Hi ! I’m Jules and I’m volunteering for GAIA organization for one year in Bozevce. I’m also a “naturalist”, meaning someone who studies animal and plant life, notably by going to the field to inventory biodiversity. During my stay here, I will share with you my observations of the biodiversity of Bozevce.
When winter comes, animals use different strategies to resist the cold and to find their food. Some species, notably birds, migrate towards south or towards lower elevation in order to find more food and warmer conditions. Others store fat, then hibernate until spring returns.
But some others species continue to be active troughout winter : it’s the case of fox (Vulpes vulpes), hare (Lepus europaeus), and to a lesser extent, badger (Meles meles).
In winter, foxes’ coats are denser, and they also have fur on their legs which allows them to resist the cold and snow. To feed, the fox will mainly hunt rodents and rabbits, using hearing to detect them under the snow or in their burrows. The fox will also hide some of its prey to consume it later.
Hares will also modify their alimentation and eat twigs, buds and bark when their usual food, grass and herbs, become scarce or unavailable. Badgers, on the other hand, don’t hibernate but greatly reduce their activities during winter. They will survive on their fat store made during autumn, and on earthworms, that they find while burrowing in the unfrozen ground.
These three species are present in Bozevce and we use camera traps to record them. A camera trap is a camera that is automatically triggered when something move in front of it. It’s a very useful device because it operate continually and silently, provide proof of species present in an area, and don’t disturb wildlife.
To finish on a less optimistic notes, climate change disturbs and modifies strategies of animals and plants to cope with winter: some species don’t migrate anymore, invasive species are better able to survive winter and to spread to new areas, food webs are disrupted and out of sync because plants bloom too early or insects emerge too early, some species even die from cold or hunger because less snow (which protect species that hibernate from cold) means more rain, which can block access to food when it freeze…
Permaculture as a Path to Peace 