BEGINNING EXPLORER

1. What wild animal likes to call back to fire truck sirens? (hint: you might hear them howling and yipping around dusk in the forest preserve)

squirrel

coyote

beaver

snowy egret

2. Snow fleas are insects that:

can be seen on the surface of the snow on warm winter days

make snowmen itchy

spend the winter deep underwater

3. What special adaptation do foxes have to walk on deep snow?

hairs between their toes

very small paws

a quick trot

webbed feet

4. A human has as many hairs on her head as a beaver has in one square inch of fur.

true

false

5. The brown cigar-shaped tops of cattails in winter are really:

leaves

seeds

cigars

CURIOSITY SEEKER

6. How do chipmunks spend the winter?

they hibernate until spring

they migrate south

they stay underground but resurface occasionally

they plot new ways to keep the Cubs out of the World Series

7. Tree squirrels prefer using leafy nests in trees to stay warm in winter.

true

false

8. As early as late January, what does the cardinal do in response to lengthening sunlight hours and the increasing angle of the sun?

9. Trees stop all photosynthesis when they lose their leaves in fall.

true

false

10. Blanding's turtles spend the winter underwater, partially buried in the muck, breathing through their skin.

true

false

11. Snowy owls like the shores of Lake Michigan because this setting reminds them of their northern home on the wide-open ___________.

12. A harrier is what kind of animal?

ADVANCING ADVENTURER

13. Massasauga rattlesnakes survive the winter with another animal's help. These snakes hibernate:

in the grass-lined runways of prairie voles

by curling up next to hibernating groundhogs

in empty crayfish burrows

14. A pair of mallards show courtship behavior in the winter by:

pumping their heads up and down

ruffling their head feathers

buying each other hot spiced drinks

swimming in tight circles

15. While walking in the woods, you notice a musky odor, but you know all the skunks are in their dens. What made the scent (assuming it wasn't your hiking partner)?

16. The latest-blooming plant in the Chicago Wilderness region, with recorded blossoms on December 27, is the shrub named:

hazelnut

gray dogwood

witch hazel

17. In late winter, a warm rain will cue blue-spotted salamanders to migrate to breeding ponds.

true

false

HOARY NATURALIST

18. In a tree, you find an old bird nest that incorporates a snakeskin. What bird might have built the nest?

oriole

great crested flycatcher

ruffled Medusa-headsnatcher

blue-gray gnatcatcher

19. Graupel is:

the scientific term for animal tracks altered by melting snow

the underfur of a beaver

the newest innovation in oatmeal

small pellets of snow

20. Scarification describes:

the response of tree bark to fire

eating something without chewing

when one organism monopolizes an ecological niche

breaking the seed coat of a prairie seed to insure water absorption

21. Ducks' wet feet don't get frostbitten when they stand on ice because:

they have superheated blood

they coat their feet with a special oil

they have a unique kind of circulation