Maintaining A Marmot's Weight

Marmots lose up to half of their body weight during the winter.

 Picture from Trip Advisor

Partly due to their diet of grass, berries, roots and flowers, marmots have a hard time keeping on weight.  And during the winter they hibernate in burrows, living off of their stored food, which doesn't provide much nutrition. 

Wolverine's Winter Wonderhome

During the Winter, female wolverines will dig up to 15 feet deep in the snow to build their dens.

Picture from FWS

Most wolverines give birth in February or March when there is still snow on the ground.  This allows them to use the snow to build their dens to protect their young from predators, and to protect them from the cold.

Cold Weather Animals

With the official arrival of winter last week, we thought it was a good time to talk about some animals that live (and thrive) in extreme cold weather conditions. So we searched through our archives and found some of our best posts for you; enjoy!

• Predators In The Snow (photo gallery)
• The Snowshoe Hare
• Arctic Foxes Survive Everyday Blizzards
• Lynx, The "Snowshoe" Cat
• The (Polar) Bear Necessities

Picture Of The Week - Hey, That's My Nose!

This week's picture isn't quite as astounding or head-scratching as some of our others, but we had to post it for several reasons. 1) It's adorable. 2) It's just puts us in the Christmas spirit. Although, we do feel for that poor snowman ;-)

How many of you have seen a sight like this in your backyards?