Snow on the Middle Prong at Tremont.
PHOTO COURTESY OF EMILY STEIN
Cold-Blooded Resilience: Secrets of a Smokies Winter
BY ERIN ROSOLINA
When most people picture the Smokies in winter, we imagine silent ridges dusted with snow, icy streams, and a forest that seems to sleep. Black bears curl in their dens, migratory birds have flown south, and the frozen ground looks barren and still. Winter, we think, is the season of hibernation – a time when life slows to a whisper.
For much of the Smokies’ charismatic megafauna( the large animals that people tend to notice and love), this is a fairly accurate description. For many of them, winter survival requires migration or hibernation. Most hibernating mammals, such as bats, groundhogs, and chipmunks, can slow their metabolism and lower their body temperature, expending only enough energy to keep their bodies functioning while they slip into deep torpor.
The beloved black bear, though not a true hibernator, withdraws into hollow trees or stumps, lowering its metabolism and sleeping for long stretches. On warmer days, they may wander briefly, and in late January or February, mother bears give birth in their dens.
22 | BLOUNT COUNTY QUARTERLY • WINTER 2025-26
But even when the trails are quiet and the park’ s winter tourism slows, the forest is far from dormant. Beneath the bark and under the leaf litter, life hums on. Winter might be the off-season for people, but for many amphibians, it’ s an integral part of the cycle.
THOSE WHO DON’ T SLEEP
The Smokies are often called the“ Salamander Capital of the World.” With more than 30 species living in the national park, these mountains are among the most biodiverse amphibian habitats on Earth. Their abundance owes much to the region’ s geology, elevation range, constant moisture, and the patchwork of cool, shaded microhabitats such as seeps, springs, and mossy ravines.
Many of the Smokies’ salamanders belong to the Plethodontid family – lungless salamanders that use cutaneous respiration to breathe through their skin. This remarkable adaptation ties them to moisture; their lives depend on damp soil and leaf litter. Unlike mammals and birds, salamanders don’ t generate or regulate internal body heat and, as cold-blooded ectotherms, their body