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By Shirley Grenoble
For the Mirror
We've often wondered how animals survive the cold snaps of winter but we seldom think about how they survive these heat waves. They don't have air conditioned dens so they have to make the best of it.
Black bears have a hard time of it in their black furry skins so they seek out swamps and creeks to sink themselves into, kind of like we love to dive into the pool.
It is the heat that impels bears to find relief in private swimming pools and create a sensation. There always seems to be a home owner nearby to video this event and share in the next days newscast.
Rattlesnakes are usually not out in the heat of the day sunning themselves. They do that in the very early morning hours and appear about dusk to look for food. Snakes are cold-blooded creatures which means their bodies are exactly the same temperature as their environment. So sunning themselves in 90 degree weather would simply cook them.
So they take shelter under rocks or in high grass. Back when I participated in the organized snake hunts, everyone had a long stick or pole to probe under rocks or under logs or in the grass ahead of them to locate a snake.
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Many years ago I flew home to Pennsylvania from Dallas, bringing a young fellow with me that had never seen a deer.
So one August afternoon I took him to some Gamelands where we set up a watch for deer. I sat him against a tree about 50 yards from the spot I chose to set up in.
Almost at dusk there suddenly arose in front of me a rattlesnake, raised out of the grass like a cobra.
I jumped to my feet and pulled out my .22-caliber pistol. Don't get excited, this all happened way back when rattlesnakes were not protected and you could shoot them on sight. I shot and the snake dropped down into the grass. Had I hit it? I couldn't tell so I began to edge step by step around the spot where the snake fell into the grass. About halfway around my circle, I looked down and there, at my feet lay another rattler.
My boot was brushing the coiled reptile and again, I jumped back. It was then that I decided I definitely had a guardian angel watching out for me. That theme would be reinforced many times in the future as I had many more such close encounters with snakes, bears and wild dogs.
The fellow I had with me, the visitor from Texas, got so panicky when he realized it was rattlesnakes I was dealing with that he started to run and I mean fast. I had to shout at him several times before he stopped.
I made my way to him and explained that if rattlers were here it was no time to be racing around. It was time to pick up a big stick, which I then did, and to beat the path before us as we slowly proceeded.
Those two rattlesnakes had chosen the high grass beneath a large tree for shelter from the sun and that was the very tree I chose to sit under as well.
Deer, as a rule, lie up during the day in the shadiest places they can find, often a stand of thick pines. It's the same place they take shelter from a snow storm in the winter. Often the deer will discover that wild turkeys have chosen the same place for the same reason. Seldom will you see turkeys feeding in an open field in the heat of mid-day.
Of course, wild creatures must have a source of water and if you locate that, you'll find tracks and well worn paths leading to and from them.
Most wild animals retreat to the coolest place they know when the weather gets cruel. They move as little as possible and look for water as soon as the sun retreats. Few ever succumb to heat strokes.