Image Credit: ADOBE STOCK

With snow predicted in the coming weeks, animals of the Thompson-Okanagan will need to hunker down, fatten up or move on if they’re to survive the bitter cold winter months here.

Although many bird species (ducks, geese and songbirds, to name a few) will be heading down to warmer climates in South America and Texas around this time, other species are staying put and will already be deep into their winter preparations.

Adam Ford, Professor for the Okanagan Institute for Biodiversity, Resilience and Ecosystems Service, told iNFOnews.ca the animals that stick around have a range of impressive survival methods. 

“You've got your hibernators which includes everything from bears to little bugs that bury under the soil and try to wait out the winter,” Ford said. “They go into a relaxed state. Their heart rate drops, their body temperature cools off... Bats do it on a daily basis and bears and other critters do it on a more seasonal basis.”

Most animals, before they go into that state, have a period of hyperphagia, which means they have an "an abnormally great desire for food."

In other words, animals will do everything they can to fatten up before food sources get sparse and the snow settles. 

“Like the grey squirrels we see in the city, they're busy storing nuts," Ford said. "The native red squirrels we see in the forest are stashing away pine cones. They're active all winter."

Squirrels will prepare a "midden",  an area where they store all the precious food they've collected. 

Other animals will burrow deep below the frost line to stay warm, like frogs and turtles and tiny mammals. 

“They can maintain this existence and avoid the colds of the winter by using the insulation of the snow,” Ford said. “And it's really cool in the spring, because you'll see these tunnels emerge and find these really interesting networks of passageways from these little mammals that have been active all winter long."

This underground network is known as the "subnivean layer". 

Some animals, however, can't survive alone like this and will need to team up in order to beat the cold.

Neil Fletcher, Director of Conservation Stewardship with the BC Wildlife Federation, said bats will go into a semi-state of hibernation called a torpor, where their heartbeat and breathing slows down to conserve energy. They will also gather in caves and huddle together to stay warm.

“Snakes do the same thing,” Fletcher said. “They'll hibernate under rocks and they'll kind of rotate collectively to maintain their body heat."

Cold-blooded reptiles need the extra warmth, Fletcher explained. They also have a very clever device that helps to stop them from freezing solid. 

“Some amphibians have what's considered like an antifreeze in their blood," Fletcher said. "It basically prevents ice crystals from forming in their blood."

Some animals don’t hunker down at all. Predators like coyotes, foxes and wolves are not only active, but fair particularly well in the winter.

“It's a really good time to be a wolf and a coyote because the things you're chasing tend to struggle a little bit more and it's easier to catch them," Ford said. "Wolves might do better in really deep snow because they can catch up to their prey easier which tend to sink more into the snow, like the deer and the moose.”

Ungulates, such as deer, elk and moose will also stay active throughout the winter, eating what’s left of the less-than-palatable shrubs.

“In this part of the world, (deer) spend their winters at low elevation. Then in the spring they move up the hillsides as things get greener and the food comes back to life,” Ford said.

“They have this this bi-annual migration, a spring migration and a fall migration," Ford said. "They spend their spring having their babies in May and June and then try to get fat during the summer. Then around October, this time of year, they come back down from the high hills."

This will likely bring deer into cities and urban areas as they naturally search for low elevation food sources. However, it may also draw in their predators.

“They're surfing this wave of green vegetation in the spring as it goes up the hill and then they come back down," Ford said. "We're trying to learn, do the predators do that same thing? Do they surf the so-called red wave as they go up and down the mountain?”

As food sources are sparse, it is assumed that many deer don’t survive the winter. However, Ford said, this isn’t fully proven yet.

“We're still trying to figure this one out," he said, "February, March is the most lethal time to be a deer in this area. Because the seasonal pattern is you get fat during the summer and then you start drawing on that reserve as the winter goes on. So, by the end of the winter you're about done."

"The conventional wisdom is we need to make really good winter habitat for these animals," he said. "We need to manage our forests in a way that provides shelter from the snow and a little bit of food for helping them get through these tough times. But, we're learning more and more from different study areas... (that) we actually need to make sure that the deer are investing enough in their bodies during those good times. So this is telling us that late summer, early fall habitat conditions up in the high country are really important for helping these animals make it through the winter.”

Maintenance on the landscape involves looking after larger trees that provide interception cover, meaning the snow will get caught on the branches and melt before it reached the ground.

“That then doesn’t cost as much energy for the deer... when the snow is lower and it's easier for them to find food,” Ford said.

However, destruction from the McDougall Creek fires this year makes the survival rate of deer less certain.

“It's not clear to me that there's going to be enough food for them to get through the winter," Ford said. "It could be pretty tough going this year until the green comes back next year.”

However, feeding deer to keep them alive may be counterintuitive. Feeding wild animals can invite disease transmission. It can also change their natural behaviour which not only makes them more vulnerable to predators, but also make humans more vulnerable to them.

“A situation that everybody would want to avoid in the future is having deer become too habituated or accustomed to getting food from people," Ford said. "Just like feeding a bear or anything else. Just because they're deer doesn't mean they're not going to be vulnerable to those same problems if people feed them and trick them into a false sense of security of being around people.”

Deer and other animals are also not accustomed to eating apples and the other sugar rich foods residents may hand out to them, Ford explained. This kind of diet can cause more harm than good in the long run. 

“I think it probably comes from a good place. You know, we want to help these animals, we want to connect with them. But we have to think too, is this about me or is this about nature? And if it's about nature, then I think it's better to let those animals figure it out.”

As many animals range across the snowy landscape, winter can be an ideal time to observe the vast wildlife of the Okanagan.

“Most of the year, we don't get to see where they go or what they do. But once the snow comes... the forest comes alive and reveals itself, all the hidden creatures are present again and leaving these little tracks behind," Ford said. "I think it's a pretty exciting time to get out there and not just be stuck in a city during the winter and to enjoy nature.”

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