Island Life Magazine Ltd December/January 2018 | Page 84

Country life
w
Helping wildlife
through the winter
By Alice Ashcroft, Hampshire
& Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust
The winter months can be
very tough for wildlife. When
temperatures drop, so do survival
rates – without sufficient fat
reserves to keep warm, the chill
of winter is a death sentence, and
many birds and mammals do not
live to see the joys of spring.
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Some species, such as dormice, bats and hedgehogs,
wisely choose to sleep through the entire season, and
stay safely hidden within leaf piles, tree bark, compost
heaps and mud. They emerge from hibernation when
the air is warm and the land fruitful, picking up where
they left off last autumn.
Where sleeping through the winter isn’t an option,
hoarding can be equally effective. Squirrels and jays
collect nuts throughout the autumn and bury them
around their woodland homes, creating lots of little
pantries that they can return to when food is scarce.