Poster: A snowHead
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When the snow got too slushy to ski I went for a walk through the forest on the raquettes today. I found a little lizard, about 3" long, in a footprint on the path, which was still a metre deep in snow. He was scarcely moving and unable to escape my wish to rescue him. I put him carefully onto a warm rock, where he wriggled around a bit, then moved sluggishly off, still not himself. I was surprised to see him (though marmottes have been sighted in the last couple of days, under our chairlift). What happens to lizards in the winter? Do they hibernate? Should I have left him alone?
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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sorry - dunno....
in oz we have a bunch of marsupials live in the snow and hibernate under it....
some are species that are under threat.... so their habitate areas are protected... (people skiing/stomping around wake them and then they starve as they need to be hibernating to survive the winter lack of food source)....
many other species migrate below the snowline as winter hits! (emus with snow on their backs look funny!)
I know our flame robins that herald the spring thaws appear when insects hatch out and get caught out on the snow making easy pickings for the robins.... so I guess the insects are not around until spring... but the echidnas do manage to find some things to munch under the snow when they appear...
and thinking about it I have seen apparent lizard tracks between the rocks/trees sometimes? or maybe they were antichinus tracks?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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No, Tom Cruise can put you right, they spend the rest of the time invisible and control us. Rock on with Tom and the Thetans (bring your own platform shoes). I never see Marmottes tho' (well obviously not this year cos not in Europe) but even when stayed "til about now, never ever. Doesn't matter how many runs/bars/hotels called Marmotte (seems to be a law to have one) I do/frequent, not a sausage.
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They 'hibernate' I think, sometimes emerging on warm and sunny days to feed. Even down south in Provence, where every wall and rock seems to have its own reptilian occupant, they are more rarely seen during the winter months - especially inland and a good distance away from the coast, where temperatures often drop well below zero overnight...
Temps have to be such that their body temperature can reach a certain level before they emerge during the winter.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Florida. There were loads there a few weeks ago.
Well you would if you were one, wouldn't you?
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Somewhere in Cornwall i think.
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Being cold blooded I think Lizards can't survive too long in the cold, which is why they hibernate, but if the sun comes out they can absorb heat more effectively, so they are more likely to take advantage of a spot of sunshine.
The lizard you saw probably hadn't worked out that the white stuff was cold, so you probably did it a favour.
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so you probably did it a favour.
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good, thanks, I'd hate to think it was trying to cross the road.... it must be hard work for them to find much to eat in the winter. but now there are loads of little spiders on the snow, a long way from the trees; having landed on the snow I'd imagine they'd die there, not being able to get airborne again. It's good to see the life coming back, the birds singing - heard a Tetras yesterday. And saw an eagle. When the snow gets slushy, there's more time and incentive to look around. It's incredible how swiftly the plants start growing, just in front of the receding snow line.
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