How Squirrels Overcome Winter's Challenges

Arab Weather - Squirrels These cute animals may become more gentle in their appearance and behavior with the approaching winter, so while people resort during the cold of winter to spend most of their time indoors and wear several layers of clothes, the squirrel follows a similar strategy to deal with the challenges of winter, as squirrels deliberately fatten And resorting to its warm home, and it has been noticed that the squirrel's behavior differs before winter, when the weather begins to change and becomes cooler in the fall, as the rush of squirrels to collect nuts and bury them becomes a characteristic behavior of these small mammals, but why would they do that if they were going to sleep in winter?

How do some animals spend the winter period

Winter is characterized by special weather conditions, including low temperatures, which may reach below zero degrees Celsius in some areas, and snowfall, and freezing of the water surface in some ponds and lakes, and the winter may be dry and the water resource decreases, in addition to the lack of plants and the low abundance of food for animals, so turn some animals to spend the winter in sleep and some of them enter into hibernation to keep their energy and survive, in winter hibernation (hibernation) rate decreases the heart of the animal and the rate of breathing and the temperature of his body, as the rates of metabolism goes down, may continue to hibernate for some Animals can go into several seasons or even years, so do squirrels go into hibernation in the winter?

In fact, most squirrels do not go into a real hibernation as some animals do, some animals such as turtles, some types of bears, ground rats, and hedgehogs all fatten themselves and sleep during the cold winter months, but they do not sleep all the time, many of these may come out. Animals to meet their needs for food and water, although these needs decrease sharply during this time.

Why don't squirrels go into hibernation in the winter?

Squirrels do not need to go into hibernation because they make their preparations as soon as winter arrives, so the squirrels sense the arrival of winter, and then they start work to make sure that their nests are warm and their food stores are full, they sense the arrival of winter through their internal nervous endocrine system, which allows them to feel That the length of the day changes once fall arrives, so they know it's time to start preparing.

Where do squirrels live in winter?

Squirrels sleep in nests built from branches, leaves and moss, where squirrels build these nests in tall trees, or on the roofs of huts, and sleep in them throughout the year, but some squirrels keep multiple nests in order to get backup places, so they have several ways to escape from the animals Predators, or in the event that one or more nests are penetrated by humans or nest thieves, but with the approach of winter, squirrels need to prepare their nest to be warmer, and if they have multiple nests they choose the warmest one.

What kind of things do squirrels store in the winter?

In addition to gaining a great deal of weight before winter, squirrels are keen to have their stores full as well, as squirrels practice something called scattered hoarding, placing nuts, seeds, berries, bones and insects all over their nests so that they can easily reach them, and squirrels resort to scattering And distribute their stocks elsewhere as well.

Squirrels process begins compactness by burying a lot of Gnaimha collected throughout the yard around the nests area, they do so in an attempt to get rid of thieves food and mislead them about the real place for food, and remember most of the squirrels where their food is buried by a technique called cutting spatial (spatial chunking ), then returning to dig and retrieve nuts in the warm daylight hours of winter, squirrels are unmistakable, hardworking and meticulous creatures, and always have backup plans.