Animals with Winter Coats!

One of the best parts of winter is curlingup with a blanket and a cup of hot cocoa and watching the snow fall outside, while youstay nice and warm.

But what do animals do when it gets cold?They don’t have blankets, hot cocoa or heated houses like we do.

Well, different animals have different waysof dealing with winter weather.

Some animals migrate, or move to a warmerplace for the winter.

And some of them hibernate, or hang out intheir cozy dens underground.

They don’t come out until it’s warm again.

But other animals don’t migrate /or/ hibernate,and they manage to live in places with really cold winters.

But how do they do it? Well, they’ve come up with a pretty coolway to fit in with their snowy environment.

I’ll give you a hint: It involves a wintercoat.

Not a jacket with buttons or a zipper likeyou or I might wear.

Instead, they have fur and feathers that cover their bodies whenit gets cold! When the days get shorter, these animals shedtheir brown or gray colors and grow white fur or feathers to help them make it throughthe winter.

Let’s meet some of these color-changinganimals and find out how their special coverings help them survive the chilly season.

First up is the arctic fox.

The arctic foxgets its name from where it lives—in the Arctic! The Arctic is located at the most northernpart of the world, around the North Pole.

Arctic foxes live on the land and sea ice,where they hunt birds and other small animals.

But they don’t always look the same fromseason to season.

When the days get shorter and colder, their coats get thicker and whiter.

This is what an arctic fox looks like in thespring.

And /this/ is what it looks like in the winter, with its winter coat.

The most important thing about the fox’swinter coat is that it keeps the animal warm.

With its extra thick fur coat -- and bushytail to wrap around its body -- the Arctic fox is better at holding onto its body heatthan nearly any other Arctic animal.

But their fur does more than just give themwarmth.

Their white coat also camouflages them, orhelps them blend in with their surroundings.

Blending in with the snow lets the foxes sneakup on their prey, like arctic hares and small birds.

And it also helps them hide from bigger animalsthat might want to sneak up on /them/.

But when the seasons change, so do their coats! In the summer, arctic foxes shed their whitecoats and grow new ones that are brown or gray, to blend in with their surroundings/after/ the snow is gone.

Now, things can get tricky for the arcticfox, because one of the animals that it likes to eat -- the arctic hare -- uses some ofthe same tricks to survive the winter! Arctic hares also live—you guessed it!—inthe Arctic, mostly in forests.

And like the foxes, they have thick whitecoats of fur to keep them warm, plus pads of thick hair on the bottoms of their feet.

Now, some arctic hares live further south,where there’s less snow.

So they actually grow darker coats that help them blend inin /those/ environments, where there are more rocks and plants than there is snow.

No matter where they live, though, arctichares like to keep their fur clean.

So they groom themselves like cats do, by lickingtheir fur.

The cleaner their fur is, the warmer it keepsthem! Our last animal with a winter coat doesn’thave fur at all.

It’s a bird! Called a ptarmigan.

The ptarmigan lives in the Arctic, too, andit can often be found hiding in bushes or behind rocks to avoid predators.

They have feathers that change from brownin the summer to white in the winter to help camouflage them from bigger animals.

Their soft, fluffy feathers are pressed closeto their skin, trapping in their body heat, and keeping the birds toasty warm in the snow.

They also have extra feathers on their legsand feet to help keep them warm.

And ptarmigans have other ways of stayingwarm in the winter, too.

Sometimes, they’ll fly straight into a pocket of the powderysnow -- this makes a little burrow, or tunnel, in the snow that they can snuggle up in.

Kind of like … the fort! Whether it’s extra-thick fur to help keepthem warm, or white hair and feathers to keep them out of sight, when it comes to livingin winter, these Arctic animals have it covered! Thanks for learning about them with us! Andremember, if you have a question about anything you’d like to learn more about, just letus know by getting help from a parent, and leaving a comment below or emailing us atkids@thescishow.

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We’ll see you next time!.

Source: Youtube