Our temperatures have continued to fluctuate, but our winter weather will eventually remain colder and the darkness will cause us to bundle up, keeping ourselves warm.

The days are gaining minutes of light in the morning and evening, but it will be a couple of months before we notice significant daylight. In the natural world, mammals and birds have adapted to ensure their survival during these months.

According to Michigan State University, the beginning of shorter daylight hours triggers responses in the hypothalamus, or “master gland,” prompting a reaction for animals to change their behavior by consuming more food to build up fat reserves, or storing a food cache for those lean days and growing thicker fur for added insulation.

Some groups, or herds of mammals and flocks of birds, can change locations, or migrate, traveling to an area that provides warmer temperatures and an abundance of food.

Changes in hours of daylight and the relationship of the sun to the earth all play an important role in determining the timing of migration.

Mammals like reindeer and elk travel in herds for protection. Patterns of the flight of birds, usually migrating in flocks, are mostly determined by changes in daylight and nighttime patterns of the moon and stars. This latitudinal migration can include many hundreds of miles, usually at night when there are less predators. Interestingly, flocks of birds also can anticipate each other’s movement, along with calling to each other in flight.

Migration is time-consuming and stressful for mammals and birds, using valuable energy while traveling, but this is one means of successful survival for food, shelter and warmer temperatures.

Hibernation, or long-term inactivity, is characterized by decreasing body temperature and pulse, conserving energy without either eating or drinking.

True hibernators such as bears and beavers curl up for warmth without expending energy unnecessarily, living off the fat they have consumed through the fall season, and having grown a thick coat of fur for added warmth. Raccoons, squirrels and chipmunks practice torpor, or a deep sleep during our coldest days, but without significantly lowering their temperature and respiration.

On warmer, sunny days, you may observe them scampering around searching for seeds either below bird feeders or dropped from last year’s flower heads. Rabbits also search around to find last year’s green plants to sustain them.

Finally, some animals have adapted to the cold through evolution, especially in deeply cold climates like in Canada and Alaska.

Larger than their relatives in the lower states, according to Michigan State University, their body mass-to-surface ratio is higher. An example of this adaptation are northern cold weather bears significantly larger than southern bears.

To maintain warmth, birds fluff their feathers to keep a layer of warm air close to them and will huddle together in tree cavities or nesting boxes.

Although we do not see them here, some mammals such as the snowshoe hare, weasel and ptarmigan change their brown summer color to white for camouflage.

Our amazing natural world has evolved and adapted to cold weather successfully, and we must also do the same for the next few months.

To learn more and for some activities to do with youth, visit https://go.osu.edu/winterbasedactivities

Kane Shipka is an Ohio State University Extension Master Gardener Volunteer in Mahoning County.