What strategies do wild animals use to survive in winter?

Winter is a cold season of the year that does not benefit animals. As it approaches or during this season, domestic animals rely on their owners to protect them from the cold while wild animals have to fend for themselves. So, to protect themselves from the cold, wild animals use a variety of strategies. Find out more about their strategies in this article.

The classic animal migration

Of all the strategies that wild animals put in place to survive the cold, migration is the most common. This strategy involves leaving the winter region for another region in which the temperature is much milder. The animals that are part of this migration are birds. They implement this strategy for two reasons. The first is to escape the cold, but the main reason is to feed. Very often during the winter, their food is scarce, so they move to feed themselves. It can then be said that they are encouraged more by the lack of food than by the installation of coolness itself.

Torporation, an ideal solution

During the winter, there are some animals that have an effective strategy to combat the chill. This strategy is known as torpor. It is a complex mechanism put in place by some animals. This mechanism allows them to regulate the internal temperature in some way to keep it at a constant level throughout the winter period. This is one of the best solutions, but it requires a lot of energy, which leads some animals to adopt body temperature. Others, however, choose to hibernate, such as bats and groundhogs. Torpor allows animals to live in slow motion during the winter.

The use of fat

During the winter period, mammals and birds use their fat to keep warm. Indeed, when the cold weather sets in, a very special form of fat is formed in these animals. This fat is called brown adipose tissue. These are very rich in mitochondria, essential elements of a cell capable of releasing energy. This energy is efficiently released in the form of heat, which allows them to warm up the body.