While a blanket of snow may dampen the appearance of activity, there's still a lot going on under the snow-pack.
Subnivean tunnels like this one are a flurry of activity in the winter months. (Courtesy Sarah Walker)
This year marks ten years that this program has been on the air! With that in mind — and the record amounts of snow we’ve been having — I thought I’d revive one of my favorite episodes from our very first year.
The scene: A landscape blanketed in snow. Everywhere, silence. Life seems frozen. Until you enter: the sub-nivean zone!
Subnivean — a fancy word for “beneath the snow.” That’s where all the action is in our winter woods and fields. For the tiny creatures, anyway, who haven’t migrated, or gone into hibernation. Voles, mice, and shrews will spend the winter running around in tunnels they have created in and under the snow pack.
Living beneath the snow has its advantages: Better protection from the eyes of hungry hawks and owls and an insulating layer that can blanket a chilly rodent against the wind and cold. If it’s been a very white winter, these tiny mammals may not have to poke their pointy noses above the snow pack again until spring.
The downside is that weasels (well-known mouse-munchers) are also perfectly designed for wiggling down snow tunnels. And a sudden thaw can melt a subnivean zone into a no-nivean puddle in no time flat, leaving a vole very vulnerable. Or a deep, sudden freeze can turn all the subniveanites into mousesicles overnight.
But from the look of all the melting tunnels tracks I find under my bird feeders at the end of the winter — I’m guessing the mice and shrews in my neighborhood are calling for another round of ....
Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow.
