, leaves, etc. During the month of October, a gray squirrel will bury several hundred nuts for the winter months. The squirrel uses its sense of smell to locate the nuts, even with ten inches of snow covering the ground. Those nuts not found will sprout the following spring.
The beaver feeds upon the inner bark of trees, especially the aspen trees. After cutting down a tree, the beaver cuts off the limbs and drags them to the dam, where the limbs will be anchored in mud at the bottom of the pond. After the pond freezes over, the beaver can still get to his cache of food, which is carried back to the lodge and fed upon.
The chipmunk will be in a torpid state, with its breathing rate falling to less than twenty breaths per minute and body temperature dropping to 45 degrees. Unlike most hibernators, the chipmunk periodically awakens during the winter months to feed upon the stored food and then goes back to sleep.
Although the bobcat is active all winter long, the cat also stores food that is not eaten immediately. During the winter months a bobcat occasionally kills a small deer or finds a dead deer and feeds on the carcass until sated. The bobcat then covers the carcass with leaves and snow to be preserved by the winter’s cold temperatures. The bobcat will return to the site to feed until the carcass is completely gone.
A fox often kills more than it can eat. To preserve the kill, the fox digs a hole, in which the extra food is placed and then covers the hole with dirt. The fox urinates on the cache to mark the area. Later, the fox will return to feed upon the food. Fox trappers imitate this food cache by using fox urine to lure the animals into a trap. A coyote also buries surplus food and marks the cache with urine.
Blue jays store seeds to be eaten later. During the fall, the blue jay caches many acorns by storing them under the leaf duff and crotches of trees. During the winter months, the blue jay retrieves some of these nuts; however, the nuts not found will sprout.
Chickadees, titmice and nuthatches also store food in bark crevices, curled leaves and knotholes of trees. They rely on these hoards when food becomes scarce.
The northern shrike (butcher bird), which migrates south into Pennsylvania, kills small mammals and smaller birds and hangs its victims on either a thorn bush or barbwire fence. Later, the shrike returns to feed on the carcass.
Many mammals, such as bear, raccoon, skunks and opossums, are known as light sleepers. These animals put on a layer of fat during the fall, and after cold weather arrives, they enter their dens. Light sleepers are not considered true hibernators because their body temperatures do not drop low enough; nor does their breathing slow down enough. Light sleepers live off the body fat that is put on during the fall. If the temperature on a winter’s night stays above 25 degrees, light sleepers could get up and move about in search of food. Of all these light sleepers, the skunk is considered the lightest sleeper and the most apt to be seen out on a winter’s night.
We know that the animals in the wild are busy caching their food supply for the winter months but we should also put in extra provisions in case we have one of those blizzards that my wife loves.