*November Highlight*
Where Does All the
Wildlife Go?
Well before we humans have dug out the wool sweater, and ventured into the yard armed with leaf rake and storm window, many of our woodland friends have already made great progress in fulfilling their seasonal obligations.
As the days grow shorter and the air more brisk, each type of creature single-mindedly obeys nature’s calling and prepares for old man winter’s miserly ways.
How to combat a frosty Vermont winter? The faint of heart (though swift of wing) flee the cold weather outright. Migratory flight plans charted thousands of years ago transport many of the feathered persuasion southward toward balmy skies and tropical bliss. For hardier types blessed (cursed?) with ample fur, flesh, or a cold-blooded demeanor, sticking closer to home is the inviolable prescription.
Those staying at home and unable to divine suitable sustenance from the barren winter landscape are prescribed a lengthy slumber. Hibernation allows some permanent residents to enter a state of dormancy in which their metabolism is reduced in response to the pressures of food scarcity and low environmental temperature.
Among southern Vermont’s hibernators are the chipmunk, woodchuck, raccoon, bat, bear, earthworm, frog, toad, and snake. After feeding gluttonously from autumn’s bounty, these animals retreat to their respective bunkers, away from pests and safe from predators. Each creature has its evolved its own biological and behavioral mechanisms to help survive in this state of inactivity, which can appear more like death than sleep.
Bear hibernation (the black bear is the sole bear in Vermont) is particularly unique. Unlike other animals whose body temperatures plummet in the cold (some to less than 40 °F), bears maintain a relatively high body temperature during hibernation, at about 88 °F. This enables them to react more quickly to external stimulus than their cooler counterparts; though they frequently sleep for months without eating, drinking, urinating, or defecating. (Does a bear __ in the woods? – Not when it’s hibernating it doesn’t!)
Part of the reason bears are able to maintain a warmer body temperature is that they have lower surface to mass ratios than smaller hibernators. This enables them to conserve and retain body heat for longer periods of time. Smaller mammals, like chipmunks and woodchucks, must awaken every few days to move about their burrows and keep their body temperatures from falling too low.
Other woodland creatures in our area are amazingly able to subsist on winter’s meager buffet. Staunch vegetarians, moose and white tailed deer make their livings in the winter by munching the tender shoots of various trees and shrubs that stick out above the snow. In preparation for winter, deer may travel 10 to 15 miles to find special wintering sites, commonly known as deer yards. These are places where large evergreen trees protect the animals from freezing wind and bitter cold, and help to minimize snow cover on the ground (see ACORN’s MapServer for deer wintering locations in southern Vermont).
Wild turkeys are another of Vermont’s creatures that stick around and make the best of what’s available. Like deer, they frequent stands of evergreens in the wintertime, taking advantage of the buds, mosses, fern spores, and seeds that escape snow cover. Because the ideal turkey dinner includes such delicacies as beech nuts, hophornbeam seeds, and acorns; preferred turkey habitat may often be found in close proximity to that of hibernating bears.
Where’s good wintering habitat in southern Vermont? Because our state parks often encompass large chunks of forestland, they can be ideal spots for wildlife to spend the season.
The forest of Fort Dummer State Park, spanning 217 acres in the towns of Guilford, Brattleboro, and Vernon, is more similar to southern New England than it is to the rest of Vermont. White, red, and chestnut oak make up a significant component of the woods in this area, and provide an abundance of hard mast for bear and turkey.
Woodford State Park at 398 acres sits on a mountain plateau at an elevation of 2,400 feet in the town of Woodford. Bogs, marshes, and small ponds mix with spruce, fir, and mixed hardwoods, to create ideal habitat for moose and other hardy alpine species.
Seven-hundred seventy-two acres of mixed hemlock and hardwood forest in Jamaica State Park provides excellent conditions for wintering deer. Check out our MapServer coverage to see just how widespread deer yards are throughout the town of Jamaica!
