Happy New Year Acorn Club Members!
Well I hope you are all coping with the chilly weather, wrapping up warm in hats, scarves and gloves when you go outside. Isn’t it nice to get in to a lovely warm building? Well aren’t we luck with our clothes and central heating! Have you ever thought about those animals out there and  how they survive a cold winter when there isn’t much food around? What do the foxes, hedgehogs, deer, birds, bats, squirrels and mice get up to at this time of year? These animals use different methods to survive.
Fat and fur
Some animals carry on pretty much as normal but grow an extra thick coat to keep them warm. They also eat lots in autumn when there is a lot of food around to develop a nice layer of fat for extra insulation! Squirrels will stash nuts in autumn when there are lots around, creating a food store for the winter months. Some animals, such as stoats, change colour in cold countries – white to blend in with the snow.
Fox, stoat, deer, rabbit, hare, mice.
A long sleep
Some animals will sleep through the winter – this is called hibernation. In autumn they will find  somewhere warm and dry to make a bed, often out of leaves. During hibernation their body functions slow down, so they do not use much energy. They will eat lots before they sleep so they can get their energy from their fat during hibernation. They wake up in spring when it gets warmer and will need to eat well then. Some animals, such as harvest mice, don’t hibernate but do sleep a lot in winter to conserve energy (dormice are the only rodent in this country that hibernate).
Hedgehog, dormouse, bat, adder, toad.
A long holiday
Some animals will move some where warmer where there is more food, for winter, this is called migration. Only birds can really do this as they can fly long distances, though only some types of birds migrate. Swallows, nightjars and various warblers fly all the way to Africa in autumn and return in the spring. Some birds that live in colder places move to this country for winter – they spend the summer in places such as Iceland and Greenland, these include pink-footed geese.
Swallow, nightjar, willow warbler, sedge warbler, pink-footed goose.
Winter Wordsearch
Can you find 12 words in the grid below, they all have something to do with surviving the winter.
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Answers: hibernation, migration, fur, fat, hat, snow, col,d scarf, gloves, food, insulation, sleep. |
