“With the coming of winter, the weather grows much colder and food becomes scarce for many animals. They have three possible survival strategies in winter: hibernate, migrate, or tolerate, or sometimes a combination of these. Cold-blooded animals descend into a form of hibernation called brumation, where their body temperature and metabolism decline and most bodily functions cease as ambient temperature falls. On the other hand, warm-blooded mammals and birds have thermoregulating processes that generate body heat internally, maintaining a set body temperature despite the variation in the outside temperature. While this works up to a point, with extreme exposure, the animal’s muscles begin to shiver to generate extra heat. Past that point, uncontrolled hypothermia sets in, and the body’s temperature drops, which could be lethal.   A chickadee only weighs about 11 grams, or roughly the weight of a ballpoint pen. At first, it might seem unlikely that such a small bird with a high metabolism could find enough energy to stay warm in winter. Indeed, a chickadee has a rather slim margin for survival. Yet, somehow, many of them manage to survive in temperatures even lower than 40 degrees below zero at night.” To learn how chickadees survive through the winter and reshape their brains to adapt to the cold, follow the link in bio and read the full article written by @shanemorrison47 for the current edition of the #RanchlandsReview.