![]() ![]() So typically the temperature, the ambient temperature is a little bit higher than it would be out in non urban type areas because you’ve got all that impervious surfaces is absorbing and storing the solar radiation that then will be given off over the course of the day and the night. So typically in urban type areas where you have more impervious surface buildings, things like that, that you have kind of a heat island. ![]() Lorre Kolb: And what about the animals that are living near urban centers? How does the winter impact them?ĭavid Drake: They probably have a relatively easy time for a number of reasons. So that’s one of the concerns when we don’t have the average snow cover is that those animals may be burning through their fat stores a little bit quicker than they normally would. So they’re actually burning through their fat stores quicker than they normally would if there’s a snow cover on top. Now, for animals that hibernate, the biggest thing in the wintertime is whether or not we have snow cover or I should say it’s just not, not the biggest thing, that’s one of the biggest things because snow cover is like a blanket, so it helps to insulate, Animals a lot of times, especially animals hibernating underneath the ground or in the ground that if you don’t have that snow cover that cold penetrates much deeper into the soil and so all of a sudden now they’re in a colder climate or colder environment subterranean and they have to start burning more energy to stay warm as they hibernate. So all of that helps animals to kind of key in on it’s now starting, I need to start preparing for hibernation or any sort preparing for staying here for winter all winter long active, or do I need to prepare for migration out of here. ![]() So as the days start shortening in the fall, along with the shortening days, we have changing weather patterns, so now all of a sudden it starts getting colder, we have different precipitation types and levels and things like that. So typically, what drives animals to start entering hibernation or getting prepared for hibernation or getting prepared to migrate south out of our area is that the big driver is length of daytime. Lorre Kolb: Does the weather affect or impact the hibernators?ĭavid Drake: It can. ![]() So those really are three options as a wildlife species in Wisconsin, regardless of where you live. So we’ve got animals that hibernate who are either true hibernators or what we might call restive hibernators or some kind of a variety of hibernation where they will sleep through the winter. And then the third option is to sleep through the winter. The second option is to hightail it the heck out of here and go somewhere south, we have some animals that migrate out of our area so that they’re in warmer climates for the wintertime and then they’ll come back up here in the springtime. They can either stay active and stay here in our state or in a local area they’d be what are considered resident animals and they’re here year-round, so that’s one option. What do wildlife do, both in the wild and in urban settings?ĭavid Drake: So wildlife in Wisconsin in the wintertime have three choices, essentially. David, we’re talking about wildlife in Wisconsin in winter. Lorre Kolb: We’re talking today with David Drake, University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension Wildlife Specialist in the Department of Forest and Wildlife and I’m Lorre Kolb. UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Time – 10:08Ġ9:41 – where to find information about bird feeders David Drake, Extension Wildlife Specialistĭepartment of Forest and Wildlife Ecology ![]()
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