Blanketed in snow in icy temperatures, Canadian winters create a hostile and desperate environment. Only creatures well-adapted to the season’s challenge can survive, whether we have thick fur or a well-insulated parka. While bears, skunks and ground squirrels prefer to hibernate and wait for the season to pass, other wildlife change their habits and even their appearance to survive and thrive during our annual freeze.

Take the Arctic fox with a thick coat that shifts from summer brown to brilliant white each winter. In doing so, the fox becomes a ghost against the snow, virtually invisible to prey, predator and photographer. Its insulated fur can survive temperatures that plummet to -50°C, with fur-covered paws that act like natural snowshoes. In the same region, the Arctic hare also transforms from an earth-toned furball into a white puff that blends seamlessly with the snow. Forgoing hibernation, the hares huddle together to share their body heat, with a snowy camouflage that protects them from bird or canine predators.

Adapted to long, dark winters, wolves are highly social, intelligent and adaptable pack animals. They cooperate effortlessly to hunt their prey, from hares to caribou and moose. In frigid locations like Elsmere Island, where the sun doesn’t rise for four months, wolves hunt in pure darkness, protected by their double-layered fur as they roam hundreds of kilometres in search of food. Skittish and rare to see in the wild, the Northern Grey Wolf is found throughout Canada, save for the Maritimes. The Arctic wolf wanders the north while you’ll only hear the southern wolf howling at the moon in British Columbia.

In Canada, we should be singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Caribou (although neither caribou nor reindeer sport red noses). What’s the difference between reindeer and caribou? Physiologically, they’re the same animal. Culturally, reindeer have been domesticated by Arctic peoples in Asia, while North American caribou remain predominantly wild. Caribou have specialized hooves that change with the seasons. Summer hooves are soft and springy to navigate the sparse, rocky tundra. In winter, hooves harden to better traverse snow and ice. Both male and female caribou grow antlers each season, used for defence and displays of dominance. If you see caribou or reindeer pulling a sleigh in the sky, you’ve put too much rum in your eggnog.

Moose belong in the same deer family as caribou but are much larger, darker, and solitary. I love the fact that in the UK, moose are known as elk, while elk in North America are correctly called wapiti. Most people still use elk instead of wapiti, the Algonquin word for this large deer. Both moose and wapiti thrive in winter, with long legs that act like natural snowplows, pushing through drifts that would completely immobilize smaller creatures. Like caribou, wapiti are smaller and more social than moose. Their hooves also differ: elk hooves are blunted and tooth-shaped for more migratory travel, while moose hooves are pointed and heart-shaped.

I’ve yet to see a lynx in the wild, and like wolverines, we’ll just have to rely on wildlife documentaries and nature magazines to believe these shy animals exist at all. Lynx have thick, dense fur and oversized padded paws, allowing them to stay warm and hunt quietly in the snow. Their prey is almost exclusively the snowshoe hare, and the relationship between predator and prey determines the population of both animals. Over time, the hare will evolve some survival tactics, and the lynx will adjust accordingly. This unique relationship has been studied since the 1800s. Lynx have thermal layers of fur, wide paws, and excellent camouflage against the snowy boreal backgrounds, making them difficult to spot or photograph.

The apex land predator in the north is the polar bear, the largest land carnivore on the planet. Ironically, Ursus maritimus is technically a sea mammal capable of swimming long distances. While polar bear fur appears white, their skin is actually dark to absorb more heat. Their fur is transparent, reflecting light and making them blend into the snow and sea ice. Unless you’re heading to the far north of the high Arctic, you won’t encounter polar bears in the winter. Cute as they are, polar bears are deadly hunters, spending 50% of their time searching for high-fat prey like seals. It’s a myth that they are the only animal that actively hunts humans, but like all carnivore predators, if you’re around and they’re hungry, you won’t be around for much longer!

The ptarmigan, a northern member of the grouse family, offers another dramatic winter transformation. As days get colder and darker, this ground-dwelling bird changes its entire plumage from mottled brown to pure white, becoming virtually indistinguishable from the snow-covered ground. White feathers grow between their toes, creating natural snowshoes, allowing them to walk across the most delicate snow surfaces. As their plumage changes with the season, ptarmigans gravitate to surroundings that match their camouflage. Ptarmigan (with a ’t' as you don’t pronounce the ‘p’) often hide from predators inside snow banks, where they are insulated from the cold and difficult to find.

High in the Rockies, mountain goats reveal another dimension of winter survival. This large goat will scale near vertical cliff faces, slippery with snow and ice, to ensure their safety from prowling wolves, cougars, and bears in the summer. They can hop up to 4 metres across the rocks, using muscular legs and specialized split hooves to grab and hold onto rock ledges. Perfectly adapted to freezing climates with shaggy, insulated white coats, mountain goats struggle to keep cool in warmer temperatures. Unlike regular goats, mountain goats are aggressively territorial and are known to knock each other off cliffs with their short, sharp horns.

Leaving mountains for the seas, it’s not unusual to encounter beluga whales in the St Lawrence River over winter. The world’s most southerly beluga population reside here year-round, although they gravitate closer to the gulf in winter after spending their summers upstream. With the Arctic as their primary habitat, belugas are well adapted to freezing temperatures, with thick blubber making up to 40% of their body weight and no dorsal fin to release heat or cause issues swimming beneath ice.

Harry Potter’s favourite type of owl is perfectly adapted to hunt a white, barren landscape. Snowy owls keep a sharp eye out for mammals burrowed in the snow. Their white plumage makes them difficult to spot in the snow or soaring above in a dull white sky. More familiar birds like ravens and whiskey jacks use their intelligence to get through the season, storing food and cooperating to ensure survival.

Move over, Hugh Jackman. Wolverines are the largest member of the weasel family, a small, shaggy, yet aggressive mammal known to take down elk, deer and caribou many times its size. Wolverines are about the size of a small dog, but good luck trying to pet one (if you’re lucky enough to encounter one in the wild). Shy wolverines thrive in winter, building deep dens in the snow, gliding over thick snow with their snowshoe-like paws, and taking advantage of the harsh conditions to hunt their prey. They’ll stash kills deep into the snow, keeping their meat fresh and frozen for future feeds. Dependent on winter conditions for their survival, warming temperatures directly threaten their survival.

A long Canadian winter tests the limits of survival. For these and other animals, extreme cold isn't a threat; it's home. Adapting physically or through behaviour, creatures of the north don't just survive the winter; they own it. As for humans, we’ll layer up, hit the slopes or snowshoe trails, and warm up by a cozy fire.

Robin Esrock is the bestselling author of The Great Canadian Bucket List, and The Great Global Bucket List.