Surviving a Cold Snap

Surviving a Cold Snap

21/04/09 | Research

Surviving a Cold Snap

15 minute read –
This is Part 3 of a 4 part series by guest author and ecologist, Joshua Robertson on how wildlife at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve stays warm (thermoregulates) in the winter. Read Part 1: Staying Warm in the Yukon and Part 2: Winter Heat Losses.

Preface

A few weeks ago, my partner and I had the beautiful fortune to welcome a baby into our family. For me (and my partner), the birth of this baby has meant stepping into the joyous and mystifying waters of parenthood for the very first time. Quite simply, we’re exhilarated. And like most first-time parents, we’re also, perhaps, a touch naive. Despite months of preparative reading and numerous discussions with other early parents, hardly a few hours had passed after his birth when questions began to percolate. How long should feedings last? Is co-sleeping preferable to sleeping separately? And the question most influenced by my career biases: how can we tell if our baby is sufficiently warm, or overheating?

Josh standing outside in snow with his new baby.
Upon realising the absolute dependence of our child on external help, the last of these questions noticeably shook me. For many years, I had viewed thermoregulation through an admittedly narrow lens. I contextualised the costs of warming and cooling in endotherms as manageable. True, I had acknowledged that such costs were often substantial, but I also coloured this acknowledgement with an all-too-human optimism bias. For example, crossbills can spend enormous amounts of energy on warming in the winter (often doubling their energy expenditure from summer to winter), but we still see crossbills persisting regularly through the worst of the season. So, my subconscious told me, why not ignore the situations where managing costs of warming isn’t possible?
Curiously, facing the decision of how to clothe our child allowed me to temporarily silence certain optimism biases. The costs of clothing him improperly, and thus challenging his capacity to thermoregulate, were simply too large to ignore; they could mean losing him. To me, this was a rather disquieting thought. Yet the lethal toll of poor thermoregulation is what all warm-blooded animals (or “endotherms”) must face, and have faced, since their evolution millions of years ago. (Of course, a similar toll can apply to many cold-blooded animals, or “ectotherms”, that rely on thermoregulatory behaviours, such as sun-bathing, to survive). How equally disquieting!
Photo of crossbill foraging.
But why stew on such bleak thoughts at all? Why begin our discussion in this way? Well, in my opinion, doing so leads us to two interesting and useful conclusions:

  1. Extreme cold and extreme heat for many animals can be, and often is, a real threat to their survival, and,
  2. Facing this threat has paved the way for the evolution of some truly spectacular thermoregulatory strategies and capacities.

Evolution can be a brutal, yet wonderful process.

Thermoregulating in a Cold Snap

In this post, we’ll be taking a look at how certain endotherms at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve are challenged by cold snaps that would undoubtedly prove lethal to an unprepared human. In doing so, we’ll also take a look at how these animals compare to one another in their thermoregulatory strategies and capacities. If you’re like me, I think you’ll find the conclusions intriguing. So let’s put aside the sombre tone and see what findings emerge.

Now if you happened to read my last post (Winter Heat Losses), you’ll recall that to understand the costs of thermoregulation across certain Yukon-dwellers, Jake Paleczny (our Executive Director) and myself braved the January cold to capture infrared thermographic images of animals cared for at the Yukon Wildlife Preserve. With these images, we were able to quantify just how much heat animals were losing to the environment, and thereafter, estimate how much energy these animals would need to spend to compensate for their heat-loss. In doing so, we discovered that at -12°C, the average Moose might spend slightly less than one McDonald’s cheeseburger worth of energy on warming across a 4 hour period. By contrast, the average Thinhorn Sheep (or “Dall Sheep”) might spend about one and three quarters cheeseburgers in similar circumstances, and the average Muskox, around negative one half of a cheeseburger. And where did Jake fit in? We estimated his expenditure to be about one cheeseburger, despite wearing full winter gear. To top these findings off, we also discovered that if we were to scale the costs of warming according to usual daily energy expenditure in each animal, Jake would probably be spending more than each of the other observed animals on warming. All together, I’d say that these are some interesting findings. But remember, our observations were made at -12°C – hardly a real thermal challenge for Yukon natives (particularly for those in Old Crow, where record lows have reached nearly -60°C).
So what happens to costs of thermoregulation when a true challenge strikes? For example, what do costs of warming look like when temperatures fall below -30°C, as they did in Whitehorse during early February?  Below, I’ll do my best to answer that question. But first, I think it’s important that I remove some turbidity from our discussion. In our past discussion, my estimates of cheeseburger-use across animals were about as opaque as the Liard River. Indeed, some of you were likely wondering how such estimates were made at all, and how they might be prone to error. These are good things to wonder. So how were our estimates made after all? If the answer to that question doesn’t interest you, I’d recommend you skip a few paragraphs to get to our final findings below. For those who are interested, the next few paragraphs detail the path that myself (and other thermal biologists) would typically walk to understand how an animal is interacting with, and adjusting to, their thermal environment. A detailed description can also be found in one of my recent publications about black-capped chickadees.

Estimating the Cost of Thermoregulation

Before I begin, I’ll be honest and state that the manner by which I’ve estimated costs of thermoregulation may seem more convoluted than necessary. Actually, in some ways, it probably is more convoluted than necessary. But it does reflect standard practice in the field of thermal biology (for good reason), and it does provide opportunities to paint a fuller picture of what is happening across an animal at the time that an infra-red thermographic picture was captured. With that in mind let’s begin.

Thermal image of Thinhorn Sheep at 34c below 0c. Scale is in rads.
Let’s first return to an image of a handsome male Thinhorn Sheep, captured at -12°C (shown above). First, have a look at the scale bar on the top right of the image. You’ll notice that the range of values has changed substantially from those in our previous images. That’s because these values now represent the amount of infrared radiation (specifically, a subset of infrared radiation referred to as “long-wave” radiation) that the camera has detected at each pixel. Notice that these values are not in degrees Celsius, nor are they in any other unit of temperature. Rather, they represent units of energy per area (possibly kilowatts per meter squared, or “kW/m2”, however, the actual units are not disclosed by the camera producer). Remember, heat has the capacity to do work, so it can be measured in units of energy.  These values in kW/m2 are precisely what our infrared thermographic camera gives us – the next step is to figure out what they really mean for a specific object (our sheep).
Line drawing of energy sources and losses when taking thermal images.
To make sense of our energy measurements, we first need to acknowledge that the infra-red radiation striking our camera can come from a number of sources: our sheep, the molecules in the atmosphere, and, of course, the sun (either travelling directly to our camera, or by reflection from other objects like the surrounding snow or the sheep’s pelage). Furthermore, some of the infra-red radiation travelling toward our camera can, and will be, absorbed by molecules in the air (like water vapour) before reaching us. This means that if we wish to make any inferences about heat-loss from our sheep (indicated by the teal arrow in the diagram above), we’ll need to control for the heat produced by the sun and the environment, the amount of water vapour in the air, and the reflective capacity of the sheep’s fur. Thankfully, we can make pretty good guesses at these factors by looking at the temperature and humidity at the time we captured our image, and by drawing on measurements of fur reflectance in other animals. Once we’ve controlled for these values and followed what’s called “Planck’s Law”, we’re left with the beautiful image below.
Thermal image of Thinhorn Sheep at 12c below 0c. Scale is in degrees.
Notice that the values are now in units of temperature? A pretty good step forward!

Now what about the costs of heat-loss? To estimate this value, a little more calculation will be required. First, you may recall from high-school physics class that heat can be lost in any of three ways: conduction, convection, and radiation. The first method describes the transfer of heat from a solid object to another solid object (think of your lap after being warmed by a cat). By contrast, the other two methods described transfer of heat from a solid to a fluid, and to empty space (think of your hands after warming them by the fire). Estimating heat-loss by each method requires the use of several biophysical theories and equations (nicely summarised by Dominic McCafferty and others), but there are a few common and convenient threads running through them. For example, calculating heat-loss by each method requires knowledge of:

  1. The temperature differential; that is, how big the temperature difference is between the warm object and the “thing” that it is losing heat to,
  2. Resistance; that is, how much an object opposes heat flow (this value factors into properties of an object called the “heat transfer coefficient”, or “thermal conductivity”), and,
  3. Surface area; that is, how much space there is for heat to transfer between a solid object and the “things” it is in contact with.

If we think about it breifly, these values, or parameters, are actually quite intuitive. Big temperature differentials, like those Jake experienced between his body and the air, mean big heat losses. Similarly, low resistance and a large surface area, like those experienced by our large and poorly-insulated moose, also mean big heat losses. For our calculations of heat-loss, we can make strong guesses at resistance and temperature differential values by looking at previous studies on heat emission from biological tissues, and by – you guessed it – using the temperature values that we obtained from our thermal images.

But what about surface area? Now here’s where things can turn sour. Measuring the surface area of an animal can be extremely difficult, especially since the body shape of most animals hardly represents a simple geometrical shape. (As a quick thought experiment, imagine measuring the surface area of a human ear). This, then, is where error around our cheeseburger estimates mostly come in. Why? Because the best we can do is approximate with some simple shapes that are drawn to match known animal measurements – like in the image below.
Line drawing showing a sheep being represented by simple shapes for surface area estimation.
These approximations work, but aren’t perfect; that is, you could probably guess that the figure on the right is a sheep, but it certainly wouldn’t pass as one to another sheep (although if we were talking about poultry, the story might be different). With that in mind, I wouldn’t recommend betting a limb on our cheeseburger estimates. While our estimates likely do draw close to the true values we’d see in nature, they will, admittedly, stray by some moderate degree. This source of error is one that has plagued thermal biologists for quite some time, and even the more complex models still usually represent mammals as furry tubes (for example, see Porter and Kearney, 2009)
Now that we’ve cleared the Liard, let’s get back to heat-loss at the preserve during our cold snap.  Remember, we’re looking at how animals respond to temperatures below -30°C. Care to guess what this means for our temperature differentials?

Moose and Muskox at -34°c

To begin, let’s revisit a few candidates from last week: the Moose and Muskox (depicted below). Sadly, we weren’t able to capture any images of the Thinhorn Sheep during the cold snap, so we’ll have to leave that species to our imagination for today.

Thermal image of Moose deer at 34c below 0c.
Thermal image of Muskox at 34c below 0c.
If you recall from our previous discussion, our Moose and Muskox spent around one, and negative one-half cheeseburgers worth of energy on keeping warm at -12°C across four hours. So what does their expenditure look like during a true cold snap?
For the Moose, quite a bit different. At -34°C, our imaged Moose is likely spending about two whole  cheeseburgers on maintaining a constant body temperature across a four hour period. That’s a little over a two-fold increase from their expenditure at -12°C. As you can imagine, two whole cheeseburgers is quite a bit of energy to spend on warming, particularly when that energy is sourced from sparse patches of foliage. In nearby Alaska, Moose largely subsist on the twigs of various willow species throughout the winter months, including Feltleaf Willow, Diamondleaf Willow, and Greyleaf Willow (see Risenhoover, 1989). Surprisingly, previous studies have shown that Moose are able to extract a fairly high amount of energy from the tissue of these plants: approximately 5 calories/gram, or about the calorie density of mayonnaise for us humans. Nevertheless, at this calorie density, compensating for the energy needed to keep warm on a -34°C day would require our Moose to consume over half of a kilogram more plant tissue than usual. To put this value into perspective, that’s about all of the willow twigs in a 20 – 65 square meter area of suitable browsing habitat (which can be patchy in some places).
Line drawing showing a sheep being represented by simple shapes for surface area estimation.
If temperatures this low persisted for a long period of time (say, weeks), and suitable browse can’t be found, they could represent a very real threat to a Moose’s survivorship – particularly if energy is also being spent on evading possible predators. As we’ll see shortly, however, the degree of this threat actually pales in comparison to that faced by other, less equipped animals. But for now, what about our Muskox?
Amazingly, the amount of energy spent on warming in Muskox at -12 and -34°C remains virtually unchanged. In fact, our estimate suggests that our imaged Muskox is probably spending little to no extra energy on warming at -34°C, relative to average energy expenditure! If you find this result surprising (as I have), you’re not alone. In 2009, Munn and others obtained very similar results when monitoring Muskox in Alaska, and like us, express their appreciation. They quote:

Surface temperatures of muskoxen were only 5°C above ambient temperatures at -30°C, a testament to the substantial insulation provided by their coat…”

Okay, appreciation might be a strong word, but the above quote is probably the closest one can get to appreciation in terse scientific language.

Caribou and Arctic Fox: Cold Weather Specialists

So what about some other Yukon residents? And what about Jake? Next, let’s have a look at few other winter specialists: the Woodland Caribou and Arctic Fox (shown in the images below).

Thermal image of Caribou at 34c below 0c.
Thermal image of Arctic Fox at 34c below 0c.
From a quick glance at the image of our Caribou (on the left), we can already guess that thermoregulatory expenditure is this male is probably going to fall below that of the Moose. This makes sense, given that the Caribou “species complex” (that is, the aggregation of all Caribou variants) regularly ranges further north than the Moose. Moreover, Moose are thought to be relatively newer residents of the cooler Canadian north than Caribou, with Caribou arriving on the scene about 1.6 million years ago (closer to the beginning of the last ice age), and Moose about 15 thousand years ago (closer to the end of the last ice age; see Hundertmark and others, 2002, and Weckwork and others, 2012, for further reading). But just how much energy-savings do these advantages lead to for our Caribou? Surprisingly quite a bit! In fact, our calculations suggest that the imaged Caribou seems little influenced by -34°C temperatures, with expenditure toward warming reaching only one half of a cheeseburger across 4 hours of exposure. The most impressive part about this figure is that, if we extrapolate from studies of calves or adults of a closely related subspecies,  metabolic heat production in Caribou is actually lower in the winter than it is in the summer (see McEwen and Whitehead, 1970, and Nilssen and others, 1984). If you’re wondering how such low expenditure on warming could be achieved in this species, stick around for our final discussion post. There, I’ll do my best to answer how and why we see such variations in thermoregulatory expenditure across species.
And what about our Arctic Fox? Interestingly, estimating thermoregulatory expenditure in this species isn’t easy – particularly when compared with our Caribou and Muskox. As we can see from our thermographic image above, the majority of heat lost to the environment in this individual occurs at the legs. In the field of thermal biology, such sites of exacerbated heat-loss are often referred to as “thermal windows”. To help “close” these thermal windows and reduce their loss of energy in cold environments, Arctic Foxes commonly enwrap their legs with their large and well-insulated tail.
Photo of arctic fox in winter.
Photo of Arctic Fox in winter with tail wrapped around body.
During our cold-snap, using this type of enwrapment could result in a nearly 7-fold reduction in heat-loss across a four hour period. This means that the duration of time in which our Fox remained huddled will have a substantial influence on true expenditure toward warming. Sadly, without some chilly and prolonged observations, time spent huddling isn’t easy to estimate. But, to ensure that we’re drawing a somewhat realistic estimate of prolonged heat-loss in our Fox, I’ve assumed that half of its time was spent standing, and half of its time was spent huddling. Bearing that in mind, expenditure on warming in this individual amounts to… Only one human-sized bite (or one twentieth) of a cheeseburger across our 4 hour period! If we ignore tail-wrapping behaviour, we’re looking at approximately one third of a cheeseburger. A useful tail huh?

Bison and Mule Deer: Non-specialists?

Finally, to help us contextualize thermoregulatory expenditure in our specialists, I think it will be useful to compare their performance during our cold snap against some local “non-specialists”. (Note that I quote non-specialists here because when compared to an Ocelot or Marsh Widowbird, the below species are truly quite efficient. Nevertheless, the Yukon largely represents the northern end of each species’ range). Below are two infra-red thermographic images of a few conspicuous species meeting this criteria: the Wood Bison (left) and Mule Deer (right).

Thermal image of Bison at 34c below 0c.
Thermal image of Mule deer at 34c below 0c.
The Bison species complex is certainly not naive to colder climates. Rather, current genetic studies suggest that they’ve likely been hanging around northern North America for about 150 thousand years (see Froese and others, 2017). The curious problem with this species complex, however, is that the most northerly-living, and probably the most cold-adapted species grouping (the Wood Bison), suffered considerably declines from over-hunting in the past 5 centuries. By the late 1800s, population size estimates of the Wood Bison fell dangerously to approximately 300 remaining individuals. To help revitalize the population of Wood Bison, several individuals from the more southerly-dwelling species grouping (the “Plains Bison”) were moved north to the Wood Bison range, therefore increasing genetic diversity and the size of the breeding population. Thankfully, this revitalization effort was a spectacular success. A consequence of this effort, however, may have been the loss or dilution of certain cold-adapted traits. So, despite many years in North America, we might expect that efficiency of warming in the Wood Bison probably falls slightly short of other large and sympatric mammals. As for the Mule Deer, we can certainly expect that efficiency of warming falls short of other large mammals. Unlike the Caribou, Moose, and even Bison, this species is actually more adapted to warmer climates, and likely arrived in the Yukon as recently as 50 years ago owing to a warming climate (see Boonstra and others, 2018).
For the Wood Bison, our estimates suggest that expenditure on warming likely sits around two and a half cheeseburgers in our four hour period. And the Mule Deer? Approximately one and a half cheeseburgers! Confusing? See below.
Now, for the sake of time, let’s cut to the chase. Where does the cost of warming in our cold-snap sit for our non-specialists compared to our specialists?

Comparing Specialists and Non-specialists

Overall, these values do seem to suggest higher expenditure in our non-specialists when compared with our specialists. If we wish to make meaningful conclusions from these values, however, we’ll need to make one important adjustment: scale our estimates of thermoregulatory expenditure against usual daily expenditure (as we discussed in our last last discussion). So far, we’ve quantified the absolute amount of energy each of our observed animals would need to spend to maintain a constant body temperature in the cold. But each of these animals will already be consuming vastly different quantities of stored energy. So by comparing these absolute values among animals, we’re effectively comparing bananas to shoes (or Whitehorse to Destruction Bay); they’re incomparable. To solve this problem, we’ll need to look at relative expenditure toward warming. To follow what I mean here, take a look at the diagram below.

Two bar graphs showing absolute and relative energy use of 6 species of Yukon wildlife.
In the upper plot, we can see our cheeseburger estimates depicted in plot form. From this plot, we might be led to believe that the Wood Bison wins our award of the least efficient thermoregulator of our observed animals. Congratulations Wood Bison! Additionally, this plot may also lead us to believe that expenditure toward thermoregulation in cold-snaps doesn’t vary that much across Yukon mammals. However, once we represent expenditure toward thermoregulation as a percent increase in usual energy expenditure (the lower plot above), a new and more accurate picture begins to emerge. Here, we can see that relative expenditure toward thermoregulation does vary quite significantly across Yukon animals. Furthermore, we can also see that our least efficient thermoregulator is truly the Mule Deer, not the Wood Bison. In fact, compensating for heat loss during our cold snap likely required our Wood Bison to increase it’s energy expenditure by only 24%, while a similar compensation in our Mule Deer likely required a 135% increase in energy expenditure. To be clear, that’s an over-doubling of energy expenditure in the Mule Deer during a cold snap! Notably, long-lasting cold spells of this intensity could lead to serious survival risks for this species.
But we’re missing something in our plots and discussion: where do we humans fit in?

But what about us humans?

From experience, we know that even in full winter clothing, -34°C can be very uncomfortable. And using our imagination, we can also assume that removing our winter gear in such cold weather is a dangerous endeavour. So what does this discomfort and danger mean for our energy expenditure?

Thermal image of Jake wearing a coat beside a Muskox at 34c below 0c.
Thermal image of Jake without a coat beside a female caribou at 34c below zero.
To answer that question: enter Jake. In the left image above, we can see Jake kneeling beside a resident male Muskox while donning winter attire suitable for the cold-snap. Even in such winter attire, we can see that Jake is almost certainly losing more heat to the environment than the adjacent Muskox. In the right image, our Muskox has been replaced with a resident female Caribou and Jake has bravely shed his outer jacket. Need I comment on relative expenditure? But, beyond our Muskox and Caribou, how does he stack up against our other observed species?
Bar graph showing relative energy use of wildlife and humans in Yukon.
Thought the Mule Deer was inefficient? As I mentioned before, evolution can be a wonderful process. Clearly, generations of outdoor living can lead to some impressive capacities to tolerate extreme weather. In my next and last post, we’ll discuss just how such capacities are achieved, and what they mean for species persistence in a rapidly changing world. But for now, I’ll leave you with a few pieces of information to think about:

  1. Although eating plenty of cheeseburgers might improve one’s comfort at -34°C, doing so wont keep hypothermia at bay if one remains unclothed. Rather, the extent to which any animal can elevate it’s metabolic rate is limited, regardless of how much food they eat. In humans, that limit seems to fall fairly close to the increase we might have seen in Jake if he were able to maintain a constant body temperature without his jacket. However, that limit appears only to be reached in extreme and long-lasting sporting competitions, such as the Tour de France.
  2. Adaptations to persist in cold have undoubtedly been helpful for surviving winters in the Yukon, but there is a second side to this coin: a loss of tolerance to warm weather and a bigger battle to face when coping with climate change.

Our Muskox and Arctic Fox might have an interesting future ahead of them.

Joshua Robertson

Joshua Robertson

Behavioural and Physiological Ecologist

Joshua is a behavioural and physiological ecologist currently living on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. During his PhD at Trent University, Joshua sought to understand how small birds can cope with the high costs of body temperature regulation when challenged with other environmental stressors (such as human and predator exposure). He is currently extending the research to better understand energy management strategies in warm-blood animals.

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The Boreal Forest – A Life Source

The Boreal Forest – A Life Source

21/04/02 | Wildlife

The Boreal Forest – A Life Source

11 min read –

A key feature of the Yukon’s geography is the Boreal Forest. The Boreal forest grows around the Earth located exclusively in Northern Hemispheres at latitudes between the Arctic Circle and 50° North. 1https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreal_forest_of_Canada Also known as “taiga”, a Russian word which simply means swampy, moist forest. The Boreal forest turns to tundra and eventually ice as you travel further north. But not all Boreal forest is wet and swampy, that which grows in areas with good drainage such as mountain slopes ensure a variety of tree species as each finds the optimum conditions to grow and flourish.

Yukon’s Boreal Forest: is about 115 million acres (47 million hectares) in size which is larger than all of Sweden.2 https://www.borealbirds.org/province-territory-boreal-forest-facts/Yukon  Yukon’s portion of the national boreal forest contains a mix of coniferous and deciduous tree species.  The forest is dominated by White Spruce and Lodgepole Pine along with Trembling Aspen and Balsam, Poplar and Willow tree species. Each of these form a mosaic across the landscape in groves of deciduous trees populating a few hectares here and there among a vast expanse of evergreens, the result of millions of years of alteration influenced by wildfires, floods, glaciers and plant evolution….humans have also altered the forest.

Photo credit: Yukon Government

Of course millions of animals make their homes in the Boreal forest primarily for the shelter protection and varieties of foods that are produced there. Forests are critical habitats to promote and maintain biodiversity largely because of the huge variety of habitat types found in most northern forests.

Within the forest there are various sized grasslands, creeks, rivers, lakes and swamps and rock outcroppings as well as mountain ranges, and large areas of low growing vegetation and bushes – many that produce nutritious fruit each year. New plant species are advancing northward as the climate changes encouraging new animal species to follow the foods they depend on, and our biodiversity expands in both flora and fauna. Many plant seeds are carried in the waste of migratory birds. When they poop, they deposit seeds that will grow and multiply if all the required growing conditions are present for that species of plant.

Photo credit: Jake Paleczny

It’s no wonder birds and small animals are drawn to forests as they provide a wide selection of food types and locations for nests and dens to be built. Like other habitat types, the forest is a diverse community which includes a huge collection of insect species, birds, rodents and fur-bearing mammals. Not restricted to the ground and under it for the needs to maintain their lives, the creatures in the forest live in three dimensions as the trees offer additional options for food gathering, escape from predators and the opportunity to build nests high above the ground. 

The forest supports a variety of creatures that thrive within its protective environment compared to other habitat types. One of these is the Northern Flying Squirrel which are nocturnal and unlike Red Squirrels, are very sociable. Several adults may feed in a group and nests are often located close together in the safety of the evergreen trees. Often when cold a number of Flying Squirrels will huddle together in one nest. With the loose skin that stretches from wrist to ankle, the squirrels glide for a distance as they fall, but they can’t actually fly.  

Photo Credit: iNaturalist Jukka Jantunen 

A primary function of the forests is to provide cooling shade for animals when the sun is shining and the temperature climbs higher. 3https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/02/070212182026.htm The moose here at the Preserve demonstrate this during the warmer days of summer, and usually when there are visitors who have come to see them. A large dark coloured animal like a moose will seek the comfort of the shade provided by the trees whenever the sun’s heat becomes uncomfortable for them. Like most creatures covered in fur or hair, they do not perspire to regulate their body temperature. Instead they pant where they shed body heat through respiration using their mouths and nostrils. The velvet-covered antlers and the large ears of moose also dissipate body heat well, and they like a refreshing swim in the water to cool off too. So the next hot summer day you visit with us here at the Preserve, be prepared to go look for the moose at the shady forested end of their habitat-  that’s where they will be if they aren’t splashing and playing in the marsh pond.

Photo credit:Lindsay Caskenette

The Boreal forest also modifies the cold winter weather where it acts as a barrier to quell the harsh north wind when it blows. It can also act as a barrier in some settings to limit the amount of snowfall in the leeward side of the forest which can enhance winter grazing for some animals. Trees retain some radiant heat from the sun and can moderate the temperatures within their local area overnight. The interior area of a forest may be warmer or colder than the area surrounding it depending on wind and how it is mixing through the trees, these wind influences change as snow or new spring vegetation covers the ground seasonally. 

The tree tops provide observation platforms for birds of prey that scout the surrounding area seeking food. Tree tops are also a favoured place for male birds to sing their mating songs in the spring trying to attract a mate. Some birds have adapted to living within the forest where they hunt among the trees. The Great Horned Owl is one of the larger raptor species that has evolved short wide wings that allow it to fly silently between the trees with remarkable agility and speed as it hunts for hares, birds, squirrels and mice.4 https://abcbirds.org/bird/great-horned-owl/ Many other bird species make a living in the forests as it provides all that they need for protection, nutrition and raising a family of young. Some years are better than others for food and weather thereby encouraging nesting pairs of some bird species to lay and hatch two clutches of eggs per season, before they migrate south once again.

Photo credit: From Left, Lindsay Caskenette &  Jake Paleczny

Other birds like the many migratory songbird species that arrive each spring find a suitable location for them to build a nest and raise a family. Some birds nest on the ground such as grouse and even some songbirds, while others find an elevation in the bush and trees that suits their needs for camouflage, temperature, light and wind exposure, observation and the all-important ability to escape from predators.

Birds are often found eating the spiders, ants and other insects that make their homes on the trees. Seeds and nuts are also produced in volume stimulating Red Squirrels to harvest them and cache them away for their over-winter food needs. They also gather mushrooms and dry them on tree limbs to augment their winter diet. Like mice in the grasslands, Red Squirrels also build middens out of grass in the trees as well as burrows under the ground for their shelter and food storage needs over the winter season as they do not hibernate. Near these shelters you will often find their cache of pine cones and mushrooms stuffed under a fallen tree trunk or in holes at the base of a tree. Nearby will be a substantial pile of pine cone husks indicating a favourite safe place for the squirrel to take a meal.

Photo credit: Doug Caldwell

Some older dead deciduous trees become the home for woodpeckers such as the Northern Flicker, Three-toed, Downey and Sap-sucker varieties. Chickadees, bluebirds and similar small birds will also take shelter in abandoned tree holes throughout the spring and summer breeding seasons.

From Left to Right: Yellow Warbler, Mountain Blue Bird, Downy Woodpecker, Western Wood Peewee
Photo credit: Jake Paleczny

There are times when the forests need to be rejuvenated after years of growth during which time underbrush and dead vegetation accumulate on the forest floor where it may smother the ground cover and negatively impact on other vegetation species important for the health of the forest. Pine needles, years’ worth of leaves and old grass on the forest floor is called ‘duff’ and it is the tinder that catches fire easily and spreads as the breezes move it to leaning dead trees often called ‘ladder fuels’ where the fire climbs to greater heights into the canopy of the forest to be fanned by the winds promoting more heat and eventually becoming a fully engaged forest fire.5 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/02/200224165303.htm 

Photo credit: Yukon Government

Some forest fires may grow to a size where they create their own weather systems where they influence the amount of heat that is produced and retained and the amount of wind generated by the chimney effect of the burning vegetation. The wind is a critical influence in the fire as it advances randomly over the land. A fire may burn in chaotic fingers creating a pattern of burned and unburned areas. This is a benefit for animals firstly by providing a safer place for them to escape to during the fire’s initial burning. After the fire these patchworks of vegetated areas provide much needed grazing, berry growth and other foods to be found. It works as old growth and new growth mix the vegetation types creating a greater blend of plants on the land resulting in a healthier forest meadow for animals to graze.

The forest heals itself quickly after a fire. Plant ash acts like a fertilizer when rain falls on it causing a rich blend of important nutrients to leach into the ground and the roots of live vegetation stimulating their growth. 6https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/0098847279900091#:~:text=Ash%20leaching%20studies%20showed%20that%20plant%20ash%20acts,of%20moistening%20and%20drying%2C%20and%20freezing%20and%20thawing Fireweed and tender young willow shoots begin to grow among the burnt pine forests promoting hares, moose and other deer species to visit these areas. Bees and other insects will gather in these areas to pollinate the many emerging new plants and collect the pollen needed to sustain them.

Photo credit: (L) – JB the Moose enjoys fireweed in her diet, Maria Hallock (R) Frosty fall fireweed, Jake Paleczny

Perhaps the most amazing fire adaptation is that some species like the Lodgepole Pine, actually require fire for their seeds to germinate. In just a few short summers, forest regrowth will once again be attractive to birds and other small creatures to make it a home for them once again. For a few years following a forest fire, varieties of edible mushrooms like the Pine and ever-popular Morels grow in abundance prompting a human invasion into the black and sooty forest in search of these delicious fungi.

Photo credit: Yukon Government

Cold climate conditions of the north and reduced sunlight over the winter months results in shorter growing seasons which have a tremendous influence on how slowly trees in the Boreal forest grow. Evergreens are typically thinner but tall and spindly. Deciduous trees do well but their limbs often suffer from excessive weight when covered in snow and will break off.

Many creatures take shelter in the forested areas over the winter. Deer can be found avoiding the wind and the deeper snow which impedes their ability to find good grazing, Fur bearing animals like Pine Marten, weasels, lynx, foxes and more will make a forest area a home base as they patrol around their regular hunting areas in search of food returning to their winter dens at night or when temperatures become extreme.

A lack of water and sunlight over the winter when the ground is frozen also contributes to the grow-wait-grow cycle causing many northern plants and trees to go dormant over the winter months. Dormant meaning: They cease to grow new buds or grow in size, but they are still very much alive, just slowed down. The sap does not freeze in the wintertime in some tree species as they have natural antifreeze properties, however, there may be some freezing under -40 C or colder and then some trees will get so-called frost cracks due to expansion of the ice in the tree bark’s Cambium layer depending on their water content.

A common disease in the Boreal forest is Black Canker. 7https://www.agr.gc.ca/eng/agriculture-and-climate/agricultural-practices/agroforestry/diseases-and-pests/scab-and-black-canker-of-willow/?id=1367429536020 It is caused by the fungus Glomerella miyabeana in willow trees. Leaves that develop irregularly shaped spots are the first sign that a tree may be suffering from black canker. The spores are transported to different parts of the tree and to surrounding trees by insects. Black canker is present in some of the trees here at the Preserve. Your best viewing of Black Canker is near the Sheep/Caribou habitat on the trees near the road.

Photo credit: Jake Paleczny

The spring melt brings a welcomed respite and all drink deep when the melt water is flowing once again over the land and through their roots prompting new buds to emerge and the tree’s growth to begin once again.

The mixed Boreal forest has evolved to become one of the planet’s most important geographic regions and is a critical sanctuary for maintaining biodiversity of both flora and fauna. Additionally, the great forest consumes huge amounts of carbon dioxide which helps to moderate climate change. The Canadian Boreal emerged at the end of the last Ice Age about 10,000 years ago, with coniferous tree species migrating north. The forest as we know it today in terms of biodiversity took shape about 5,000 years ago — a very short time ago in geological time scale.8http://www.rapidshift.net/15085-2/

The global warming trend threatens to in time, transform the boreal forest area into grassland, tundra, parkland, or temperate forest, introducing a significant new stimulus for species of both plants and animals to adapt once again.

Outbreaks of forest-destroying plagues have come in the form of spruce-bark beetles, aspen-leaf miners, larch sawflies, spruce budworms, and spruce cone worms — all of which have been worsening in recent years due in large part to the warming of the average ambient temperature and warmer winter seasons that do not winter-kill bug larvae.9https://tidcf.nrcan.gc.ca/en/insects/factsheet/2819 An increase in woodpecker species and populations has been observed as Nature seeks to find a balance to combat increasing insect numbers. Forest fires in areas ravaged by insect-damaged trees is  another of Nature’s ways of correcting this insect invasion.

Swainson’s Thrush
Photo credit: Jake Paleczny

Humans remain as one of the most influential factors to the continued health of our forests. Development for human needs displaces vast areas of forested wilderness as our communities grow and expand, the forest resources are exploited for human consumption, and our poor record of campfire use in the forest needs to improve if we hope to maintain healthy forests into the future.

Change is ever-present and on-going and the health of the  Boreal Forest will be a primary indicator of these changes as time passes. It will also remain as a vital habitat that supports a wide variety of evolving creatures and plant life which will demonstrate the continued health of the forest and in turn – the planet.

Doug Caldwell

Doug Caldwell

Wildlife Interpreter

Doug is one of the Interpretive Wildlife Guides here at the Preserve. An avid angler and hunter he has a broad knowledge of Yukon’s wilderness and the creatures that live here. With a focus on the young visitors to the Preserve, Doug takes the extra time to help our guests to better appreciate the many wonders of the animal kingdom here in the Yukon.

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