Below zero Activities

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Snow Way to Hide

Age: K - 3
Subjects: Science and Physical Education
Skills: kinaesthetic concept development, analysis
Duration: minimum 15 minutes to half a day
Group Size: any
Setting: large room, gym, or outside
Conceptual Framework References: 2a, 2c, 4a
Key Vocabulary: subnivean, predation

Objective

Students will be able to explain how foxes hunt in the subnivean (under the snow) space and how mice and other small creatures avoid them.

Method

Several students shake a large sheet or parachute over three others which are acting as mice. One other student plays the fox and tries to tag them.

Background

In winter, a small space forms between the snow and the warmer ground directly beneath it. This is called the subnivean space, and it is used by many animals. For one thing, it's warmer down there. When the air temperature is a frigid -40C, at ground level it may be only -4C -- positively cozy by comparison! (Knee High Nature Winter, p. 57).

Small mammals like mice live and hide from predators in a series of tunnels in the subnivean space. They can breathe down there because there is a lot of air in and between snowflakes. In fact, a freshly fallen layer of dry snow can be 97 per cent air! (Snow by John Bianchi and Frank Edwards.) Even hiding under snow, however, small creatures can still be caught by foxes. The fox can hear and smell them moving under the snow, but it can't be sure exactly where its prey is. Instead, the fox pounces about in the general area and hopes it will strike it lucky!.

Vehicle tracks or footprints pack down the snow and make barriers in the subnivean space. When mice meet such a roadblock, they have to go up to the surface, then scurry quickly over the top and back down into the snow. Predators such as foxes and owls wait to pounce on the mice when they appear on top of the snow.

Materials

large sheet or parachute; and several mats

Procedure

1. Students spread the mats out, remove their shoes and spread the sheet over the mats.
   
   
2. Three students are chosen to be mice and crouch down on the mats. One or two students are foxes, while the rest are "shakers".
   
   
3. The shakers take positions around the edge of the mats, and spread the sheet over the mice. The shakers kneel, and holding the sheet close to the ground, jiggle it to create waves that hide the mice. The fox or foxes pounce around trying to find and tag the mice. NOTE: Students must be careful not to step on the mice. Explain that the fox doesn't want a squashed mouse for dinner.
   
   
4. When a mouse is tagged, he or she becomes a shaker. When all the mice are tagged, the fox or foxes become one of three new mice, and one or two new foxes are then chosen.

Variation

Use a plank, or three stationary children in a row on top of the sheet, to represent a snowmobile track. This will make it harder for mice in the subnivean space to escape, because they can't travel under the packed track.

Evaluation

1. What is the subnivean space?
   
   
2. Describe how foxes hunt in the winter.
   
   
3. Design a poster of animals living under the snow.

Copyright 1998 by the Canadian Wildlife Federation.
All rights reserved.