Michelle Witte, Nederland. There are endless benefits to spending time outside every day. Research shows time in nature immensely benefits everyone’s (especially children’s) physical and emotional well-being especially during the age of Coronavirus. You never know what you might discover when you head outside for a hike! It’s extra fun during Autumn when there are so many signs of nature transitioning with all the animals and plants preparing for the winter ahead.

All of our local critters have to find creative ways to adapt to the changing seasons and the rough conditions that a winter in the Rockies inevitably brings. As Autumn turns to Winter animals and plants must adapt to the lack of very important resources, such as easy to find food, sunshine, and shelter. During Fall the evidence of animals preparing for winter can be found all around us. 

On your next outdoor adventure can you find a squirrel or chipmunk to observe? They are busy this time of year collecting pine nuts and other food to “squirrel” away in their caches for winter. You can think of a squirrel’s cache as their pantry, where they store food for later. Are you able to recognize their caches? They often are small holes near pine trees full of pine nuts the squirrel extracted from nearby dropped cones. This caching is just one of many ways they prepare to survive the winter to come. 

Did you know that some squirrels use a special form of hibernation known as torpor? Torpor is an adaptation some mammals and birds use to survive the snowy months when there is lower food to be found or during other periods that lack in resource availability. Animals in torpor heart and metabolic rates’ will significantly decrease to help carry them through the lack of resources available. Some rodents can even feed or mate while they are in a torpid state. Their instincts take over as daylight hours diminish and the weather changes telling them it’s time to collect food and enter torpor. The length of torpor versus being fully awake depends heavily on the intensity of the winter of that particular year. If it is a heavy snow and an especially cold year, they stay in torpor for longer periods of time, and if it is a mild winter, they will most likely stay awake longer between their long torpor naps. Turns out, hibernation isn’t such a simple thing. It is as intricate and full of wonder as anything we explore in nature.

Whatever adventures you get into as nature and seasons transition, enjoy the discoveries that await you and always remember we all are nature! The more we know, the less we fear and the more we protect the earth.

Michelle Witte is the Nature Education Director at Wild Bear Nature Center in Nederland, CO. Wild Bear is Boulder County’s only nonprofit nature center. Their mission is to inspire a lifelong connection to nature and community through creative exploration outdoors. Find more information at www.wildbear.org or call 303-258-0495. 

(Originally published in the October 8, 2020, edition of The Mountain-Ear.)