Creature Comfort: How KNC’s Critters Stay Cozy in the Chilly Season

By Emily Tieman, Kalamazoo Nature Center

The temperature is dropping, and snow has already arrived in Southwest Michigan. As the cold weather comes upon us, we put on our coat and boots to stay warm and dry. But while the flora goes dormant, what happens to the fauna during winter? Many animals, amphibians, reptiles, and insects call the Kalamazoo Nature Center home, even during the colder months.

The federally threatened Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake hibernates between the months of November and Mid-April. Massasaugas like to hibernate in wetlands and fens below the frost line and close to groundwater level. “Groundwater is very important to the regulation of the temperature where Massasauga’s are hibernating,” says Ryan Koziatek, the Stewardship Field Director at KNC. “They need to be close enough to the water but not close enough that they’ll drown.” The snakes hibernate individually or in a small group of two or three to keep warm.

Another reptile worth mentioning is the Eastern Box Turtle which burrows into mud or leaf litter to stay warm and camouflaged. While these turtles prefer mud, many animals like to dwell in the Subnivean Zone. It is a tunnel system beneath the snow down to the snowpack underneath where animals can easily access food. The next time you see kids on a winter day digging forts and tunnels in the snow, think of the mice, voles, and shrews that are doing the same.

KNC has had a lot of beaver activity lately, so we would be remised to not mention how they spend the winter months! Beavers have a thick fur coat with an oily coating to keep them warm and dry. These semiaquatic rodents do not hibernate, instead they live inside their warm lodges with a food pantry stocked with leaves, tree bark, and roots. Ryan Koziatek says, “They can also store some of that food under the ice. The more water flooded areas that are around the beavers, the more potential to store food in the winter”

While you may only see tracks in the snow, now you know where some of KNC’s critters are cozied up for the winter. We hope you’ll come out hiking in the colder months to enjoy the beauty KNC trails in winter!