In many ways, both plants and animals slow down in winter.  Many trees drop their leaves throughout Autumn,  diverting any useful materials to storage in the roots or stem.  Herbaceous plants may wither and die, passing the coldest months as seeds, whilst others overwinter as bulbs, corms or rhizomes. Simliar strategies are seen animals.  Some species enter in to a state of torpor, for example some butterfly adults.  Whilst insects, interrupt their life cycle spending the winter in an immature or arrested state of development [or diapause], such as an egg or pupa.  Others animals pass the cold, winter months in a state of brumation.  This is seen mainly in amphibians and reptiles; it is not dissimilar to hibernation, which is seen in some species of mammals.  During brumation, the heart and respiratory rate fall, and the animal becomes relatively inactive and ‘hidden away’.  However they are still relatively aware of their surroundings and environment and periodically wake up to drink or eat, or indeed bask in the sun if there is a warm interlude. Hibernation on the other hand is seen in some bats, rodents and bears.  Hibernation is not as simple as the animal ‘going to sleep’, it involves profound changes in their physiology.  A number of hormones are involved, for example melatonin, insulin and thyroxin - their combined effect is to lower the metabolic rate.  One animal that goes into hibernation is the hazel dormouse.  [caption id="attachment_37873" align="aligncenter" width="640"] A Hazel Dormouse that has made a nest in a bird box[/caption] It forms a ‘nest’, made out of leaves, bits of bramble etc or it may find a hidden, sheltered place in the roots of trees.  Whilst hibernating they are at risk of predation by foxes, wild boars, owls and domestic cats, if the nest is discovered. If a dormouse has not accumulated enough fat reserves then it will simply run out of energy during the cold weather. It has been estimated that a dormouse loses about 0.5% of its body weight every day during hibernation. They enter into full hibernation when the weather is particularly  harsh.  The recent milder winters have ‘done them no favours’.   Come the Spring, they awaken and forage for food in trees and hazel thickets, feeding on flowers, fruits (e.g. blackberries), insects (aphids, caterpillars) and mature nuts. Their diet changes with the seasons, they are successional feeders. Their habitat of deciduous woodland and hedgerows must offer a variety of woody shrub and tree species to ensure a constant supply of food. Honeysuckle, oak, bramble and hazel are important sources of food to them.  Recent DNA analysis of their droppings identified some 40 species of plants and four species of insect (Lepidoptera and Diptera). Woodlands TV has produced a film about the hazel dormouse - which can be viewed below. [embed]https://youtu.be/COUh5ZluEew?si=xliXKZ7jmj_bhwEJ[/embed] This film was made in collaboration with the People’s Trust for Endangered Species (PTES). More information on the PTES’ monitoring and conservation of hazel dormice can be accessed by clicking here, Note that a licence is required for handling these special animals, details in this link :- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hazel-dormice-survey-or-research-licence-level-1. WoodlandsTV 86.6k subscribers Conservation and Monitoring of Hazel Dormice (part 1) Interesting fact : Though Ireland has no native dormouse, the hazel dormouse was found in County Kildare in 2010.

If bumblebees are exposed to heat stress during their development (they go through four stages : egg / larva / pupa / adult or imago) their bodies develop asymmetries.  The wings in particular are affected, so the left and right wing are shaped differently.  This asymmetry can be measured and has been used by a team from the Natural History Museum and Imperial College to investigate how changing climate over time has affected bees. They investigated four species of bumblebee [Bombus hortorum, B. lapidarius, B. pascuorum and B. muscorum] in museum collections that dated back to 1900 CE.  The bees were ‘held’ in collections at various museums  [Natural History Museum (London), National Museums Scotland (Edinburgh), Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Trust (Carlisle) and World Museum (Liverpool)].   [caption id="attachment_38920" align="alignleft" width="300"] Landing[/caption] Using digital images of many bees collected at different times over the last 130 years, they measured the asymmetry of their wings.  The data from these measurements were then correlated with information about annual rainfall and mean annual temperature in the year the bee was collected.  It became clear that wing asymmetry was associated with hotter and wetter years; and that each of the bee species displayed greater asymmetry, hence stress, in the second half of the twentieth century.  As hotter and wetter conditions are predicted to become more frequent with climate change, it is probable that bumblebees will experience greater stress, indeed they may be in for a ‘rough time’ as this century progresses. Apart from investigating wing asymmetry, the team used a leg from some of the historical specimens to analyse the DNA / genetic make-up of the bumblebees (B. lapidarius).   With the DNA data from these bees (dating aback over a century),  the Natural History Museum and the Earlham Institute were able to construct a ‘reference genome’ - a standard against which they can see how bee genomes change over time.  This may ultimately reveal how bees are adapting (or not) to a changing climate / environment.