But the hardy and the shrewd have developed effective food- gathering strategies that carry them until spring. Wily ravens work the trash bins and parking lots for scraps, while small birds search frantically for seeds. Moose convert summer bingeing into fat, then browse groves of dwarfish trees in the parks. Squirrels stash bushels of cones. Voles forage through a network of tunnels in the world between ground and snowpack.
Beavers are far more direct.
After the ice forms, they have a winter's supply of food just a 15-foot swim from home, Keech said. But the technique isn't foolproof. In the wild, such beavers often become prey for wolverines or other predators. In Anchorage, they might just starve, Keech said. But beavers don't always emerge because they must.