HIBERNATION and MIGRATION Connecticut Nature

Written By: Kirsten Tomlinson, Director of Education at Environmental Learning Centers of Connecticut

Canadian Goose Monarch Butterfly Black Bear

Look outside, how many animals do you see? Do you see the same number and types of animals in the summer as in the winter? As the weather
starts to get colder each fall animals start to prepare for the winter. To prepare some animals migrate, move, to warmer areas where there is more food
available for them to eat while others start eating more to prepare to hibernate for the winter. Other animals adapt and stay active during the winter but
even they must prepare for the winter by changing their diet or collecting and hiding food.

Animals like Canadian geese, Humpback whales, and Monarch butterflies will migrate, move, to spend the
winter in warmer locations or where food is more available. Some animals will migrate a very short distance
while others migrate hundreds of miles. Earthworms move only a few feet deeper into the soil while Monarch
butterflies can travel up to 3000 miles from Canada and the northern Unites States to Mexico. One of the
Arctic Tern animals that migrates the longest distance is the Arctic tern that migrates from its summer nesting areas near
the North Pole all the way to Antarctica for the winter. Can you think of other animals that migrate?

Other animals hibernate, enter a deep sleep, for the winter. During hibernation the animal’s body
temperature drops and its breathing and heart rate slows down. This allows the animal to survive the
winter with little or no food. To prepare for hibernation the animals eat extra food all fall and store it as fat
to use for energy over the winter. True hibernators include woodchucks, little brown bats, snakes, and
turtles. Other animals like black bears are not true hibernators as they can wake up quickly and easily
from their sleep.

What animals did you see when you looked outside? You might have seen a squirrel, a rabbit, or a deer.
Black Bear and Cubs
These animals stay active during the winter months but even they must adapt, change, to be able to
survive the winter. Squirrels gather nuts in the fall and hide them so that they can find them again when Photography By: Fern Vaughn.

food is limited during the winter. Deer will change their diet from grasses and leaves in the summer to
bark, buds, and twigs in the winter.

As the weather starts to warm up this spring, keep your eyes open for animals as they begin to wake up and others migrate back to Connecticut.

Animal Tracks – Animal Migration -

Go outside and look in the snow for animal tracks. Visit https://journeynorth.org/ to see where different
Visit https://www.oyccweb.com/uploads/2/6/4/4/26442920/animal_track_id_guide.pdf animals are spotted during different times of the year
to see if you can figure out what animal made the
TRY IT!

during their migration.

Canadian Geese

CCSS.ELA.Reading: Informational
http://elcct.org
Text: K-5.2, K-5.3, K-5.8, 1.7, 2.1