Outdoor Encounters

Submitted by Nathan Bolls

An old Irish proverb says “The most beautiful music of all is the music of what happens.” Those words remind me of wild non-hibernating homeothermic animals—birds and mammals—that maintain a more-or-less constant body temperature. Failing to do so, they will not survive. They also must adapt and become acclimatized to cold weather. Their bodies must play the game.

In the face of a steepening temperature gradient between body temperature and that of the winter environment, these animals, given adequate food, water and shelter, will maintain their normal body temperatures until the outside temperature reaches surprisingly low levels. The arctic fox, one of the champs in this game, can survive in the open even when winter temperatures reach minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Some Antarctic penguins also are famous for surviving for long periods of time while standing in the open as savage Antarctic winter storms whirling around them.

The typical acclimatization pattern, specific to the species, is some combination of increasing fur or feather insulation and stimulating body metabolism and heat production to offset the increased loss of body heat to the cold winter air.

Larger mammals, especially those that spend the entire winter outside, are famous for growing thick insulating coats of fur. The smaller non-hibernating rodents and shrews grow relatively thinner insulative coats. Thus, it follows that they need a combination of relatively more caloric intake for heat production and of time spent in their somewhat warmer burrows.

These are the “sounds” of winter music that happen all around us as we nap in the comfort of central heating.