A Comprehensive Guide to How Animals Spend the Winter: How They Make It Through the Cold

Another winter is coming, and people will put on thick clothes to keep warm, so how do animals spend the winter? Let's take a look below.

1. Migration

When winter arrives, migratory birds such as wild geese and red-crowned cranes all have to fly south to spend the winter, because the south is relatively warm and has more of the insects they like to eat, while the north is relatively cold and insects are almost nowhere to be seen. These migratory birds all have to travel tirelessly from the north to the south to spend the winter.

2. Hibernation

Animals such as snakes, frogs and hedgehogs spend the winter by hibernating. Snakes generally spend the winter living together in snake burrows. Frogs burrow into the soil to spend the winter. Hedgehogs spend the winter in underground burrows.

3. Hiding

Squirrels, bees and others hide in burrows and beehives to spend the winter. Before winter arrives, that is, in the season when the fruits ripen, squirrels gather pine nuts, acorns, hazelnuts and so on and hide them separately in multiple burrows to prepare for what they need in winter. The reason the fruits are hidden in multiple burrows is to prevent them from being discovered by other members of the same species; once members of the same species discover them, the fruits will be stolen clean. When they need them in winter, squirrels retrieve the fruits from the burrows where they stored them. When spring comes and flowers bloom, bees work hard to collect nectar and store honey, and when winter arrives, the bees stay in their own beehives and enjoy it throughout the winter.

4. Molting

Rabbits, dogs, sheep, chickens, rabbits and others put on a thick new coat for themselves when winter arrives, that is, they molt, getting ready to resist the cold of winter.

Different animals have different ways of spending the winter. If you find a small animal suffering from the cold in winter, you can do your best to help it.