Students walk around in North Face parkas and snow boots during the winter and can barely deal with the chilly, fifteen-minute walk to class. So, how do the Grey Squirrels seen so often around Penn State’s campus survive the negative temperatures without warm clothes, heaters, and blankets?
Many people assume that the grey squirrels on campus hibernate since they are rarely seen during the winter. However, that is not true. Ground squirrels hibernate, but not grey squirrels. Instead of hibernating during the winter, grey squirrels actually spend a majority of their time sleeping in tree nests and come out only during the morning and evening.
The grey squirrels prepare for the winter by storing acorns, nuts, berries, and even tree bark in shallow holes near the trees. They are also prepare by maximizing their food consumption and body mass.
During the winter, the grey squirrels survive by eating their stored food and by keeping their body temperatures fairly constant. Gray squirrels are homeotherms, which means that they are warm-blooded animals that can maintain a stable body temperature throughout a wide range of environmental conditions by regulating metabolic processes of heat production and heat loss. This act of regulating their temperature is their way of having homeostasis or balance in the body.
To keep their temperature level in check, which should be between 98 and 102 degrees, the sensors in the blood vessels are constantly reporting the body temperature back to the hypothalamus in the brain. Squirrels keep their body temperatures stable (within homeostasis) by sleeping in a communal arrangement. This is a form of conduction, in which heat can be transferred between the two squirrels that are touching. Squirrels are also endotherms, which means that they can create their own heat through metabolism. This explains why the squirrels maximize their food consumption in preparation for the winter. When it is really cold in the winter, the squirrels will also use shivering to keep warm, as it is a way of generating heat.
The following diagram shows how a squirrel’s body regulates temperature. As can be seen in it, the hypothalamus is in charge!
Squirrels do not get hot chocolate from Starbucks, but they do get survival skills to keep them alive.
http://publish.illinois.edu/wildlifemedicalclinic/squirrels/
http://www.psu.edu/dept/nkbiology/naturetrail/speciespages/graysquirrel.htm
https://www.whatdosquirrelseat.org/do-squirrels-hibernate/
http://www.shmoop.com/animal-movement/temperature-regulation.html
http://www.lpzoo.org/blog/nature-boardwalk-lincoln-park-zoo/what-do-squirrels-do-winter
http://www.knox.edu/news/news-archive/knox-senior-researches-how-campus-squirrels-survive-winter
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/11/13/article-0-15F71940000005DC-717_634x431.jpg
Well that’s something I didn’t know for sure. Like the article mentioned I was one of those “many” people who thought squirrels hibernated during the winter. Storing an abundant supply of acorns makes so much sense now too knowing they create their own heat through metabolism. After not knowing the difference between the ground squirrel and the tree squirrel I decided to look some information up and after doing so I completely understand how many don’t know the difference between the two. Besides a few minor looks being different and the whole hibernation thing they are almost the exact same and very hard to differentiate. But it is weird for such similar species to have such different living habitats during the winter!
This is something I had been curious about! I live in Buffalo, NY, but the squirrels usually stay away from people (a huge contrast from Penn State!) I walk through Hort Woods every morning for my music theory classes and I swear this morning I saw 11 squirrels just going one way from Warnock Commons to Music Building 1. You can see more and more little patches of disturbed earth where squirrels have been storing their acorns, and you can’t miss the scratching noise coming from the trees of squirrels shelling acorns- I used to think that was some kind of beetle! Being exposed to different environments definitely heightens your awareness of certain aspects of the wildlife, and while the squirrels are a little creepy in their brazenness, I’ve made some pretty cool observations about them!
Okay – I was scrolling down the blogs to see what looked interesting. I then noticed a little squirrel in the snow! It was so cute that I went back up to read the header. This is a good question. My whole life I knew squirrels survived the winter.. but never actually asked how. I obviously knew they stored food to live off of for the winter, but to know that these creature can “maintain a stable body temperature” is very interesting. Even the fact that there is a name for this type of animal for can maintain their body temperature is news to me! The different processes in which gray squirrels keep their body temperature stable is even more fascinating. My only comment would be to explain the diagram in the blog. Just in a brief explanation. It most likely makes sense to a lot of people, but some [like myself] do not follow diagrams, like such, too well. Other than that I loved this blog. It was very informative and now I know the squirrels will be okay come the Penn State Winter!!!