ANNAPOLIS, Md. — As winter tightens its grip on Maryland, the state’s wildlife is shifting into survival mode. With insects dormant, daylight shortened and many plants stripped of leaves, food becomes scarce across forests, fields and backyards. The seasonal shift forces animals to rely on strategies honed over generations to outlast the coldest months.
Among the species most familiar to Maryland residents is the gray squirrel, a year-round presence that stays active even as temperatures fall. Wildlife officials say squirrels aren’t true hibernators, but their behavior changes noticeably once winter arrives. In late fall, they begin eating heavily and storing fat, a biological insurance policy that helps sustain them through long stretches of cold weather.
Rather than disappearing underground for the season, gray squirrels retreat to their insulated nests — called dreys — built high in trees from leaves, twigs and bark. Inside, the animals may sleep for several days at a time when temperatures plunge. When they do emerge, they spend their waking hours recovering the thousands of nuts and seeds they buried earlier in the year, often relying on a keen sense of smell to track down food under snow or frozen soil…