Life in the last frontier
Alaska is the U.S.’s last frontier, with a little over a million square kilometres of wilderness and some of the hardiest animals on this planet. Alaskan seasons are fast and furious. Survival here means making the most of Nature’s gold rush. Here’s a run-down on some hardy animals that live here. As you read, try to solve the picture puzzles by sliding the squares to the right place.
Arctic Ground Squirrel
Arctic ground squirrels avoid the harsh weather and lack of food by escaping to underground burrows and slipping into a deep sleep for around eight months. Too small to face winter head-on, they nearly double their body weight before hibernation. They are awake only for around 12 days during the winter months. However, to make sure they don’t get any colder, they use reserves of brown fat, which is also called a heat spot, between their shoulder blades to keep themselves warm. It takes three hours for Arctic ground squirrels to fully warm up for hibernation.
Black Bear
As spring rolls, and the sun penetrates the deepest woods, the black bears emerge from hibernation. Most bears have their winter dens on the ground but black bears dig a hole high up inside a cottonwood tree, five metres above the forest floor. Trees are their refuge for their entire lives. They have strong claws and a natural instinct to climb. However, new cubs that are born inside the tree, are new to climbing. A fall from this height could possibly turn fatal. So a mother bear never leaves their side.
Sea Otter
Winter is never far away in the Arctic circle and all it takes is a change in the direction of wind. Life gets worse for sea otters as the mothers try to protect their new babies in the teeth of a sudden freeze. Sea otters have the thickest fur any animal could have, but the winter freeze can be deadly for the little ones, so the mother tries to find different ways to nurse them. The female tries to keep the baby otters warm and dry by constantly blowing air into their fur. The fluffier she can make it, the warmer they will be. With a baby to nurse, she needs to eat twice as much as normal.
Rufous hummingbird
In May, just when summer arrives, it brings with it a little visitor, a Rufous hummingbird. They travel 4000 miles all the way from Mexico to feed on Alaskan summer flowers. A Hummingbird weighs only 4 grams and after such a long flight, they exhaust most of their energy resources. For this, they get the help of another species called the red-breasted sapsuckers. These woodpeckers small holes into the bark of trees through which a sweet syrup leaks out. This attracts the hungry and clever hummingbird who use their brush-like tongues to feed on it.