When you are snug and warm in your homes during the cold winter evenings with your cats basking by the fire and your dog beside you, spare a thought for the animals outside. Our British winters can be bitterly cold and this is therefore a tough time for wild mammals.
Mammals can adopt one of two strategies in order to survive.
They can either migrate or hibernate. Migration involves long distance and temporary travel away from our shores to avoid the harsh winter. The migrants return the following spring. Hibernating animals essentially reduce all their metabolic activities and enter into a deep sleep. The decrease in temperature and food sources associated with winter triggers hibernation or migration.