Here it is December, the beginning of winter. Will it be wet or dry, cold or mild, or somewhere in between? The pelage of Barney, my cat, seems thicker than usual, and a friend claims the same of his horses—sure indicators of a hard winter, some believe. And there’s the fuzzy logic of wooly-bear-caterpillar forecasts: broad black bands supposedly indicate a bad winter; broad reddish bands a mild winter (the bands actually indicate the caterpillar’s age). Some believe certain creatures can detect subtle indications of environmental disturbance (like dogs detecting an earthquake well before the shaking begins). If and how they do this cannot be answered definitively, but following are some questions that can. Throw another log on the fire, pour yourself a cup of coffee, and see how many questions you can answer:
               1—Speaking of woolly-bear caterpillars, which best describes the adult? (A) Black and yellow butterfly. (B) Yellow-brown moth. (C) Red-spotted butterfly. (D) Black moth.
               2—An antifreeze-like substance in the bodies of certain insects allows them to survive deep cold in a state of suspended animation called: (A) Catalepsy. (B) Torpor. (C) Diapause. (D) Sticker shock.
               3—Now that it’s basketball season, name the American tree that’s closely related to this sport. (A) Sweet gum. (B) Douglas-fir. (C) Basswood. (D) Sugar maple.
               4—Baseball season is over, but can you name the American tree closely related to this sport? (A) Ash. (B) Aspen. (C) Ponderosa pine. (D) Sycamore.
               5—Which of the following trees does not defoliate in the winter? (A) Larch. (B) Bald Cypress. (C) Pacific madrone. (D) Red alder.
               6—The “holly” that Hollywood, California, was named for is a shrub or small tree sometimes called Christmasberry, but more commonly known as: (A) Buttonbush. (B) Toyon. (C) Hawthorn. (D) MGM-berry.
               7—The domesticated reindeer of Europe is of the same species as Rudolph, and this American ungulate: (A) Elk. (B) Mule deer. (C) Caribou. (D) White-tailed deer.
               8—Among the creatures avoided by the protagonist rabbit in the novel, Watership Down, is the stoat, also known as: (A) Wild boar. (B) Weasel. (C) Hedgehog. (D) Badger.
               9—Which is untrue of snowshoe hares in western Oregon? (A) Like Thumper in “Bambi,” they thump their hindfeet when alarmed. (B) They run in circles when chased. (C) Their fur changes from brown to white in the winter. (D) They eat roadkill.
               10—An ermine is the white winter phase of (A) Marten. (B) Gray fox. (C) Weasel. (D) Mink.
               11—Which of the following is poikilothermic? (A) Varied thrush. (B) Garter snake. (C) Meadow vole. (D) Bernie Madoff.
               12—Precipitation in the form of soft white pellets is called: (A) Graupel. (B) Sleet. (C) Hail. (D) Wedding rice.
               13—Most apple trees will not bear fruit in regions with warm winters because: (A) Fungus diseases are rampant. (B) Heat withers juvenile fruit. (C) Lack of chilling hours. (D) Lazy bees.
               14—Which of the following is not the name of a wind: (A) Chinook. (B) Scherzando (C) Santa Anna. (D) Sirocco.
               15—Rufous hummingbirds are common in northwestern Oregon in the summer, but they head south for the winter. Hummingbirds seen here during the winter are most likely: (A) Costa’s. (B) Ruby-throated. (C) Broad-tailed. (D) Anna’s.
               16—Which bird typically migrates by day: (A) Canada goose. (B) Wilson’s Warbler. (C) Swainson’s Hawk. (D) Western flycatcher.
               17—Which bird does not migrate: (A) Rough-legged hawk. (B) Sandhill crane. (C) Golden-crowned sparrow. (D) Raven.
               18—How do insects such as overwintering cecropia moths or polistes wasps, and trees, such as willow or alder, avoid breaking “dormancy” during unseasonably warm spells in winter? (A) Sun angle is wrong. (B) Time of chilling insufficient. (C) Days are too short. (D) Their shadows spook them.
               19—Two winter mainstays of foxes, coyotes, weasels, and great horned owls are voles and: (A) Starlings. (B) Chipmunks. (C) Deer mice. (D) Big Macs.
               20—Voles are closely related to: (A) Norway rats. (B) House mice. (C) Pocket gophers. (D) Lemmings.
         Correct answers:
               1—(B)
               2—(C)
               3—(D) The floors of most basketball courts are made of hard maple, the most plentiful of which is sugar maple.
               4—(A) Ash is the preferred wood for baseball bats. The Louisville Slugger Company, maker of fine baseball bats, has joined conservationists in looking for ways to curb the spread of the emerald ash borer, an introduced pest that is killing ash trees throughout northeastern U.S., and moving west.
               5—(C) Madrone, Arbutus menziesii, is an evergreen tree (and namesake of Madrone Wall, recently designated as a Clackamas County Park). Like all trees, madrones lose their old leaves, but they do it in the summer after new leaves have appeared.
               6—(B) Toyon, Heteromeles arbutifolia, which, roughly translated from the Greek, means “Different apple with leaves like madrone.” Toyon is a common shrub in the chaparral of southern California. A member of the rose family, its red berries at Christmastime reminded settlers of holly, to which it isn’t even closely related.
               7—(C) Caribou, Rangifer tarandus, according to National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Mammals (page 843), is “. . . considered to be the same species as the Reindeer of Europe and Asia.” It is among the most migratory of mammals, and I’m guessing has the greatest geographic range of all the ungulates.
               8—(B)
               9—(C) Snowshoe hares throughout most of their range turn white in the winter, but in much of western Oregon and western Washington where snow covers the ground for relatively brief periods, they remain brown (Maybe they should be called mudshoe hares).
               10—(C) We have two weasels, Short-tailed and Long-tailed. Both turn white in the winter in the northern part of their range, but like snowshoe hares in western Oregon and western Washington, they stay brown here. Technically, only the white phase of the Short-tailed weasel is an ermine, whose fur is more valuable than that of its long-tailed cousin. In another life, beginning at age 13, I ran a trap line to help pay for my clothes and school supplies. I caught a Short-tailed weasel in February, but waited till March to take the pelt to the fur-buyers in Topeka, and they’d closed for the season. I placed the hide, which I’d borax-cured, fur-side up on the floor by my bed. I enjoyed stepping on the luxuriant fur on cold mornings.
               11—(B)
               12—(A)
               13—(C) Many apple varieties require several hundred hours of cold temperatures (usually 30 degrees or cooler) before they’ll form fruiting buds.
               14—(B)
               15—(D)
               16—(C) Most hawks and eagles migrate during the day to follow geographic features en route and take advantage of thermals. Some smaller birds are thought to migrate at night partly to avoid birds of prey.
               17—(D)
               18—(B)
               19—(C)
               20—(D) As with lemmings, vole populations often spike, as they did in the Willamette Valley a couple of years ago, destroying crops and making the living easy for hawks, coyotes, and other predators.