Melting Ice Reveals Hidden Subnivean World

 As the snow melts away from our 40-50 degree temperatures this week, The subnivean (Under Snow) tunnels made by one of the 8 rodents I've seen on our property are exposed. It's incredible to think that all this time, there have been networks of tunnels under the snow. They can't burrow through the soil and leaf litter like they do in the warmer months because it's frozen solid. If a small rodent is going to live through the winter, it has to either sleep for three months without eating, only waking to defecate, or it gets to dig snow tunnels. One option sounds a lot more fun to me.

The 8 rodents that I'm thinking of are Grey Squirrel, Red Squirrel, Shrew, White-footed mouse, Eastern chipmunk, Cottontail, Rat, and Groundhog. Based on which ones hibernate, and the size of the tunnels, I can pretty much tell they are either by White Footed Mice, Shrew, Rat, or vole. I've never seen voles on our property, but I'm sure they are, as I've seen voles before in my neighborhood, and they are known subnivean tunnelers. 

  

These are the animals that keep the fox family alive during the winter. The fox uses its absolute satellite dishes of ears to pinpoint the exact location to pounce on. I wonder what the hell these rodents could possibly find to eat, surrounded on all sides by ice. I guess they probably don't eat much. The population of every animal species drops during the winter and climbs during the Spring when animals compensate for the casualties by reproducing.

Thank you for reading.