Fat Bears and 5 Other Stories of Preparing for Winter

From big-bottomed ants to gorging on salmon, there are plenty of ways to be ready for the cold months ahead.

As you prepare for the cold months to come, you can be glad you’re not a painted turtle—the species evolved to be freeze-tolerant and hatchlings spend winter just chillin’, literally, in sandy burrows—or a grotesquely engorged ant about to make the ultimate sacrifice to feed the colony. Instead, forage some of the last sweet berries, get your mind right for the dark winter, and enjoy these stories about preparing for the cold.

All Winter, These Ants Make the Ultimate Sweet Sacrifice to Their Colony

by Shoshi Parks

Squirrels cache nuts and brown bears feast on salmon, but these honey ants have their own unique solution for eating well all winter long. Instead of seeds or fish, they opt for vomit, dutifully shared by a select group of ants who spend the warmer months gorging on nectar. Like living storage containers, these “repletes” hang largely immobile from specially constructed chambers, says entomologist John Conway at the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. Their engorged behinds make them look more like a bug stuck to a marble than your average ant. They aren’t just sharing their food stores, but sacrificing their lives. Once their nectar is depleted, they’ll die, allowing their colony to live on.

Just How Fat Are Alaska’s Most Famous Fat Bears?

by Kylie Mohr

Every October, the coastal brown bears of Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska reach their peak weight before heading into their dens for the winter. While the bears gorge on salmon and clams, thousands of viewers from around the world eagerly watch them via webcam—and some larger adult bears along the salmon-rich Brooks River have been seen consuming well over 100,000 calories during a single fishing session. During a period known as Fat Bear Week, cam viewers can vote online for their pick for biggest bear. For years, no one really knew if their guesses were right. In 2018, researchers started using a laser that measures bears’ surface volume, which can be used to calculate their approximate weight. Teams returned in subsequent seasons, but the method still needs some fine tuning, which will be done with the assistance of captive polar bears already trained to step onto scales.

Living Off the Land in the Arctic Circle

by Eileen Cho

Stocking up on hardy staples at the grocery store is one way to get ready for winter, but in Lapland, many residents opt to shop in their own backyards. For generations, residents of Lappi, as the Finnish call the area, have spent the summer and early fall hunting, butchering, and freezing moose and reindeer, as well as collecting as many berries, herbs, and mushrooms as possible, writes Eileen Cho. In the Arctic Circle, fall is for freezing cloudberries and bilberries, hunting, and preserving for the complete darkness ahead.

Lessons on Enduring a Lonely Winter From Antarctic Voyagers

by Daniella McCahey

While practical tasks like chopping fire wood or canning preserves may be high on your winter prep to do list, many of us could also use some mental preparation for the cold, dark months ahead as well. Antarctica has up to six months of darkness. During that period, the few people on that land have to find what entertainment, or distractions, to get them through. “Little things … have the power to drive even the most disciplined … to the edge of insanity. The ones who survive with a measure of happiness are those who can live profoundly off their intellectual resources, as hibernating animals live off their fat,” said American pioneer Richard Byrd. Antarctic explorers of the early 1900s used music, books, writing, games, language learning, and, of course, food, as distractions.

Meet Some of Nature’s Coolest Customers

by Luna Shyr

Some animals grow a thick winter coat or find a cozy den for the winter, but these fascinating creatures embrace the cold by simply freezing until spring. While a scientific understanding of freeze tolerance in insects was first achieved in the 1930s, it wasn’t until 1982 that scientists discovered it also exists in vertebrates—wood frogs in particular, a far-reaching North American species that can be found from the forests of Georgia to just within the Arctic Circle in Alaska, writes Luna Shyr. Other cool creatures able to rise from a frozen state include painted turtles, spring crickets, and an oversized, grasshopper-like insect in New Zealand.

How Ginger, Cinnamon, and Nutmeg Became Winter Spices

by Serina Desalvio

Despite originating in the tropics, these spices have worked their way into our kitchens and traditions as seasonal staples of winter. Cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger are all considered “warm spices.” For instance, in the same way that mint can “taste” cold due to its menthol content, cinnamon’s warm taste is attributed to a compound called cinnamaldehyde, which gives the spice its distinctive taste and smell. This chemical tricks our nervous system when we eat it by triggering the same pathway that perceives warmth, writes Serina Desalvio.