This appears fun for the otters, but is also a useful adaptation allowing them to travel over deep snow in search of food. Muskrats live in their lodges during the winter, but come out to forage for food. Their winter diet consists mainly of rootstocks of water plants like cattails, arrowhead, or pondweed. Other lake and pond animals leave during winter months. Frogs, who enjoy balmy shores in the summer, may retire to dens of dried leaves and rubble for the winter.
Turtles also migrate from the lake to burrows on land.
Insects may bury themselves below ground and enter diaphase, a resting stage where life's activities nearly stop. Although a bleak-looking expanse of white and cold blankets lakes and ponds during winter, these aquatic animals have learned to adapt and survive without the aid of Thinsulate mittens, fleece blankets, or a fish house to keep them warm. When the ice and snow melt in the spring, beavers, otters, muskrats, frogs, and turtles return to the lake water and enjoy warm sun and blue waters once again.