When the snow falls and winter hits, most animals are prepared. Some have food well-hidden for the cold months, while others take a very long nap. This is called hibernation. Still, some animals may decide to remain active still, which means that they may prove to be dangerous when encountered on the trail.
For the people who wish to hike during the winter, this information will come in handy especially if you wish to find out what animals you should expect to encounter on the trail, and which ones you can count off to be snoozing the season away or not as active as they are in other seasons.
While animal encounters on the trail aren’t plentiful already in other seasons, this number is reduced even more during winter. Still, it would do you well to be prepared of how certain animals that appear on the trail handle winter.
Bears
Probably the most known animal among hikers. Whether it’s through a personal encounter or hearing it from the experiences of other hikers, bears have a known reputation for getting, sometimes quite literally, up close with hikers on the trail. Even among seldom encounters, bears are usually likely the animals you would run into on a hiking trip.
These guys mean business. Their size isn’t just for show; they can easily crush a human through raw strength alone. If you try to tango with these beasts, you are not going to win without a weapon of some sort. At best, you can discourage it by hitting it in its weak spots (like the eyes) or using bear spray to make it flee, but in a straight-up fist fight, you will get thrashed hard.
But here’s the good news for all those who have found a newfound terrifying opinion on bears: They hibernate during the winter. That’s right, the big fuzzy brick wall of an animal will be snoozing away in its den for the season.
Well, most of the time at least. While it is true that most of them sleep in their dens throughout the season, it is not unheard of for them to rouse from their slumber and wander a bit inside or around their dens, if only to move their bodies and keep them from developing sores.
Still, they should rarely be a problem, as most of them will be out and asleep.
Wolves
Not as common an animal like bears while hiking on the trail, but still a potential cause for concern, nonetheless. Most species of wolves evolved to stay away from humans, as their ancestors have learned that humans have naturally destructive tendencies that these wolves would not want to be near at all.
Unlike bears, wolves do not hibernate during the winter, and stay active all winter, so you may have a higher chance of running into a wolf than a bear.
Moose
What makes these giant creatures distinctive are their large antlers. They also have a large body that is as tough as it looks.
Moose are not carnivores, and thus can be quite the sight to see during a hike. However, they are still wild animals, and can be dangerous when aggravated (this only usually happens when people invade its personal space).
Like wolves, moose do not hibernate when winter comes, as they have been fine-tuned to adapt to seasonal changes, especially in terms of behavior.
During winter, for instance, moose consume as much twigs as they can, which is usually the willow, birch, and/or aspen variety. As their food during winter provides less energy due to them being of lower quality, a moose needs to compensate by eating more.
Moose are also known to stay on cleared areas like roads, trails, or train tracks to conserve energy. This can make for quite the surprise for an unassuming hiker, but it can also be potentially dangerous for a driver and the moose who are out on the road.
Snakes
You’d recognize that slithering body wriggling all over the ground easily belonging to the that of a snake. They are not usually too big of a threat to hikers, as they can easily be avoided. Plus, snakes prefer to avoid humans anyways. They are only a danger if you are careless in your hiking trip, which, let’s be real, is going to be the least of your worries if you aren’t paying attention to where you are going.
Now, during the winter, snakes aren’t as active as they normally are, owing to their cold-blooded nature. This makes them lethargic to the overall colder temperature blanketing the area.
Around this time, snakes (and other reptiles as well) will enter the state of brumation, which is similar to hibernation in a sense.
What differs is the amount of sleep required; in some cases of hibernation, animals may sleep until the season goes away. Brumation, on the other hand, requires these reptiles to wake and forage for food and water when necessary.
This state makes it so that reptiles like snakes will not be going out and foraging for food as much during the winter to conserve energy, and since they are using less energy overall, they can usually go for much longer without food or water.
Bottom Line
Most animals that you would see on the trail are, as expected, off hibernating or conserving energy in one way or another, so you will not have to worry too much about being attacked by a random bear on the trail, as they will be too concerned about saving energy too wander around too much.
Just make sure to keep cautious still, because like always, there are exceptions, and you might find an animal or two wandering about.