How do small mammals cope with heat loss during winters?
953744
They fatten themselves up in summer/autumn. They may grow thicker fur but the most common coping mechanism is hibernation in a sheltered location where they are not exposed to the elements.
393129
FIrst the temperature-It is extremely cold in the winter, and cool in the summer.  Then generally the wind-wind can play a major role, especially in mountainous tundra-also in mountainous tundra is the problem of UV radiation.
144708
It is very difficult for the male since it is so cold out when they mate but when they do it they go penguin style not to be confused with doggie style
896783
Reduction of heat loss. The short snout would aid in keeping heat in, and also would make for a goot burrowing tool for finding small animals.
1170597
It takes time to transfer the thermal energy to the snow.  Snow also has an insulating effect on lower layers of snow, making it difficult to transfer heat there, making snow more persistent than would be expected.
139597
It depends on heat and their own weight.It is harder for large animals to cool themselves.
292689
On extremely cold days many birds will roost to conserve heat. If they take to the air they expose their underwings and bodies, and the short insulating feathers under the flight feathers are exposed to the cold air, so they no longer provide adequate insulation.
465233
For elephants living in warmer climes, hair would be a distinct disadvantage.  With a critter that size, one of their main challenges is actually getting rid of body heat.  That's why African elephants have such large ears, so they can radiate away some of their excess body heat.\n\nWoolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) thrived during the cold periods at the height of maximum glaciation, particularily in areas such as Beringia, Alaska and Siberia that would have been hyperarid and bitterly cold much of the year.  There, having a thick coat of woolly hair would have been a definite advantage, allowing the mammoth to survive in conditions of -40 degrees quite happily.\n\nIt is possible that not all mammoths were as woolly.  There were other species, such as the Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) which was found in the southern United States and down into Mexico, that seem as though they might have been better adapted to the warm interglacial periods.  These mammoths may have looked more like the modern elephants, only bigger (one tusk uncovered in Texas was close to 5 m long).
789569
If you have to chip it out of 3 feet of ice its going to be a bad winter.\nIf your girlfriend is using them as slippers its going to be a bad winter.\nIf it died in taking refuge in a bears behind, its going to be a baaad winter.\nIf it got hit by a semi on the freeway while trying to hitch hike to California, then it's going to be a bad winter.\n\nOn the more serious side, turkeys like most forest animals accumulate more fat previous to harsh winters. Of course you would say food source is a factor, this is true, but studies have also proven( including the farmers almanac) that one of the main staples for deer and turkey, acorns, actually are also more generated to have a large crop prior to a more harsh winter.
521871
I know polar bears are adapting to the warmer climate by getting darker/thinner fur but I don't think they are becoming extinct.
882444
They can hunker down in deep grasses. The snow and grass act as insulation keeping them warm.\n\nWhat's cooler (pun intended) than this is to look at tree squirrels, who have nests high in trees open to the blowing wind. Even they stay warm while being that exposed. The nests help trap body heat while breaking the wind.\n\nNature has some remarkable methods to keep animals warm.
1028641
Animals live everywhere on Earth. Some places on Earth are very hot and some are very cold. Some places on Earth have a lot of water and plants, and other places have very little water and few plants. Antarctica is covered with snow and ice and has no plants. It is very cold there, too. Guess what? Animals even live in Antarctica!\n\nAnimals can live in many different places in the world because they have special adaptations to the area they live in. An adaptation is a way an animal's body helps it survive, or live, in its environment. Camels have learned to adapt (or change) so that they can survive.\n\nAnimals depend on their physical features to help them obtain food, keep safe, build homes, withstand weather, and attract mates. These physical features are called called physical adaptations. They makes it possible for the animal to live in a particular place and in a particular way. Each adaptation has been produced by evolution. This means that the adaptations have developed over many generations. The shape of a bird's beak, the number of fingers, colour of the fur, the thickness or thinness of the fur, the shape of the nose or ears are all examples of physical adaptations which help different animals to survive.
971153
Most mammals lower their body temperature by 1 to 2°C during sleep, resulting in a lowering of energy metabolism by about 7-15%.
770316
their little lungs dont need as much air as ours do, and the air would still circulate a bit, especially during windy weather.
148943
It doesn't adapt to it's environment, it only lives and survives in conditions that it is suited to. In the winter it hibernates and it the summer it flies around and feeds.
1045189
Hibernation is a state of regulated hypothermia, lasting several days or weeks, that allows animals to conserve energy during the winter. During hibernation animals slow their metabolism to a very low level, with body temperature and breathing rates lowered, gradually using up the body fat reserves stored during the warmer months. Some hibernating animals stir as often as once a week; others sleep throughout the season. Some reptile species are said to bruminate, or undergo brumination, but this is just another term for hibernation, usually in the context of an induced hibernation in captivity necessary to reset the animal's biological clock for a new breeding season.
648202
That would depend on when you check.  Hibernation is a special form of torpor, a state of low activity and decreased metabolism.  Now, in hibernating bears the temperature drops about the same level as the ambient temperature of the burrow.  In some species that would be somewhere between 0 qand 5 degrees Celsius.  However, hibernation is a specialized torpor in that the bear will now and then spike up its temperature to its normal level of about 37 degrees Celsius.  These spikes are equally spaced over the course of hibernation.  By doing this, the animal can conserve energy in a time that otherwise might not provide enough food to maintain high energy consumption rates around the clock.  what you have to remember is that endothermia is rather expensive.  To maintain your core body temp, you need to consume a lot of food.  While ectotherms convert about 50% of the energy they take up into biomass, endotherms convert only 1.4%.  The rest goes into body heat etc.  So, if you don't have enough food throughout the winter, and you do not preserve your energy, you are - as thgey say - up the creek without a pedal. \n\nHope that helps...