Cold temperatures effect all types of animals as well as those who hunt them

Cold temperatures effect all types of animals as well as those who hunt them
                        
While we have been talking about how weather effects the hunter, even greater is the effect on the animals. When the hunter gets hot or cold, they simply add or take a layer off. If it is too extreme, they simply stay home and don’t hunt. The animals don’t have that option. They must learn to adapt by migration, hibernation or just plain fatten up (or thin down) and endure the weather. I’m not one who believes in evolution, as in the Darwin Theory as some teach, and I’m not here to debate it’s authenticity. But I do believe that God, their creator, also created within them the ability to adapt (or change) to environmental conditions. Some would call this following their instincts. Remember, these animals do have a brain. Although, not quite to the intelligence of humans (homo sapien), animals do have the ability to reason, to recognize and to remember. So, Bob, you say, what about the dinosaurs and their ability to adapt to change? Why did some become extinct while some survived extreme climactic change and exist in like form today? My response ... for the moment ... Google it. Getting back on track, let’s look at why animals migrate. Many species of the animal kingdom have a seasonal migration pattern which normally is triggered by the weather. Some of the more known bird species are, of course, the swallows of Capistrano, the buzzards of Hinkley, Ohio, and the 29 kinds of geese. These flocks from the northern regions of our planet, travel thousands of miles each year to wintering grounds and warmer climates to the south, seeking resources for food and return each spring to their home to nest. Many land animals migrate as well and generally for the same reason: food. In the hunting world, some of the more commonly known are the elk and the mountain sheep of the western U.S. and the caribou of the Arctic. These animals travel out of their higher elevation or latitude sanctuaries to their wintering ranges, away from the extreme temperatures and deep snowfall. In Eastern Africa, what is referred to as “the Great Migration,” zebras, wildebeest and other grazing-type species, numbering over a million animals, travel nearly a thousand miles in a migration circle. Beginning in late spring, after the rains end, the dry season begins sending them to seek food, following an annual path that leads from the Serengeti plains of Tanzania to the northwest toward Lake Victoria, which lies on the border with Uganda, then eastward to Nairobi and the Masai Mara National Reserve, returning again to the Serengeti when the rainfall returns. Many marine species also travel to southern waters to wait out winter’s cold. Whales, sharks, dolphins as well as numerous schools of fish migrate to find sanctuary. What is the species that travel the farthest, you ask? The arctic tern (look it up) flies nearly 22,000 miles each year in it’s pattern. But the species I find that migrate to be the most interesting can only be described as the “winter chickens.” No, they’re not an animal species. They are “those people” of our area that bail out at the first snowfall, heading down I-77, or I-75, or any I- to escape winter snow and cold, to bask in the sun on the beaches of Florida or South Carolina or any place warmer than here. Winter chickens. We will finish our research on animals versus weather next time. But for now, as March begins, make sure you put those winter blahs behind you and enjoy nature as it begins to green up and bloom again. God bless you all.


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