Species of the Month

We're still in Old Man Winter's icy grip for at least another month, so it's the perfect time to feature another critter that thrives in cold, snowy weather. This month we'll take a look at the elusive Canada lynx.

Canada lynx slinking among the vine maples

Scientific name: Lynx canadensis

Kingdom: Animalia (animals)

Class: Mammalia (mammals)

Order: Carnivora (carnivores)

Range: Circumpolar- Canada, northern US 

Habitat: Forest and tundra

Lifespan: Up to 14.5 years

Diet: Snowshoe hares, rodents, birds, fish, carrion

Predators: None known though bears and wolves may prey on kittens

Conservation Status: Listed as threatened under the US Endangered Species Act and endangered by the state of Michigan

The giant feet are visible in this shot (USFWS)

Other Information: The lynx is known for its intricate relationship with the snowshoe hare. The lynx population fluctuates in response to that of the snowshoe hare, with the lynx lagging by about a year in a nine year cycle of boom and crash. The lynx may as well be known as a snowshoe bobcat, as they are similar in appearance. The lynx has large feet that work as snowshoes, allowing it to hunt in the deepest snow. Another difference between the cats is the longer tufts of ear hair on the lynx. Litters are commonly two or three kittens, born April to June. They stay with the mother until the following mating season, almost a year later. Lynxes are solitary creatures, and are mainly nocturnal hunters. While smaller animals are their main prey, they will take a sick or injured deer if the opportunity presents itself.

This shot offers a better view of the ear hair (USFS)

This week's information comes from the University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web.

Species of the Month

This month’s species of the month is a useful tree that provides sweets in the spring, shade in the summer, aesthetic enjoyment in the fall, and many manufactured products. The sugar maple is an important part of the natural world as well as an ornamental plant in cities and towns. Within the next few weeks they’ll be changing from verdant green to an explosion of color.

Sugar maple in its summer finest (The Spruce)

Scientific name: Acer saccharum

Kingdom: Plantae (plants)

Class: Magnoliopsida (dicots)

Order: Sapindales (flowering plants)

Range: Eastern US and Canada

Habitat: Moderately wet forest, occasionally drier slopes

Lifespan: 500 years

Diet: Water and sunlight

Predators: Deer, moose, snowshoe hares, squirrels, porcupines, humans

Conservation Status: No special protection

Sugar maple leaves (USDA)

Other Information: Sugar maple is the only tree suitable for the production of maple syrup. Nine or ten gallons of tree sap boiled down yields about a gallon of maple syrup. Deer, moose, and snowshoe hares browse the maple, while porcupines eat the bark. Squirrels, including the flying variety, eat seeds and buds. Many different songbirds build nests in the branches, while woodpeckers will nest in cavities. Bees will visit the flowers for pollen, even though pollen is spread by the wind. Aside from syrup, humans use sugar maple for wood. Furniture, flooring, and bowling pins are among the many maple products on the market. Leaves change color in fall before dropping. Colors vary by region but can be red, orange, or yellow. Some trees will have any combination of those colors rather than turning to just one. Leaf peeping in New England is a major tourism draw. You may recognize the sugar maple from the Canadian flag. Sugar maple seeds are in the fruit, which you probably played with as a kid. It's the little helicopters or you can make a mustache out of it. Information this week is from USDA. 

Sugar maple fruit (USDA)

Fall colors on display (Bartlett Tree Experts)

Winter Adaptations

As I deal with a pair of winter storms over the course of writing this blog, I am sitting cozy and warm inside my house. How do animals, who don’t live in houses with central heating or furnaces make it through the winter? Some migrate to warmer areas, but those that stay behind have special adaptations that help them cope with the cold and snowy weather.

Many animals go into mega energy conservation mode during the winter because not only do they lack heating systems for their homes, they also lack supermarkets that carry a reliable food source. For herbivores, their plant-based food supply is either dormant (and not producing the nutritious shoots they crave), or buried under snow and ice. Whether warm-blooded or cold-blooded, both need to keep warm to survive. Cold-blooded critters rely on the sun’s radiant heat to stay warm, and this is a challenge when it’s cold outside and the sun isn’t reliable. Warm-blooded critters metabolize food to stay warm- they eat much more than cold-blooded ones. One option to keep up metabolism is to spend energy to search for scarce food. But there are other ways to get by.

Hibernation is probably the first coping mechanism you think of, and it’s quite common in the mammal world. Bears do it, bats do it. What is it, compared to normal sleep? When you go to sleep your body slows down. Breathing and heart rate go down and metabolism slows, and your body temperature cools a bit. Hibernation is an extreme version of this. But to be asleep for weeks or months on end requires quite a bit of sustaining energy, even if bodily functions slow to the point of nearly stopping. That’s why bears go on a feed frenzy each fall, gorging themselves on spawning salmon or high-energy moths if they live in the right place.

NPS graphic of a hibernating bear

For those that don’t hibernate, finding food is a priority. Arctic foxes and snowshoe hares both grow a white coat for snow camouflage. The fox uses its camo to hunt; the hare uses its to avoid being eaten. The bison uses its large head as a snowplow to uncover buried vegetation. Ever wonder what that large hump at its shoulder is? Extra muscles to support all that head.

Snowshoe hare (Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks)

Bison plowing for food (NPS)

Preserving body heat is a great way to maximize caloric efficiency. The thick fur coat of a muskox traps body heat. Blubber insulates whales, seals, and walruses. Polar bears have black skin that absorbs heat, and their fur traps heat, including body heat that they radiate.

Walruses (US Fish and Wildlife Service)

Ease of mobility is also an efficiency adaptation. Lynxes and caribou both have large feet that act as snowshoes, making it easier to get around so they burn fewer calories doing so.

Check out the foot on that lynx! (Natural Resources Research Institute)

These are just a few of the many adaptations that make survival possible for warm-blooded mammals. There are others, and there are also adaptations for cold-blooded animals (like a frog with antifreeze in its blood) and plants too! Enjoy your heater for the rest of the winter!