notsobigjoe wrote:
Can I ask the stupidest question in the world? What do the animals do when it's that cold?
Ha! Not the stupidest question, cause it's fvckin COLD!
Grizz - hibernate
Polar bears - go swimming and eat seals and unsuspecting oil field workers.
Arctic Foxes - Well they stay alot warmer than their campers, bearing the same name, in the winter.
Lemmings and Hares stay warm running around trying not to get eaten by Arctic Foxes.
Musk Ox - well they have enough hair for themselves and the rest of the fauna up there, so they stay warm.
Moose and Caribou gut it out and get pretty skinny by spring time.
Many Caribou migrate between summer and winter grounds, but winter is still very cold, just not quite as cold as the Tundra, but more importantly, to areas with standing vegetation vs the tundra.
Wolves take down and eat anything they can get their teeth on, in the winter.
Animals adapt pretty quick, as do humans. Haivng lived from the N Slope of AK to Phoenix AZ, pretty much both ends of the spectrum, it's uncanny how a person adapts.
Winter #1 in Phoenix/Yuma, I wore a t shirt most days and locals thought I was nuts. By winter #2, the hoodies came back out on the "cold" days.
We had the same dogs both in Northern WI and Phoenix.
In cheeseland, they spent all day outside regardless of temperature, unless we felt sorry for them on the very coldest days. Their hair was longer and twice as thick and the hair growing out of their paws needed to be cut periodically because it would get so long, they'd' come in walking on solid ice balls stuck to the hair. Same dogs wintering by pool in Phoenix, looked slim and trim and never put on a winter coat.
