The mountainous home of Japanese macaques is completely covered with snow in winter and, with their thick winter coat these monkeys are able to survive winter temperatures of -15C and snow more than 1m deep. Food is scarce and they survive off their fat store, supplemented with any tree buds they can find and by chewing on relatively un-nutritious bark.
Weddell seals are the southernmost naturally occurring mammals on Earth and, when the sea ice freezes over during the Antarctic winter, they must maintain breathing holes, scraping away the ice with their canine teeth and incisors as it refreezes. They can dive 720m and stay underwater for up to 80 minutes.
Wolves can adapt to very cold climates and keep warm in winter because they have two coats of fur. They can happily sleep in blizzards under the snow. There is a thick, downy undercoat for insulation while an overcoat of long, guard hairs repels water and snow. The undercoat sheds in the spring and grows back again in the fall and winter.
The arctic fox is found in treeless coastal areas of Alaska and develops a thick, warm white coat in the winter. It has fur on its footpads so that it can travel on the snow and ice-hunting for prey. In the winter, the fox follows polar bears hoping to eat leftovers, but hopes not to become a bear meal itself.
In winter when the Arctic tundra is covered in ice, caribou move to the forests in the south. It is a harsh time for the caribou and not all will survive, but, warmed by their dense fur coats, they dig craters in the snow to find plants to eat.
Emperor penguins breed in the heart of the Antarctic winter when temperatures reach -60C – cold enough to make human skin freeze and teeth crack. They waddle and toboggan for up to 60km across the frozen sea to reach their breeding colonies, where they huddle tightly together to keep warm.
Unlike its rainforest cousins, the kea is a parrot of the mountains – the world’s only alpine parrot. Found only in the southern Alps of New Zealand it can be seen in winter searching for berries beneath the snow. But, since people and livestock moved into their habitat, some rogue keas have found a new source of high energy protein – sheep!
The polar bear – like many cold-climate animals – is much bigger than its bear relatives living in warmer lands. An adult male can weight a ton and stand 10ft tall on its hind legs. The polar bear’s main prey are seals and it spends most of its time at sea, either on ice floes or in the water, hunting.
The mountainous home of Japanese macaques is completely covered with snow in winter and, with their thick winter coat these monkeys are able to survive winter temperatures of -15C and snow more than 1m deep. Food is scarce and they survive off their fat store, supplemented with any tree buds they can find and by chewing on relatively un-nutritious bark.
Weddell seals are the southernmost naturally occurring mammals on Earth and, when the sea ice freezes over during the Antarctic winter, they must maintain breathing holes, scraping away the ice with their canine teeth and incisors as it refreezes. They can dive 720m and stay underwater for up to 80 minutes.
Wolves can adapt to very cold climates and keep warm in winter because they have two coats of fur. They can happily sleep in blizzards under the snow. There is a thick, downy undercoat for insulation while an overcoat of long, guard hairs repels water and snow. The undercoat sheds in the spring and grows back again in the fall and winter.
The arctic fox is found in treeless coastal areas of Alaska and develops a thick, warm white coat in the winter. It has fur on its footpads so that it can travel on the snow and ice-hunting for prey. In the winter, the fox follows polar bears hoping to eat leftovers, but hopes not to become a bear meal itself.
In winter when the Arctic tundra is covered in ice, caribou move to the forests in the south. It is a harsh time for the caribou and not all will survive, but, warmed by their dense fur coats, they dig craters in the snow to find plants to eat.
Emperor penguins breed in the heart of the Antarctic winter when temperatures reach -60C – cold enough to make human skin freeze and teeth crack. They waddle and toboggan for up to 60km across the frozen sea to reach their breeding colonies, where they huddle tightly together to keep warm.
Unlike its rainforest cousins, the kea is a parrot of the mountains – the world’s only alpine parrot. Found only in the southern Alps of New Zealand it can be seen in winter searching for berries beneath the snow. But, since people and livestock moved into their habitat, some rogue keas have found a new source of high energy protein – sheep!
The polar bear – like many cold-climate animals – is much bigger than its bear relatives living in warmer lands. An adult male can weight a ton and stand 10ft tall on its hind legs. The polar bear’s main prey are seals and it spends most of its time at sea, either on ice floes or in the water, hunting.