Life in the Snow Page #2

that does that better than most.

The Arctic fox.

They live further north than any

other member of the dog family.

And something extraordinary

makes this possible.

In the warm days of summer,

they look very different.

Then, every year,

as the winter approaches,

they undergo

a spellbinding transformation.

They grow a thick,

snow-white winter coat.

I'm lucky to be able to see this

up close,

with a fox that's been

brought up by people.

Hello, you handsome, handsome boy.

My word.

That is the most sumptuous coat

I have ever seen on any animal.

In fact, Arctic foxes have the

warmest coat of all Arctic mammals.

In winter, their fur becomes

200% thicker.

There's a longer, outer layer,

with hollow hairs that trap air

to increase insulation.

And a dense undercoat provides

even more warmth.

An Arctic fox won't

even start feeling the cold

until it's minus 40 degrees.

And, they have other clever features

that help them get through winter.

Their ears are round and tucked into

their deep fur to reduce heat loss.

And, to prevent frostbite,

their nose is short and stubby.

And a magnificent tail

means that when the Arctic weather

is at its worst,

they can hunker down

and use it as a blanket.

Being well-dressed for winter

is an obvious advantage.

But to survive

in a snowy landscape like this,

you have to be able to exploit every

single opportunity to get food.

And foxes are experts at that.

They have incredible senses.

Particularly their hearing.

And, despite having

these fairly small ears,

this fox will be able to detect

its prey with pinpoint accuracy,

even when it's hidden

underneath the snow.

But learning how to use this skill

takes time.

Their preferred food are lemmings,

small, Arctic rodents.

Many foxes won't make it

through their first year

and that's mostly

down to a lack of food.

Their sensitive hearing

means they can detect

lemmings scurrying

through tunnels in the snow.

But the fox also has to judge

the depth of the snow.

And then...

..with this dramatic pounce,

he's trying to punch

right through the snow

and catch the lemming underneath.

It isn't easy.

But practice makes perfect.

The fox's ability to track

down prey using its hearing alone

is truly amazing.

Relying on your hearing in the snow

can be a real challenge.

Have you ever noticed that

when there's a blanket of snow,

the world seems a very silent place?

That is because the snow

literally deadens the sound waves.

The snow stops the sound from

bouncing and reflecting off things.

In my pocket I have a speaker,

and on this speaker,

I have the sound of a vole.

To many creatures, voles means food.

SCRABBLING NOISE

See, if your dinner relies on you

being able to detect these little

creatures that are scurrying about,

beneath the grass, beneath the snow,

you'll see what the challenge is.

Pretty loud.

There's the vole.

I can barely hear it.

It's almost completely gone.

OK.

So I'm about a foot and a half

above the speaker,

and I can just about hear it.

Thankfully, I don't rely

on voles for food.

But, what if you had to listen out

for this sound

from high above the snow?

That's the challenge faced

by the great grey owl.

But this magnificent bird

pinpoints sound so accurately,

it can launch a strike from the air.

So, how does it achieve

this incredible feat?

The disc shaped feathers on its face

collect the sound waves

and directs them to the ears

on the side of its head.

It can work out exactly

where the sound is coming from.

These skills come into their own

when the owl takes to the wing.

Special edging on its feathers

mean that its flight

is completely silent.

Nothing can hear it coming.

In the final moments,

it brings its talons

into exact alignment

with the sound of the prey.

Catching a meal

without ever seeing it.

Phenomenal.

But there is another way to find

a vole under the snow,

and that's to go in after it.

Although the least weasel is several

times larger than a vole,

its body is exactly the same width.

Once the weasel finds a hole,

it's an old-fashioned game

of cat and mouse.

Although it doesn't always

end in getting dinner.

Whatever the outcome,

at least the weasel is small enough

to take shelter beneath the snow,

away from the worst of the weather.

But, what if you aren't able

to get out of the cold?

Well, one animal has some

surprising ways to cope.

Reindeer. There could not be another

animal more closely associated

with snow and Christmas.

And, there could even be some truth

in that famous red nose.

Reindeer live in the forests

and tundra of the far north.

In winter, they dig through the snow

to find food.

Out here, they're breathing in air

at temperatures

down to minus 40 Celsius.

To stop it chilling their lungs,

they pass the air

through chambers in their nose...

..where a network of blood vessels

heat it up.

We can see this

on the thermal camera.

Where they warm the air up,

their noses really are red.

And, when they breathe out,

their noses take the precious

body heat from their breath,

so it isn't lost to the atmosphere.

And it isn't the only thing

that makes

reindeer so well-equipped for snow.

I am a perfect example of an animal

that is not adapted

for walking about

a snowy environment like this.

I'm 12 stone, 12 and a half stone,

and all of my weight

is distributed onto my feet.

Size 12. Big feet for a human,

but not big enough to stop me

from sinking down into the snow.

So, why don't reindeer

have the same issue?

The answer lies in their

specially adapted feet.

Their four toes splay out

to increase their surface area,

stopping them from sinking,

and giving them traction.

This ability is one reason

we domesticated the reindeer.

The Dolgan people of Siberia

use reindeer

for their nomadic lifestyle,

literally moving house every week

or so, with their help.

So clearly, I need to increase

the surface area of my feet.

There we go.

Adapted for walking in the snow.

Big surface area

to stop me sinking through,

spikes to stop me

slipping on the ice.

That is so much better.

It's easy. I can walk

through the forests,

I'm not sinking down into my waist,

I can go fast,

I can almost go silently.

Like I belong here.

Other animals

also use this approach.

Polar bears have huge paws,

30 centimetres across.

And their pads are covered with

tiny bumps to give extra grip.

And the snowshoe hare has long,

fur-covered feet

to help it move effortlessly

across the snow.

Yet, despite

their special equipment,

even reindeer find sheet ice

a little tricky.

But reindeer have something else

that really sets them apart.

Their eyesight.

When it's bright and sunny

like this,

my eyes struggle to cope

with the amount of UV light

that's coming from the sun,

is bouncing back up off the snow.

But reindeer,

they see things differently.

Not only can they see in colour

like I can,

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