How Animals Live In Winter (1956)

[Music] Can what time of year it is? Of course you can. It's winter, the first snow this season. Winter is such a good time to play. Penny and her brother Chris have been looking forward to the snow. What fun it is to make a snowman. Of course, he needs a scarf and a hat to keep him warm. Now, the snowman seems ready for winter out of doors. He looks just as snug and wrapped up as Penny and Chris. But what about animals in winter? Are they warm, too? Do they have enough to eat? The birds on the feeder have plenty to eat. And in their warm coats of downy feathers, they are quite warm. The cold of winter doesn't seem to bother them. Can you recognize any of these birds? Of course, we don't see many kinds of birds in winter, but Penny and Chris remember how many more birds they saw in autumn. Then the sky was speckled with many birds flying south for the winter. You see, where the weather is very cold, many kinds of birds can't find enough to eat. So, they fly to warmer places of the south where there is still plenty of food. When birds fly south, we say they migrate. They won't come back until spring. But some kinds of birds stay through the winter because they can find food. And we can help them by setting out bird feeders. But Chris and Penny remember a deer they saw in the woods over there. They named it Bucky. Did Bucky migrate or is he out in the cold woods? Chris and Penny just have to find out. Do any animals live in the woods when snow covers the ground? Look, what are these strange marks? They are footprints made by a wild animal. That shows there are animals near here. How do animals live in winter? Perhaps we can see some of them if we go into the woods. But we have to move carefully so as not to frighten them away. Chris sees something. It's a white rabbit. It's hard to see in the snow. But if we were to see this same rabbit in summer, we'd hardly know it was the same animal. In summer, this rabbit's fur is brown. It's almost the same color as the ground in bushes. This color makes it difficult for the rabbit's enemies to find it. But when winter comes, the rabbit grows a white coat, so it's just as hard to see. Now, this is called a snowshoe rabbit because its big feet help it run across the snow. But what about Bucky the deer? We don't know if he likes the snow. Maybe it's too cold for him. Penny and Chris will have to look hard for Bucky, and they'll have to be very quiet. They walk where the snow is deepest and softest, where each step is a quiet one. That big oak tree is a special tree to Chris and Penny. Last summer, a raccoon lived in it. But where is he now? Has he gone? Chris wants to know what happened to the raccoon. Then he remembers the last time he and Penny were in the woods. It was fall. They saw the raccoon come down out of the tree and go around looking for food. In the fall, the raccoon ate as much food as it could find. Enough food to last all winter. All the food it ate was making it very fat, fatter than it had been all summer. Sometimes the raccoon would take its food to a nearby stream and wash it before eating. The raccoon looked even fatter than it really was because a thick winter coat of fur was growing on its body. When the raccoon had eaten enough, it went away to make a nest for the winter. Its nest is in this tree. The raccoon won't come out until spring. But if we could look through the bark and wood of the tree, we'd see the raccoon in its snug nest, fast asleep. It will stay asleep through the coldest part of the winter. The food it ate before going to sleep keeps it from becoming hungry, and its fur coat is almost as warm as a blanket. Many animals go to sleep during the colder weeks of winter. When an animal does this, we say that it hibernates. Chris and Penny will have to wait until spring to see their friend, the raccoon. But there are other animals they can see in winter, especially if they are quiet. Look, do you know what this animal is? It's a badger. In winter, its fur is much thicker than in summer, warm enough to protect it against even the coldest north wind. The badger does not hibernate. Even though it sleeps a great deal during cold weather, it needs to eat all winter long. Food is hard to find when the ground is covered with snow. So, the badger keeps on hunting. Now Chris and Penny have seen another animal. Do you know its name? It's a skunk. It doesn't hibernate either. And like the badger, it grows a thick coat to keep it warm in winter. When Penny and Chris see a skunk, they don't get too close to it. A skunk may defend itself by spraying a liquid that has a very bad smell. Did the skunk spray Penny and Chris? No, they're all right. We're more apt to see a skunk in winter than in summer because in winter it may come close to our homes hunting for food. We like skunks because they eat mice, insects, and other animals that damage farmers crops. But what about Bucky the deer? Chris and Penny are in the thicket where they hope to find him. They know he likes to look for food here where the trees grow close together. And if they are quiet, they may. There it's Bucky. He's alive and well. He looks as if he's been getting plenty to eat. Although in winter he has a hard time finding food, too. But he eats tree buds and bark. And he can kick away the snow on the ground to eat grass and plants. Are you wondering why Bucky doesn't have antlers? Well, if we look very closely at the top of his head, we can see the spots where his antlers once grew. Every autumn, deer lose their big antlers. They drop off soon. Now, Bucky will start growing new antlers, as big as the ones he had before. Well, Penny and Chris are happy that Bucky is all right, that he has enough to eat, and they're pleased that they've seen so many other animals today. As Penny and Chris walk home, let's leave them now and think about some of the animals we've seen. We've seen that some birds fly south for the winter to places where they can find more food. Birds who make this long trip, we say, migrate. We've seen other birds that stay through the winter. We can help them by putting out food for them to eat. We saw a snowshoe rabbit in his snowy white coat. Animals whose coats change in winter are hard to see. Their enemies can't find them. We came to a tree branch that was the winter home of a raccoon. Inside, the raccoon was fast asleep. Many animals hibernate in winter. Then we saw a badger in its thick winter coat searching for food. We saw a skunk and we learned that in winter animals have to look harder for something to eat. At last we saw Bucky and learned that he too has ways of finding food in winter. We know that the animals in the woods are well and that all of them have ways of finding food and staying warm when the snow comes in winter.